By Steven Jonas, MD, MPH –
January 30, 2008
This week I am offering you part 2
of chapter 10 of “Jonathan Westminster’s” book entitled The 15% Solution: A
Political History of American Fascism, 2001-2022, originally published in 1996
and purported to be published in 2048, on the 25th Anniversary of the
Restoration of US Constitutional Democracy, following the conclusion of the
Second Civil War.
Two weeks ago I presented the “text”
of the 2008 Inaugural address of the President, Jefferson Davis Hague, who in
the narrative had been that year re-elected as the candidate of the
Republican-Christian Alliance. His address was delivered on the new
Inauguration Day, December 25, 2008, and took place in the National Cathedral
in Washington instead of in front of the Capitol.
This week I present some of the
commentary on the Address, as recorded by the book’s author, Westminster.
The guide to the characters with which I opened my column of two weeks ago will
be found at the end this column, just ahead of the Addendum. And yes,
there is a contemporary Addendum this week, just as there was in Part 1.
A Connie Conroy Note (December 27,
2008)
We did it again! Maybe not
as sintilating (sic) as the first time around, but we
did it. We produced a great speech, at the last minute, again.
Boy it's great to have those quotes to go to. I hope there are some left we can use next time. This time it was a brilliant
stroke too to recognize that we were using that old stuff by name. No
more charges of plajarism (sic) from those sticklers
among us.
And I like the way we slipped in
those old Far Right groups at the end. Boy, some of them are really
crazy! But we need them. Things are starting to get a bit rough out
there. Sometimes we've just got to have some un-official "off
the shelf"[1] muscle to get things done we just can't ask the cops or the FBI or the Federal
marshals to do. Those other guys can do it and sometimes do it for us.
Better to have them inside than out.
Interesting. Some people
have already noticed that the Prez specifically
didn't mention the American Nazi Party, which has been growing by leaps and
bounds over the last few years. Well, for the record, that's for our
Jews. I'm not sure what the final answer is going to be on the Jew Question.
But for now anti-Semitism is officially
out, no matter what the bastards do.
The Prez
sez that "our Jews" have been too important
to us and our growth to chuck them out now. He
says that's why we won't have anything to do with the Nazis or with the swastika.[2] Not only the Nazis but several of the groups in
our new coalition use it as their symbol. Well, our Jew allies understandably
don't like it. Also, and not too many people know this, the Nazi swastika
is simply the reverse of an old American Indian symbol that meant good
luck. Well, we certainly wouldn't want to be associated in any way with a
symbol used by one of the inferior races.
Anyway, the Prez
sez we are officially not anti-Semitic.
Naturally, from time to time we do have some flare-ups of that stuff
on the street. But they almost always involve liberal nigger-lover
Renegade Jews, not Real Jews.[3] So nothing to worry about there. Our Jews stay
with us, and with a wink and a nod[4] we let the boys have their fun.
The Prez
does acknowledge, privately and publicly, that many outstanding Jewish thinkers
made very important contributions to the political doctrines underlying
our system of government. He likes especially to hark back to a Right-Wing
Jew organization called "Toward Tradition" (1994), formed
during the election of '94 that created the famous "Freshman
Class" of which he is so proud.
Anyway, big win, great speech, if
I do say so myself. Onwards and upwards!
Author's Commentary (Part 1):
And thus on a fateful Thursday,
President Jefferson Davis Hague delivered his Second Inaugural Address
from the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Although it would
indelibly set the future course of the nation under his leadership (which would
last until the final overthrow of the NAR), one wouldn't have known that
fact from the speech. Departing from a Presidential tradition, Hague did
not address the major problems faced by the country at that time, even to
the limited extent he had in his first Inaugural.
That critical problem list
included [SJ note – all references will be listed at the end of next week’s
column]:
-A standard of living that still
continued to fall for most Americans, and a gap in both income and wealth
between the very rich and everyone else that still continued to
widen. Both patterns, as noted on several previous occasions, had
been established during the Transition Era (Brasher; Throw; and see
Chapter one). They were firmly entrenched by R-CA Federal
tax, fiscal, and regulatory policies of the early Fascist Period, policies
that echoed that of the infamous 1994 Republican "Contract on
America" (HRC).
-The continuing decline of
manufacturing in America, caused by continuing
"globalization," a cosmetic term that really meant the export of
capital and the jobs that accompanied it. The massive economic and social
impact of the decline in manufacturing was left untouched
by what had been touted to replace it: the old Toffler Ian "Third
Wave/Information Age." That was a notion that somehow the
processing of an intangible, "information," could replace the
production of tangible goods and services as the regular, reliable, adequate
source of income for any significant number of people.
Further, the now long-discredited notion held that somehow the processing
of information could meet real, tangible needs of everyday life of the
people for goods and services. For everything from survival to the full
enjoyment of life, people need food, clothing, shelter, transportation,
health care and education, entertainment, cultural activities, athletics,
and so on, not information about them. In the
real world, where needs for tangibles are tangible, the "Third
Wave" notion simply didn't work. But it had made for good
political theater.
-The virtual disappearance of
governmental investment in "infrastructure:" roads, bridges,
tunnels, railways, and airports; public health care facilities, schools,
colleges, universities, and research institutions; water supply and sewage
disposal systems; flood control, irrigation networks, and other waterway
maintenance projects; the air traffic control system, national parks and
forests and wilderness areas (soon to disappear entirely); seashore
maintenance and coastal navigation systems; and the like.
What remained for the most part was only that which had been "privatized"
and then survived. The result was a very spotty system. To be
sure, the rich and others living in the growing number of walled communities
guarded by private armed forces did well (Egan). And, as noted in Chapter
eight, the prison system flourished, continuing a pattern
established in California in 1995-96 when for the first time spending
on the state prison system had exceeded that on the state's two university
systems (Butterfield). The prison system had been "privatized"
to a significant degree, and provided huge profits for those connected to the
new Prison/Industrial Complex (see also Chapter three).
-The continuing growth of
interpersonal violence accompanying the repeal of any limits on gun ownership
that had occurred early in the Pine Presidency.
-The public and political
prominence of public and personal racism, homophobia, misogyny, and xenophobia,
and their continued exploitation by the forces of Right-Wing
Reaction.
-The constantly spreading personal
alienation and destruction of the basic interpersonal fabric of society
resulting from the incessant promotion by Right-Wing Reaction
of the philosophy of "every-man- for-himself-and-the-devil-take-the-hindmost,"
otherwise known as "self-responsibility" (see Chapter seven for
an excellent Transition Era summary of this philosophy by the Right-Wing
philosopher Michael Levin).
-The failure of any of the
measures adopted through the Constitutional Amendment process since the
ratification of the 28th (the first Balanced Budget Amendment) to
materially affect in a positive way any of the underlying economic or social
problems faced by the old United States.
To be continued.
A little
Guide to the characters. “Jefferson Davis Hague” was a great grand
nephew of “Boss” Frank Hague of pre WW II Jersey City (see last week’s Guide
for a few details). “Connie Conroy” was a White House press officer.
“Alex Poughton” was an English journalist assigned to
cover the US during the Fascist Period. “Parthenon Pomeroy” was a Hague
loyalist. “Curley Oakwood” was the 300 lb., leading hate-radio screamer,
supporting the Regime.
ADDENDUM (JAN. 24, 2008): Disclaimer: I did NOT make up the material
below, and I really did write the text above, in 1995.
The “moderate,” “maverick,” sane
guy” John McCain has really said the following, courtesy of
The National Jewish Democratic
Council (January 8, 2008
(http://www.njdc.org/issues/detail.php?id=767&iss=3):
“ … the Christian right has a major role to play in the Republican Party” [New
York Times, 4/3/06]; McCain stated that a candidate’s Christian faith is “an
important characteristic” for a president, that he would prefer a Christian
president and that the "Constitution established the United States of
America as a Christian nation," and that "America is a
Christian nation, and it is hardly a controversial claim" [The New York
Sun, October 1, 2007]; The Arizona Daily Star reported that McCain "sided
with the president" on "teaching intelligent design in schools;"
McCain "told the Star that, like Bush, he believes 'all points of view'
should be available to students studying the origins of mankind; McCain has
endorsed an Arizona ballot initiative that banned both gay marriage and civil
unions by writing discrimination into the Arizona constitution (Arizona
Republic 1//8/06); on his campaign bus in March of 2000 Sen. John McCain told
reporters, "I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live"
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 3/2/00); in November, 2007 a John McCain supporter
in South Carolina asked him "How do we beat the bitch” in reference to
Senator Hillary Clinton. Senator McCain response was to laugh and respond "That's an excellent question" (New York
Times 11/14/07); In an April 16, 2007 letter to Service member’s Legal Defense
Network (SLDN),
McCain stated that the Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell policy instituted in 1993, “unambiguously maintains that open
homosexuality within the military services presents an intolerable risk to
morale, cohesion and discipline.” [http://www.sldn.org/templates/press/record.html?record=3877§ion=2].
[1] Author's Note: "Off the shelf" is a term the arch
Right-Wing Reactionary William Casey, President Ronald Reagan's
first Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, used to describe
an extra-legal right-wing foreign insurgency instigation and
support group he had put together during his tenure at the CIA.
[2] Author's Note: The swastika or hackenkreutz
("crooked cross" in German) was the symbol of the German Nazi Party
between 1933 and 1945.
[3] Author's Note: The Hagueites
commonly referred to that tiny, but very visible, vocal, and influential
minority of the American Jewish community that supported Right-Wing
Reaction as "Real Jews." Their leading
organization by this time, "Jews for Christ and Tradition," was
officially welcomed into the ACNP coalition by Hague in his speech.
The traditionally Constitutionalist Jewish community, representing a
majority of American Jews, was referred to as "the Renegade
Jews."
[4] The phrase "a wink and a nod" came from the practice President
Reagan had used to give his approval for "unofficial" governmental
activities of questionable legality without committing anything to paper,
and oftentimes not saying anything directly at all to those on the operational
level, even privately.