Naomi Wolf wrote in her book “The End of America” that there are ten things that need to happen in order to bring about a fascist state. Let’s evaluate them, shall we?
- Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy – I’d say that the threat of domestic terrorism and foreign terrorism meets this requirement. But there are other internal enemies as well such as Ron Paul voters and war veterans who were specifically targeted early on by the Obama administration as potential domestic terrorists. As for foreign enemies, we keep on hearing about North Korea, Iran, Russia, and, to a lessor extent, China in addition to Islamic terror groups. Never mind that the United States still has a military that could easily squash any other State power in the world.
- Create secret prisons where torture takes place – Check. The CIA had secret prisons all over Europe where torture took place. I’m also certain that Bradley Manning was taken to a secret prison and tortured with sleep depravation. No wonder he wants to be a woman now.
- Develop a thug caste or paramilitary force not answerable to citizens – The police and most other law enforcement agencies are answerable only to the higher ups. Moreover, they are becoming increasingly militarized. It will not surprise me if in the next decade or so that armored police cars being used as patrol cars become commonplace. On top of that, they can literally commit murder and pretty much get away with it. Usually they claim the mantra of “officer safety” even as the unarmed elderly man is bleeding to death onto their shiny boots.
- Set up an internal surveillance system – While Edward Snowden blew the whistle on this, it has been going on since at least the mid-90s with the rise of the Internet. Do you think that the NSA would have sat idly by and let such information go to waste? The Echelon system was up and running for a long time before they were hacking Gmail accounts.
- Harass citizens’ groups – The recent IRS scandals have pretty much confirmed this. Moreover, this kind of thing has been happening for a long time where the current administration uses an agency to suppress citizens’ groups. Nixon was nearly impeached over this. It’s just that people like Obama will do it more often and on a grander scale than their predecessors because the precedent has be established. And lawyers often live by precedent.
- Engage in arbitrary detention and release – Indefinite detention, as authorized by the NDAA and signed by President Obama himself and given bipartisan support, is the very definition of this. Before that, there are many instances of American citizens being forced into detention only to be released later a la the Japanese internment camps during World War II under FDR.
- Target key individuals – There are many people who have been targeted by the government. Curt Weldon, who was in the process of exposing the gross incompetence with regards to the 9/11 attacks, was targeted by the FBI and lost his re-election bid as a result. This is just one example.
- Control the press – The press is, by and large, not given access without the consent of the government. As a result, they are not able to report the truth of anything in relation to government activities because to do so would result in loss of contact and loss of job. Possibly loss of life. Moreover, the mainstream press is full of Statist sycophants who would do anything to keep government big, fat, and greedy.
- Treat all political dissidents as traitors – Pretty much sums up the directive that was issued by then HHS Secretary Janet Napolitano when she stated that people with Gadsden flags and Ron Paul stickers were terrorists.
- Suspend the rule of law – The rule of law is basically non-existent, largely because there tens of thousands of laws in the Federal ledger alone. If there is law against nearly every activity, then the law is applied subjectively by law enforcement, which means there is no rule of law, just a bunch of justifications for beating your face in when a LEO feels like it.
The truth is, fascism is already here. Voting is nothing more than a formality; you are merely choosing between two factions of powerbrokers, not two ideological opponents. The economic policy of the US is basically to allow private enterprise so long as it suits the government officials. And the bureaucracy itself basically runs things while allowing politicians to put on a show.
It has happened here. We are under the fascist rule of neo-Aristocrats. And the sooner that the American people realize this instead of putting false hope in political parties or political movements, the sooner we can turn things around and bring about true freedom and liberty.