The Republicans' Emerging Fascism

by Jon Faulkner


When Bush was installed by a slim majority of conservative, Supreme Court Justices, a precedent was set, as well as a message sent, that put all Americans on notice that the nation’s highest court would act in the interests of its conservative majority, and beyond that, would champion the conservative republican ideology. The terrible cost the nation has paid, and will continue to pay, is directly attributable to the stolen election that the Supreme Court so clumsily manipulated.

Under a fraudulently appointed president, Americans have seen their freedoms routinely attacked. But the crowning achievement - conservative’s best effort at destroying democracy, was the Military Commissions Act that effectively ended due process, the bedrock principle that protects all citizens from arbitrary arrest by the state, the Writ of Habeas Corpus. Albert Venn Dicey was a leading constitutional scholar of his day. He wrote that the Habeas Corpus Acts “declare no principle and define no rights, but they are for practical purposes worth a hundred constitutional articles guaranteeing individual liberty."

A shameless Congress voted the Military Commissions Act into law, and the imposter to the presidency eagerly signed it. On June 12, 2008 the Court, by a slim, 5/4 majority, restored the rights of Americans against arbitrary arrest when it ruled the Military Commissions Act unconstitutional. The Supreme Court, by only one vote, had preserved the ancient doctrine of Habeas Corpus. This alone should be compelling enough evidence to vote against McCain who is on public record as having said he’d appoint justices of Robert’s and Scalia’s ilk, both staunch supporters of the Military Commission's Act. A month after the Supreme Court ruling, the Fourth Circuit Court ruled that Americans could be arrested and detained indefinitely, and without charge.

Congress turned the clock back 900 years when it voted the Military Commissions Act into law. Conservatives sneered at liberal democrats, accusing them of exaggerating the threats that the Act posed to American’s freedom. Conservatives made the talk show rounds, appearing on Fox and other right wing media, laughing at those who voted against the Military Commissions Act. With typical one-upmanship, conservative republicans predictably accused democrats of weakness in the War on Terror and pointed at the Military Commissions Act as a new, and powerful tool against terror. Osama Bin Laden is indebted to all conservative republicans for their tireless efforts to debase the U.S. Constitution.

Encouraged by that particular theft of American rights, conservatives pushed the Protect America Act through Congress. Democrats, with their Congressional Majority, and not to be outdone, rushed ahead to be the first to further weaken American’s Fourth Amendment Rights. Together, republicans and democrats allowed the Warrantless Wiretapping of American’s phones, emails, and text messages. It wouldn’t effect Americans at all, the traitorous Congress claimed, lying through their teeth. Americans must have better tools with which to fight terrorism the Congress cried as it frantically waved the flag for the express purpose of blinding Americans to their real motive. The Communications Industry was, quite rightly, fearful of the lawsuits that would arise from its illegal eavesdropping, and from its violation of the American people’s Fourth Amendment Rights. The Communication’s Industries extremely powerful lobby pulled this and that string, and Congress danced to K Streets tune.

AT&T was involved in a vast, data mining enterprise that at the behest of the Bush Administration, secretly collected information from thousands of Americans. Under the old FISA law it was illegal to intentionally engage in electronic surveillance unless authorized by statute. Faced with criminal charges and huge lawsuits, the frightened Communications Industry called in its chits. The Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell said, “If you play out the suits at the value they're claimed, it would bankrupt these companies."

So Congress enacted and passed, retroactively, the Warrantless Wiretapping Act to protect the Telecommunications Industry against criminal charges, as well as thousands of lawsuits from an angry, American public. The U.S. Congress publicly exposed itself in its conspiracy with the Telecommunications Industry and was met with a huge, collective yawn from the American public. The hopeless corruption that permeates Congress is testament to the American people’s ignorance and folly for accepting, albeit a little grumbling here and there, a government that increasingly displays all the characteristics of an emerging, fascist state.

The hour grows late for Americans to realize and act upon the forces that would deny them freedom. Many Americans won’t realize their rights are gone even after their freedom has been taken away. This is testament to the effectiveness of conservative think tanks anticipating public reaction after having planted seeds of envy, fear, dissension - anything to provoke a negative, public response that a malleable and willing media will gleefully hang around the democrat’s necks. Polls show that roughly half the nation is ready to elect McCain who, on the campaign trail, has made it perfectly clear he will continue the Bush Administration’s disastrous policies. How is this possible? What will it take for American’s to realize they are gradually becoming subjects, and their nation is being systematically divided and sold as collateral to foreign lenders.