BuzzFlash Reader Contribution

November 3, 2004

CONTRIBUTOR ARCHIVES  

Looking into the Abyss

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

We're looking into the abyss.

The American republic has run its course. We've lasted longer than any of the separate French Republics; not anywhere near as long as the Roman Republic.

But with Bush in, it's over.

I've recently taken to quoting Mussolini that "fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." With Cheney and Halliburton in power, and the no-bid contracts in Iraq, it could not more clear.

Over and over, the computer community screamed its loudest about the untrustworthiness of computer voting...and people with no qualifications to respond to them, such as partisan secretaries of state, called us "hysterical". The fact is, this election is the result of fraud as massive as those "elections" held by Stalin or Saddam Hussein. And yet Kerry didn't call for recounts. He wouldn't listen, or maybe he wouldn't
believe.

With increased control of Congress, we can see where they will go:

- in Iraq, either more deeply, or else they'll speed up the timetable of Iraqization. If they go the latter course, Bush has already made at least one statement to prepare the US for elections there resulting in an Islamic fundamentalist state that will very likely become either very anti-American;

- in the military, they'll cut maintenance, ammunition, and all the other "unsexy" things that are needed, and borrow and spend vast amounts of money on useless programs, like the non-working missile defense shield, all of which result in huge profits to their corporate friends;

- they will continue to wipe out the Bill of Rights (oh, sorry, except for the 2nd Amendment), and

- they'll continue their agenda of rolling back the 20th Century, to shred the social safety net, and work to privatize social security, and to finally turn the US into a banana republic.

I, personally, don't expect to see it end, unless it's as an expatriot.

When I was a kid, we had family friends - the parents were friends of my folks, and the younger kid was my best friend (the older was a *lot* older). In the late 30's, they left Austria. I heard that they'd begged their family and friends to come with them, and leave...but most couldn't believe it would be that bad, or that they "couldn't just leave
everything, just wait till we can sell it all...."

None of them made it out.

Is the US headed there? Not quite, I think. I lean towards Franco's Spain as a Bush model. I'm also tired, having spent my life watching the US go from the dreams of the sixties to fascism with a faux-Christian face. If this sounds like we're seriously considering emigrating...we are. If we were to stay, I'd expect to wind up in a gulag within 10 years.

Mark

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

BuzzFlash Note: While we don't disagree with much of Mark's analysis, we also agree with Daily Kos's post-election comments in his Guardian article today, "...best of all, we'll continue to see this great resurgence in progressive activism - the kind not seen in American politics in over a generation. None of these new activists heeded the call to arms only to abandon the fight today. We are energised, and will continue to fight for a better future for our country."