BuzzFlash Reviews

June 2005

It Can Happen Here: A Fascist Christian America (2 Volume Set) by George E. Lowe

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Sometimes we come across an eye-opening book by an American who is not part of the author circuit, and this is the case with the two-volume set, "It Can Happen Here." George E. Lowe wrote a book in 1964 called "The Age of Deterrence," but then went on with his career in the military. He served as a speechwriter in the Reagan Department of Education, where he told BuzzFlash, he awoke to the threat from radical religious zealots taking over the Republican Party.

Lowe's two-volume collection is a labor of love (originally and prophetically written in 2000) that offers a provocative and persuasive explanation about how the Neo-Cons became a logical partner with the "Rapture" Christians, whose goal is to precipitate Armageddon and a Second Coming of Christ. One clear common political goal is increasing weapons production, because it will both enrich the Neo-Con corporate interests and help precipitate a Messianic age for the radical fundamentalists.

For many BuzzFlash readers, following the subtleties of the religious right fanatics is a challenge. But Lowe takes the reader on a journey through the strange permutations of Christian extremism and the danger it presents to America as a Constitutional democracy. Moreover, the Christian fanatics seek a World War III, because it will lead to the transformation of Israel into the triumphant return of a resurrected Christ.

An interesting side note is that Lowe clearly explains the odd fellow relationship between the Likud Party of Israel and the Evangelical extremists. It's a complicated story, but basically Sharon has forged a temporary alliance with Christian fundamentalists, even though their goal is the eventual destruction of the Jews as a people through actions surrounding Armageddon. It doesn't get much stranger than that.

Lowe is such an enthusiastic writer that you sometimes feel like you want him to slow down for a minute or two. But, it's like listening to a fantastic story that mixes Lowe's personal military and Reagan era experience with the subject at hand. And the subject at hand is that we have people running the government -- and their supporters -- who believe that achieving a religious apocalypse is more important than living under a Constitutional democracy.

George E. Lowe was born in Scranton, PA (1928) and educated in the public schools of New York/New Jersey/PA. He graduated from Grove City College (BA-1950) and U. of Chicago (MA -1953) and taught at all levels of American education (1950-93). Served over 30 years in the Federal Government (1953-88), including US Naval Intelligence Officer (Japan, Hawaii & the Pentagon), Foreign Service Officer (African Affairs & Paris Embassy), and Civil Servant (OE/ED). Author of The Age of Deterrence, Little, Brown (1964), and many articles on military policy, nuclear weapons, education, and the environment. Speechwriter in Navy Dept. (1961,65)/Department of Education (1981-88).

If you want to understand why America has basically crossed the line into a theocracy, although one that is still disguised by the deceptive repetition of words like freedom, this two-volume set is for you.

As one reviewer noted: "The title is based on the antithetical viewpoint expressed in Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here (describing right-wing politicians and their fundamentalist supporters who tried to take over the US government). US religious fundamentalists control many politicians so their biblical views are linked to Reagan's and Bush II's Star Wars, SDI, and ABM plans. These are manifestations of their quest to allow saved, born-again Americans to experience the rapture and survive a nuclear strike against the "rogues" in Iran, North Korea, China, or Russia."

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