#25 -- OUR HOMEGROWN COUP

OUR HOMEGROWN COUP

“Fascism should be called corporatism, as it is the merging of government and corporate power.” Mussolini

Coup d’etat usually connotes a military takeover in Latin America, Africa, or some other place where citizens are novices at democratic governance. That a coup might be occurring in the United States is hard to fathom, for a number of reasons, most of which boil down to “It can’t happen here.” This belief is somewhat hubristic on Americans’ part, because it can. Our founders, only too aware that it could, placed safeguards into our Law of the Land. But safeguards can always be avoided, or sidestepped, if people become complacent. Though Mussolini was on the losing side of WWII, he gets credit for understanding the nuts and bolts of fascism, knowing that capitalism and democracy are not necessarily compatible. And while the capitalist economic system and the political system called democracy have co-existed in the United States almost since our country’s beginning, it has been a shaky co-existence. Currently, it appears that the country’s economic rulers are engaged in an all-out takeover of the political system, to install an autocracy that will suit corporate priorities better than democracy can. The morbidly feeble economy is the equivalent of burning the Reichstag. As long as the economic crisis endures, people will be fearful, and fear, combined with complacency, can topple democracy. In statehouses all over the country, rightwing governments are replacing democratic processes with top-down orders, regardless of the democratic governments they are sworn to uphold. Over and over, the economy is cited as an excuse for drastic measures, such as destroying unions and gutting social safety nets to pay for millionaires’ tax breaks. Though polls consistently show public disapproval of these policies, they happen anyway. Do such things occur in a democratic republic?
At the national level, one-half of our political elite, the Republican party, marches in lockstep to thwart new public works projects, which are not only needed to repair our antiquated infrastructure, but which we know stimulate buying through higher employment, which encourages investment, leading to increased government revenues. Their party line holds that government does nothing useful, that tax reductions for the richest among us are America’s only hope for increasing employment, that elimination of the “nanny state” will lead to a new millennium of freedom and prosperity for all. History disproves the party line, at least regarding the last Great Depression, which we all say we want to avoid reliving. Republicans counter historical reminders with louder and more frequent repetitions of the party line. What is strangely frightening is that no Republicans, at any governmental level, have expressed even the slightest willingness to compromise with the other side, even with polls showing over and again that some sort of compromise is what the American people want. Republican politicians are not afraid of public opinion, nor do they seem to be worried about the upcoming elections, as politicians in a democracy would be. Limitless campaign contributions, legalized by the corporate-friendly Supreme Court, are expected to change the polls when needed. In order to keep up the appearance of democracy, the “Tea Party Patriots” (intellectual heirs to the know-nothings and the lunatic fringe), with their hatred of Barack Obama, are ideally situated to facilitate a coup. They fanatically believe their myth of a grassroots popular movement, although their promoters are known to be a small coterie of extremely wealthy corporate tycoons. Having no interest in bothersome dissent, these tycoons will rule absolutely. Decisions will be made in the boardrooms, and the masses will be expected to conform. Although this end may not be what individual Tea Partiers have in mind, their backers feel supremely confident that they can use them to achieve their corporate objectives. So far their confidence has been justified. Close Republican wins are treated as overwhelming landslides, with the losers vanquished entirely. In democracies, the victors work with the opposition, well aware that come next election, they could be trading places. Such commonplace doings of democracy are not happening anymore.
Barack Obama and the Democratic Party are trying to work with the other side under the old-fashioned, democratic ground rules. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the old ways no longer work, that the right wing is taking its marching orders from the top-down, in an authoritarian, CEO-driven management style. The stated goal is a return to those halcyon days when robber barons could extract the last ounce of wealth from the land and the workers, with no responsibility to clean up the messes they made. Over the past century, the robber barons have been relentlessly seeking to regain the absolute control of government they once had, to reinstate a government that exists only to protect and increase corporate profits. They will exercise tighter control this time. Mussolini would probably call this fascism.