As a nation, we cannot seem to rouse ourselves from our stupor, despite the fact that we acknowledge that there are those forces around us who are openly exploiting our inability or unwillingness to respond. Indeed, what should the response look like? Hearings that go nowhere? Subpoenas that go nowhere? The 24-hour news cycle of outrage that goes nowhere? The accountability that everyone seems to think needs to be applied but goes nowhere? The angry rhetoric that goes nowhere?
A compelling and succinct editorial in the New York Times today offers a snapshot in time, I think, that only begins to identify the sad fact that this nation is suffering from, to use a very complicated clinical term, something bad. Have we developed some genetically modified form of fascism? Paxton helps explain what that might look like his most recent text, Anatomy of Fascism. Are we becoming a nation leading the vanguard of New Authoritarians? Henry Giroux thinks so in Against the New Authoritarianism: Politics After Abu Ghraib.
So, let us consider what the New York Times editorial offering is for today and weep:
December 31, 2007
Editorial
Looking at America
There are too many moments these days when we cannot recognize our country. Sunday was one of them, as we read the account in The Times of how men in some of the most trusted posts in the nation plotted to cover up the torture of prisoners by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators by destroying videotapes of their sickening behavior. It was impossible to see the founding principles of the greatest democracy in the contempt these men and their bosses showed for the Constitution, the rule of law and human decency.It was not the first time in recent years we’ve felt this horror, this sorrowful sense of estrangement, not nearly. This sort of lawless behavior has become standard practice since Sept. 11, 2001.
The country and much of the world was rightly and profoundly frightened by the single-minded hatred and ingenuity displayed by this new enemy. But there is no excuse for how President Bush and his advisers panicked – how they forgot that it is their responsibility to protect American lives and American ideals, that there really is no safety for Americans or their country when those ideals are sacrificed.
Out of panic and ideology, President Bush squandered America’s position of moral and political leadership, swept aside international institutions and treaties, sullied America’s global image, and trampled on the constitutional pillars that have supported our democracy through the most terrifying and challenging times. These policies have fed the world’s anger and alienation and have not made any of us safer.
In the years since 9/11, we have seen American soldiers abuse, sexually humiliate, torment and murder prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq. A few have been punished, but their leaders have never been called to account. We have seen mercenaries gun down Iraqi civilians with no fear of prosecution. We have seen the president, sworn to defend the Constitution, turn his powers on his own citizens, authorizing the intelligence agencies to spy on Americans, wiretapping phones and intercepting international e-mail messages without a warrant.
We have read accounts of how the government’s top lawyers huddled in secret after the attacks in New York and Washington and plotted ways to circumvent the Geneva Conventions – and both American and international law – to hold anyone the president chose indefinitely without charges or judicial review.
Those same lawyers then twisted other laws beyond recognition to allow Mr. Bush to turn intelligence agents into torturers, to force doctors to abdicate their professional oaths and responsibilities to prepare prisoners for abuse, and then to monitor the torment to make sure it didn’t go just a bit too far and actually kill them.
The White House used the fear of terrorism and the sense of national unity to ram laws through Congress that gave law-enforcement agencies far more power than they truly needed to respond to the threat – and at the same time fulfilled the imperial fantasies of Vice President Dick Cheney and others determined to use the tragedy of 9/11 to arrogate as much power as they could.
Hundreds of men, swept up on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, were thrown into a prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, so that the White House could claim they were beyond the reach of American laws. Prisoners are held there with no hope of real justice, only the chance to face a kangaroo court where evidence and the names of their accusers are kept secret, and where they are not permitted to talk about the abuse they have suffered at the hands of American jailers.
In other foreign lands, the C.I.A. set up secret jails where “high-value detainees” were subjected to ever more barbaric acts, including simulated drowning. These crimes were videotaped, so that “experts” could watch them, and then the videotapes were destroyed, after consultation with the White House, in the hope that Americans would never know.
The C.I.A. contracted out its inhumanity to nations with no respect for life or law, sending prisoners – some of them innocents kidnapped on street corners and in airports – to be tortured into making false confessions, or until it was clear they had nothing to say and so were let go without any apology or hope of redress.
These are not the only shocking abuses of President Bush’s two terms in office, made in the name of fighting terrorism. There is much more – so much that the next president will have a full agenda simply discovering all the wrongs that have been done and then righting them.
We can only hope that this time, unlike 2004, American voters will have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle and decency to use them honorably. Then when we look in the mirror as a nation, we will see, once again, the reflection of the United States of America.
Something strange is afoot at the Circle K, to quote a lame movie from my youth. We are in a really bad place.
when confronted with this is to ask questions:
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p>Has this happened before? When? Why?
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p>I’m not an historian, but there are many here who are. I beleive there is historical precedent for what is happening now.
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p>What was the previous outcome to similar situations?
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p>Have we learned anything from history that would help us to make informed decisions about how to deal with current situations? When? Why?
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p>I’m a poor place holder for those who have spent their lives researching these issues. I can only ask and hope that others will respond (or encourage those responses via email?).
I know of a few–Paxton and Giroux, to name a couple–who are concerned about the trend towards authoritarianism with a twist, the veneer of democracy to legitimize and anesthetize the people. Chavez, Musharraf, Putin, and, to a lesser degree, Bush, all share traits of concern. The days of the jackbooted dictator decked out in military garb with forces marching in the streets are gone.
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p>Giroux’s take is an interesting one. He currently holds the Global Television Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Ontario but has lead an interesting life and career. I highly recommend him if you are interested in the place where sociopolitical change meets youth and schools.
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p>As you can tell here, he’d be right up my alley.
I had not heard of Giroux and just read the review. My interests in the issue are a result of grassroots politicking and the difficulties I’ve encountered over the years. For every success story of encouraging someone young to get involved, there are usually two or three who simply give up. Not a very good ratio. Although I’m a prolific reader, I’ve not spent a lot of time on history and I regret that. I asked John Fitzgerald to comment, because I’ve read one of his books on Vietnam and I think he has a valuable perspective to offer.
And many think he was our greatest President.
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p>There is a historical data point for you.
Abraham Lincoln suspended habeus corpus
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p>that suspension was in the midst of a rebellion. Check your constitution.
We are living in a period of unprecedented corporate wealth. This is similar to the 1890’s and the 1920’s, but the extreme is far worse today. We have a growing number of billionaires in our society and the numbers of the poor and homeless are growing. Most people are in debt with credit cards and mortgages and car loans. There are few people with substantial savings. Labor unions are weak and most Americans like to ignore the realities of class in our society.
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p>Consumerism is the engine that keeps the cornucopia flowing and consumerism is having a head on collision with the environment. Global warming is a real phenomena and that is why the oil and energy companies are denying it. They know that it is real, but their business depends on selling oil. Their main partners the automobile companies are trying to get the public to ignore the global warming activity that is caused by carbon burning vehicles, aircraft and ships.
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p>I think we will need to break out of the old ways of doing things. Corporate capitalism is the main problem and governmental intervention is the only way to reign it in. I don’t see Hillary doing this. Edwards and Obama have the potential to change things. I think a major economic shock will be necessary to reorient the economic system. Cf. The 1930’s.
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p>We still have a number of New Deal era reforms in place to cushion the shock, but the Reagan/Bush era has waged an out right war on the New Deal and the usefulness of government in peoples’ lives. The Reagan/Goldwater ideology opposes the welfare state in the name of liberty. But in the name of security it asks the federal government to support a bloated military machine. This military machine is the main reason we have international trade with cheap goods from abroad. It requires massive amounts of oil to run on and that is why we are in the Middle East with guns blazing away. Our oil based war machine is designed to protect oil and to continue using massive amounts of it in ships, planes, tanks, etc.
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p>2008 will be a turning point because of the mortgage crisis, decline of housing starts, decline of housing market values. The price of oil will continue to rise.
I think we are headed for a serious recession and the Federal Reserve will not pull us out of it. A change in fiscal policy, not monetary policy, is required. Fiscal policy involves raising taxes and initiating expenditures. The right wing fears fiscal policy because it is a threat to their privileged inequality.
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p>I see the Democrats building a larger majority in both houses this Fall. The Democrats will win the Presidency. Getting out of Iraq will be a consensus position, if it is not already. (The military is having serious problems recruiting soldiers and retaining existing ones.) The future health of the economy will be the main concern and this will require a greater role for the federal government.
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p>To conclude, there are similarities with the 1890’s and the 1920’s and both of those boom eras ended in serious recession/depression. We are headed for a serious accounting for the past 8 reckless years of Bush and Company. Not exactly a rendezvous with destiny, but very similar. My main worry is whether we will remain a democracy as we go through the crisis.
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p>I see this as a realistic, not a pessimistic, analysis of our current situation.
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p>Best,
John J. Fitzgerald
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p>The rendezvous with destiny, as you so succinctly put it, will come years down the line, I think, concommitant with China’s ascendency to the title of “most powerful nation in the world.”
Excellent analysis. If you haven’t, you should read The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, an incredible and revealing book.