The Paranoid Right Is Partly Right

When I think of the paranoid right I think of wild-eyed militia men, bible-thumping, extremist Christian fundamentalists, black helicopters, the CFR, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg group, shadowy banking and financial elites, detention centres, U.N. troops abusing their power and the U.S. becoming a fascist police state. Well, I’m not a fundamentalist, nor am I a supporter of the political or religious right; the U.S. militia movement seems pretty scary to me, and anti-semitic conspiracy theories make me think of racist lunatics. That being said, however, the “paranoid right” is partly right.

Many people still do not realize it, but the U.S. is now undeniably becoming a fascist state. Just as the U.S. went from being the world’s leading creditor to the world’s biggest debtor nation, and (what is closely related) from world’s leading oil exporter to world’s leading oil importer, it is now moving from “land of freedom” to land of the police state. The unthinkable is happening. The Patriot Acts and Military Commissions Act create the “legal” framework for martial law and the destruction of the constitution. Torture has been made legal. Contracts have been granted for a network of detention centres. And U.N. troops have shown in Haiti that they can be used as willing tools of oppression. As to the shadowy banking and financial elites, anyone who underestimates the arm-bending power of big money is not living in the real world. (And of course, the elite have their clubs.)

The left tends to place a large part of its focus on class analysis, and rightly so – the area to which the right is often (though not universally) oblivious. But the left may do well to look more deeply into the machinations of power-seekers - which many among the grassroots of the right legitimately fear.

In fact, as more and more people come to view the corporate and business elite as dominating the economy, political process, media and life in general, the polarization between right and left – at the grass roots at least – may be narrowing. There is more common ground than we may imagine. At the level of the grassroots, neither conservatives nor liberals, neither right nor left, nor the centre (whatever that means nowadays) wants fascism; at the grassroots, neither conservatives nor liberals want “Fortress North America”, the “Security and Prosperity Partnership”, a “North American Union”, or the destruction of national democracy or sovereignty. There is more in common between conservatives and liberals, right and left, than most would imagine.

In Canada the Conservative Party came to power on a platform promising to “Stand up for Canada”. Grassroots conservatives clearly supported such a proposal. Yet the Harper government immediately carried forward with deep integration with the U.S., effectively selling out the country, and carrying further the policy of North American “Homeland” integration that Martin and the Liberals had already endorsed. At the level of political elites, virtually all are aboard for the new “Fortress North America” and the “New Security Environment.” At the grassroots, across the political spectrum, the great majority shudder at the thought. Which explains why the Conservative representatives met their American and Mexican counterparts behind closed doors on September 12-14, 2006 at the Banff Springs Hotel to further plan and implement “military, intelligence, economic and judicial integration” in “Fortress North America” – a.k.a., the new continental police state.

If some greater common ground can be found between the grassroots right, left, liberal, conservative and radical – at least on certain issues – perhaps a greater common democratic front can be built for the protection of democracy and freedom. The common foe is the tiny minority of financial and corporate elite, along with their political and media lap dogs, who would make of this world a single grand labour camp, with themselves as the beneficiaries and masters of the universe. Most citizens, be they in Canada, the U.S., Mexico or anywhere else on earth - on the right and left - would agree that this is a hideous vision for humanity.

In any case, the long-standing fears of “the paranoid right” seem to be coming true – sans global Jewish conspiracy. Those nutty militia men – half blinkered, half clear-eyed; part red-neck racist fool, part down-to-earth common sense.

If we value democracy, this is a time not just for vigilance, but for determined action. Freedom and democracy in the United States and across the Western world are now under a great and imminent threat: and that threat is from within; the U.S. government itself has become the agent of destruction of American freedom and democracy. This may not be news for some, but the extent of present developments takes this trend to an entirely new level.

And, since Canadian and Mexican political and business elites have already signed on to continental integration in the North American “Homeland”, we are witnessing the destruction of freedom, democracy and human rights, as well as constitutions, in three nations, across the continent. Is this 1933, Germany? Sometimes I have to wonder.

Speak up Canada. Speak up people of Mexico. It may be harder than you think to reverse such a precipitous fall into fascism. Speak now.

Speak now America. This is your hour to shine, or to self-destruct. Speak now people. Speak and act against this creeping fascist coup.

JTR

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Endnote:

“If the Nuremburg trials were held today, ever U.S. president since WWII would be hung.” – Noam Chomsky

Perhaps we cannot easily come to terms with the actions of our “leaders.” But we must. Failure to do so will cost us more than we care to imagine.

The former U.S. attorney general under L.B.J., Ramsey Clark, along with many others, is calling for the impeachment of the president of the U.S. for lying to the American people about Iraq, and for war crimes, as defined by international law and the Geneva Convention. However, it is not appropriate to speak of impeachment for George W. Bush. It is appropriate, given his actions, for him to be arrested by a U.S. military officer, police officer, or a bounty hunter, and taken to The Hague to stand trial for war crimes.

This may not be as unlikely an event as one might think. In fact, in the not too distant future, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, George Tenet, Porter Goss, and other U.S. political elites will wish they had resigned, rather than serve life sentences for war crimes in a maximum security prison. Robben Island, in South Africa, might be an appropriate place for these criminals, seeing as they and their corporate masters have been engaged in what can only be honestly described as a ruthless and brutal global economic apartheid, backed by extreme violence, aggression and bloodshed. All empires fall. This will be the last.

“This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

- President of the United States (and former General of the Army) Dwight D. Eisenhower in his Farewell Address to the Nation on January 17, 1961

Eisenhower warns us of the military industrial complex. - video

''… don’t you think they aren’t among us today in a concentration of power that is just unparalleled''

- October 2005, Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Powell’s chief of staff from 2001 to 2005 and when Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces during the administration of former president George H.W. Bush

“We have to understand that the war on terrorism is fabricated – it is a complete fabrication – but at the same time it is the doctrine which justifies all these actions both internally and internationally: the police state inside, the militarization of the Middle East, and Central Asia. On the other hand, it is part of the national security doctrine - it is a big lie. It’s perhaps the biggest lie in U.S. history, and it is absolutely essential that a consistent anti-war movement reveal the lie.”

- Michael Chossudovsky

“The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other--instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.”

– Edward Abbey

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