Thursday, April 7, 2016

Why I believe that fascism could end up replacing democracy in the U.S. within my lifetime


He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.
-Adolf Hitler

It's not easy being a moderate Republican or Democrat in America's current political climate, and the reason for this is due to the fact that there has been a tectonic shift within both parties in recent years from bipartisanship and compromise to ideology, extremism and the polarization that comes with both. While this may seem like a positive inevitability at first glance, it also has the potential of leading to the very form of political and social despotism that George Washington spoke of in his presidential farewell address while warning his audience about the dangers of factional dissension and the destruction of public liberty as a result of it.
If you're hoping to find a reason that justifies the level of puritanism within both parties during this presidential campaign season, you might as well stop reading this post and look for some other outlet that will help you to avoid facing some ugly realities that will be addressed here. American politics is an ugly business, and like it or not, that ugliness is due in large part to the fact that the American public have allowed it to become that way.



I."Triumph Of The Swill"

The main reason for why I became a registered independent voter in 2007 is because I had to come to a harsh, grim realization, and that realization was this: all political parties in the United States---regardless of the "purity" of their agenda---rely on private funding from lobbyists who represent special interest groups in Federal, State and Municipal government. In other words, EVERY politician who works in the U.S. is on someone else's payroll other than taxpayers alone, and that payroll helps to keep EVERY politician's bank account nice and fat. Of all the people who are working to undermine democracy in America, lobbyists and special interest groups have to be at the top of the list if for no other reason than because voters are too ignorant and arrogant to see them for the threat to democratic liberty that they really are.      


II."Crock Of Ages"

 One of the biggest misnomers that has ever been intentionally promoted by the conservative movement in the United States is the notion that America was founded on Judaeo-Christian principles. I could write an entire thesis on how this garbage became popular among social conservatives as a result of lobbyists who represent Christian schools in Washington, D.C. like Oral Roberts University, but quite frankly, it would take up too much of my personal time to invest in such an endeavor. Instead, I'll keep it brief for this post.
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States, once stated the following in 1808: "Erecting the wall of separation between Church and State is absolutely essential in a free society." The reason why Jefferson made this statement is because, like other founders of American democracy, he was knowledgeable enough to understand the dangers of theocracy within society along with the values of secularism within government. 



Contrary to popular belief among evangelical Christian conservatives, separation of Church and State serves two purposes: One, it prevents government from dictating which religion(s) shall be mandated onto society, and two, it prevents government from mandating which religion(s) shall be prohibited from society. Contrast this to the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 which made Christianity the only religion to be sanctioned in Germany by the Third Reich while outlawing the practice of Judaism and other religions altogether, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out why separation of Church and State is absolutely essential in a free society indeed. 



III. "Mass Stupidity Makes For Better Election Results"

Perhaps the most intentional and deceptive forms of legislation that Republicans in Federal, State and local government have passed into law in recent years for the sole purpose of broadening their voting base have been forms of legislation which cut spending for public education. While conservative Republicans may argue that there is too much bureaucracy within America's educational system and needs to be removed for the greater good, one needs to understand what is really being insinuated behind their "greater good" rhetoric.
Institutions of higher learning like public schools are not only intended to teach the values of reading, writing and arithmetic, but they are also intended to give students an opportunity to understand the values of civics, public discourse and objectivity: the very ideals which help to preserve democracy in society. Since the end of the 1960s, conservatives have made a concerted effort to remove all forms of fundamental understanding of democratic thought from America's public school system. This in turn has led to legislation which cuts tax dollars from being used to help students learn about the values of democracy itself. 




As you have probably figured out by this point, when a student is no longer taught the values of democracy within a democratic society, that student is more likely to either vote without properly vetting candidates or simply not vote at all, but either result inevitably works to the Republican Party's advantage in the long run with devastating consequences for civil liberty in general.


This leads me back to the quote by Adolf Hitler at the beginning of this post, because Hitler understood that in order to elevate himself on the ruins of public liberty in Germany, he would have to prey upon the weaknesses within the German people's lack of understanding in regards to democracy under the Weimar Republic following World War One. Hitler also understood that in order to further the cause of his vision for a "Thousand-Year Reich", he would have to rely on the ignorance and arrogance of German youth to carry out his plans for perpetuating National Socialist ideology among future generations of Germans or anyone else in the world who became disillusioned with democracy and wanted to be led by a fuhrer rather than have control of his or her own government.


In the seventy-plus years since Adolf Hitler's death, this mentality has crept into the minds of both conservative and liberal voters within the United States. While it should come as no surprise that conservatives have chosen to embrace Hitler's ideology of "strong man" authoritarianism over democracy, it's troubling for me to watch this ideology also take hold among liberal-progressives in regards to the Democratic Party's choice of presidential candidates and the current leadership within the Democratic National Committee itself during this election year of 2016. What troubles me even more is the fact that many supporters of both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have stated that if their candidate doesn't win the nomination, then they will either take their proverbial political marbles and go home by not voting or support whoever the Republican nominee is in the hopes of generating a "real revolution in America". Naturally, both of these ideas among liberal-progressives work to the Republican Party's advantage when all is said and done. This is also one of those ugly realities that have come into existence as a result of an ignorant American electorate.




So I have now been forced to come to a rather grim conclusion regarding the future of democracy in the United States, and that grim conclusion is this: Unless there is a genuine effort to restore bipartisan governing, I may very well live long enough to see the day when American democracy will be replaced with a totalitarian form of fascism not unlike what Adolf Hitler had envisioned for himself at the expense of Germany and the rest of Europe. What makes this conclusion all the more disturbing is that unlike the millions of Germans who pledged their allegiance to Hitler and the Nazi Party after World War One, Americans have been used to living in a democratic system of governing. And because of this, Americans also have less of an excuse to reject democracy than those millions of Germans who chose Nazism over the Weimar Republic.