Sedition and Treason

Sedition used to be a crime.  During WWI there was an outburst of patriotism and paranoia. The patriotism was because the unrestricted submarine warfare had enraged the reluctant nation into entering a European war it would rather stay out of.  The paranoia arose toward German immigrants, most of them first generation, who still had direct and recent ties to the mother land.

Many would argue this paranoia was in fact common sense, for two reasons:  One, German immigrants were very recently arrived in the United States, many still had allegiance to the Kaiser.   Two,  the Civil War was a few decades in the past and northern states remembered the struggles during the war against spies and espionage.  John Wilkes Booth was after all  a southern sympathizer, some say a spy, who assassinated Lincoln, dramatically affecting the post war nation.  There was recent concrete historical evidence of he damage sedition and treason could render.

So, the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed, and free speech, anti-governmental talk was repressed, sometimes brutally.

We do not look back well at this time.  In fact, because of it the United States tolerates anti-governmental speech and action more than most other political states, it is seen as a dark time for civil liberties.

This is particularly evident today.  Radicals in the Republican Party are currently holding the country hostage to advance an agenda that by any measure is made to damage government itself.

The threat of default was used along with actually shutting down the government to advance a radical agenda, that called for upending established law, hamstringing the government's actions; during a TIME of WAR!

American combat troops are currently engaged in Afghanistan.  Casualties are happening, combat deaths are happening, while radical political elements are defunding the government and sabotaging the government.

That is sedition.  And they are getting away with it.

Ironically, this is being done by a political element that purports to be patriotic.  In fact, Senator Cruz has called the act of sedition a "Profile in Courage".  An act of courage?  To stop your government, and defund it during an act of war.

That is treason and sedition.  It should be dealt with as we did during WWI:  throw them in jail and hang the traitors.  

Beware the Users of Fear

If you have been able to stomach the past few weeks, many have not, and have not simply tuned out, you have maybe noticed how the Tea Party Patriots have used fear at every turn to both shut down the government and now are on the verge of bankrupting the nation.

A major fear use is the absolute demonizing of the ACA.  Cruz and partners claim that the ACA will destroy American democracy, socialize the nation, and ruin our children.

Fear, absolute fear, as a motivator is used at every turn.

Fear is very powerful and very easy to use as a motivator.  It is easier than using logic or rational argument.

The next time, which should be almost immediately, just slow down  and and listen to the obvious talking points the Tea Party crowd uses.   You don't have to look that hard; fear is the first and last talking point.

Now, they also accuse the Democrats of using fear, when the Democrats  produce statistic after statistic showing the damage  the shutdown, and the default is causing.  They also claim fear mongering by the President for factually based damage their campaign is causing.

The  Tea Partiers (some party?), then pivot and blame the President for using scare tactics.

Next time you tune them in, if you can stand it, just wait for it, more fear.  The favorite is our childrens' children will lose their liberty; or will be doomed to everlasting poverty, or will be overrun by foreign enemies, if Obama care survives.

Their tactic of closing down the government and default is actually the thing to fear, because real damage is being done.

Fascists use fear to build power.  Even a cursory study of fascism shows the use of scapegoating and fear by fascist minorities to scare and harass the majority.  If the fear is effective the right can manipulate its minority status into a majority; and that is exactly the strategy we are seeing played out right now.

Senator Cruz, who bares a remarkable similarity to Joseph McCarthy, uses the exact same strategy "tail gunner" Joe used to scare people and gain power.

And it worked, at least for awhile.  The politics of Washington are so politically charged, and so self-serving, that fear of political consequences goes a long way.  This has not changed in the 70 some years since McCarthyism.  And we can see it being played out right now, as Republicans recoil in fear of political retribution.  So far, there is not evidence of ANY bravery in Republicans during all this.....none.

The politics of fear work.  It worked for McCarthy for about three years.  At that time it ruined several lives.  This time it may ruin millions of lives, if another Great Recession develops.

A long time ago, Roosevelt started his first Inaugural Address with "The only thing to fear is fear itself".  He knew the dangers the country faced, real dangers verging on starvation for many.  But he also knew, the greatest danger was of fear itself, having just witnessed Germany falling under the spell of Adolph Hitler.

You see the danger is not in Obama care, or in the socialist Democrats.  The real danger is in the fear that is being used right now by Ted Cruz and other Tea Party types, to scare us into the same trap Hitler used in Germany in 1932.

Because their tactics are the same, and their political philosophy is the same:   fascism!

Why the word fascism?

Why does Beale use the term fascism? Today I was asked pointedly by a good conservative friend why I use the "f" word so much? Since he was not talking about my golfing lexicon (I think), here's why: Look, I am not comparing the hard conservative right (and that includes the Tea Party) with Nazis (only they do that with President Obama).

I am concerned as a Political Scientist with the criteria for fascism (let's call it non Nazi fascism) that seems   to being met by the right wing in this country more and more. I have read literally dozens of books on the subject, the most recent "The Anatomy of Fascism". The similarities are striking. I have listed these criteria many times in my posts.

An over-reaching one is the need with fascists to destroy democracy, especially liberal democracy.

Now, liberal democracy does NOT mean liberals and democracy. Liberal democracy, to a political scientist means traditional liberal democratic ideals and government, as evidenced most in the United States Constitutional Government. Basically the liberal democrat believes in limited government, always mindful of the danger of liberty by over-reaching government, but holds a view that there is such a thing as a social compact. The social compact is an agreement or consensus in the country, as to the political freedoms and democratic ideals that are most important.

Liberal democracy holds that governments CAN be instituted among men that not only preserves political and economic freedom, but can maximize them within the rule of law. The rule of law is what holds the whole thing together, and it legitimizes the government or state if you will.

Fascism attacks this at every turn, usually with a thing called plutocracy or oligarchy as its base. In short, corporations and large businesses decide to destroy social democracies, and put dictatorships, or other forms of rule, monarchies, that will benefit narrow self interest. Fascism uses propaganda to fool the masses into believing that democracy is wrong, inefficient, and even takes away their freedom.

If you look at Egypt right now you will see how this works. Egypt tried to establish a liberal democracy, with a deep history of military fascistic rule. This was the goal of their "Arab Spring". However, radical Islamic fascists took over with a President who was too weak, and beholding to radical Islamic benefactors, and the fledgling democracy was one again taken over by a military fascist junta.

Now you will note that this regime has been welcomed by most Egyptians, because the liberal democracy that tried to grow, was too disruptive and dangerous for the establishment and for business interests particularly. Better to have peace for business that a liberal democracy.

Liberal democracy is messy. It is often inefficient. And it requires constant vigilance to maintain. There are always forces (some from the communist left, who have almost disappeared with the fall of the Soviet Union) and most from the right, who push hard for "reforms" that are intended to discredit and destroy liberal democracies.

And that is unfortunately where we find ourselves today. Ironically, the Tea Party movement, made of many well meaning although duped Americans, under the guise of super patriotism and Constitutionalism, are working hard to disrupt and discredit the democratic institutions of our country.

Right now, in this latest Constitutional crisis brought upon us by the Tea Party, there is a fanatical effort to discredit the Congress and the President, by literally shutting down the government, and defaulting on the national debt.

The chaos that will ensue, is exactly what fascist movements want. They want people to say: our government doesn't work anymore. The next step is to set up a "twin government", that uses the "party" as its governmental base. Radical right legislatures right now are doing that, the governor of Michigan appointed a position to supposedly deal with city bankruptcies, but in fact has worked overtime to eliminate democratic local decision making. In short, the "manager" has become the city council and mayor, with no democratic decision making in evidence. It is more efficient, and pays the bills better, but democracy is dead.

Liberal democracy is fascism's natural enemy. And there are small but very powerful forces in the country right now, who are funding the right wing (Tea Party and other extremists), who make no secret of their desire to destroy the social welfare; ie., social democratic state. And most liberal democratic institutions that we have grown to consider part of our nation's heritage, social security, Medicare, employment regulations; etc., are directly on target.

So we find ourselves fighting battles that were decided years, even centuries ago.

We find the Affordable Care Act, a conservative national health care plan, under mortal attack by the fascists elements in Congress, bankrolled by Billionaires who really could care less about millions of Americans without health care. The idea is to discredit any growth of liberal democracy. Why so fanatical you might wonder? Is the ACA really a threat to liberty? How is a system made up from private health insurance providers, regulated by the government under law, a threat to liberty. The ACA is squarely in the liberal democratic tradition of ideas, and ironically it did not come from the left; it was hatched, and instituted in Massachusetts by conservatives and the last Republican to run for President! Is that some kind of accident? No, it is the liberal democratic tradition of governmental problem solving at its best, blending economic liberty with a social/economic need, under law for the welfare of the people. That is why Medicare is most definitely NOT a socialistic program, private health providers are at its core, only the government acts as the insurance company. The ACA doesn't allow, much to progressive liberal's dismay, the government to be the insurance companies. The ACA is a private enterprise model!

Finally, it is ironic that conservatism used be rooted, in this country, squarely in the liberal democratic tradition. The genius of the American Political system was  that virtually everyone, be they Republican or Democrat, could agree on the basic liberal democratic principles embodied in say the Bill of Rights, or the Preamble to the Constitution. If there were disagreements, they could be hashed out in the Constitutional process, using a bicameral legislature, an executive and judicial review.

Tragically for our freedom, now even those basic agreements under law have been frayed, by the radical right, who question everything, and compare everything to their pure ideological goals. They don't believe in the liberal democratic tradition anymore!

So, they attack. They obstruct. They discredit. They spend billions on propaganda to convince people that liberal democracy, the foundation of the American Constitution is bad.

Shutting the government down, and worse, defaulting on the national debt, is meant to destroy government, and particularly the public TRUST in their government and even our free enterprise system. It is no coincidence that small businesses have been hammered as this struggle goes on, small businesses are at the core of the liberal democratic tradition (read Jefferson and De Tocqueville).

So, that is what I am fearful of. And that comes not from a "Democrat" but from a someone who knows what the liberal democratic tradition is. Another way of looking at this, everyone of America's Presidents, every one of them, were liberal democrats...

If the Tea Party gets their wish, we will get a President who does not share in that tradition, and that will be the beginning of the end for the world's oldest liberal democracy!

And fascism will win.

Constitutional Government At Risk

Today I read an article by Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post. 

She postulated that the government shutdown is just "leverage" and part of the political process; almost legitimizing the blackmail that is going on.  She explains that an easy "fix" of the latest deadlock is to eliminate the "medical hardware" tax, that conservative medical hardware companies want, and then pass another funding mechanism by agreement, and the thing is solved. 

Just "leverage" huh.  Not quite.

Try, just try to go back to your high school Civics class.  Remember the drill:  how a bill becomes a law. 

Remember the separation of powers that runs through the Constitutional Process, which makes it VERY difficult to get a bill into a law.  There are procedural roadblocks along the way.  The whole process demands consensus, compromise, and yes, politics, democratic process is the lawmaking process.

Remember how difficult it was to get the Affordable Care Bill into law?  Remember it really took almost 100 years before a national health care plan was passed.  Remember that the basics of the law are conservative in nature; basically putting the onus on the private insurance system to deliver affordable care.

And then, once the Law was passed and signed by the President, it was rushed to the Supreme Court by its opponents, hoping to have it overturned.  A major part of it was declared unconstitutional, but enough survived to put it into action.

All this, to get a bill into a law. 

This is the genius of our system.  It protects minority views constantly by limiting the power of majorities.  That is a democratic process that has sustained itself through a Civil War, a Great Depression, and through two World Wars.  Never in all that chaos, did the democratic process stop, never was in compromised.

Now it is being compromised.  It is being compromised by a conservative scheme to, even though conservatives only control one third of the government, to stop all governmental services except those they like, finding a last minute way to veto the Affordable Care Act.

And, predictably, what they did yesterday shows their agenda to end our Constitutional system of checks and balances.  The House passed a host of Bills, funding areas of government that they like.  The President even signed one of them: funding pay for the military. 

So, the "new normal" is to deny funding for government, except for what you want.  This can go on forever, if the Senate and President cave in. 

And, the debt ceiling "crisis" looms on the horizon.

Our checks and balances system is there for a reason.   It makes moving a Bill into Law extraordinarily difficult.  Moreover, it makes amending Laws extraordinarily difficult for a reason.

It is called the democratic process.  That process has been set up to purposefully protect the minority view from the tyranny of the majority, and conversely, protecting the majority view from a tyranny of the minority.  Any political scientist can tell you this tyranny cuts both ways.

What we are seeing now is not "leverage" it is the tyranny of a minority being played out. 

A constitutional crisis is what is really going on, with high stakes.

Because you see one tyranny of the minority is a thing called fascism; one party rule, that eventually destroys democracy completely.

And that is where we are today!

Another Day in Potterville

Head start sequester cuts.  79 children lose. The sequester has finally met its purpose, denying education to 79 pre-school poor kids.  This will mean 79 kids not ready for kintergarden, not ready to read, and headed for possible failure.  

Brown signs minimum wage bill, Chamber of Commerce goes nuts:  For the first time in seven years, the minimum wage in California will go up.  This will be phased in, over a three year period.  The good ole Chamber of Commerce (sic) once again claims the move will bankrupt small businesses, while statistics show fast food CEOs and corporations making record profits.  

Poll, California citizens, especially in Potterville, paranoid about court ordered release of inmates.  After forty (count em 40) years of passing more and more restrictive and reactionary laws against crime, that have failed, now the citizens are frightened to death because non-violent inmates must be released due to unconstitutional overcrowding.   Meanwhile, conservatives, without even a whisper about their failed policies, push for "tougher penalties"...

A stamp will cost 3 cents more, and that means we must privatize the U.S. Mail, losing millions of jobs.  But hey...small or no government is best.

Home sales up:  After a trainwreck, homes are finally sellling...to the rich..the middle class rents now and forever.

The above were headlines in the Record Searchlight, Thursday, September 26, 2013.  Another day in Potterville, where the poor get poorer, the rich get richer, and the middle class gets dumber!  

As Long As Its the Other Guy

As long as its not me, ok.

This is the modern narcisstic viewpoint of Americans.  The Greatest Generation, who learned the hard way that teamwork and selflessness, is the way to prevail in global conflicts, is gone.  

They have passed on mostly, the remnants are too old and mostly stored away in the "rest homes" baby boomers built for them, so boomers didn't have to be bothered by their elders.  Grandma and grandpa die along in "facilities", as their kids go to Hawaii.  

Today, we are seeing growth, at least in their noise, of nihilists, who deny any responsbility socially for anything.  Everything revolves around them.  Food stamps are big government intruding into the natural selection process, poor people deserve their status, and should starve.  Government welfare programs, of every kind, are reducing the competitive nature of people, creating a "takers" culture that are really parasites.

Now, this "privileged hard working class" only makes up a dwindling fraction of the population.  The "takers" class is growing rapidly.

This is all part of nature's plan, the boomer rich say.  If we continue helping others through governmental programs, even ANY programs, we will criipple our economy.

So, we see boomers pushing for more punitive approaches to social/economic issues.  In the past forty years, America has become a prison nation, with millions incarerated endlessly for drug infractions.  We treat addiction in the United States with jail, while the rest of the world treats it with medicine.  The results?  The highest inceration population in the world, and no end to crime; especially drug related crime.  

And the homeless...now there we have success of the "as long as its not me" generation.  Homeless populations have exploded.  Every village, small city and metropolis in the country is struggling with legions of homeless.  

And when the boomers encounter a homeless person..."as long as it not me, ok".

American lost its soul with the advent of conservative philosophy that regards all government as evil, all taxes as taking from the rich to give to the poor.  

And the middle class has shrunk, as its leaders actually sponsor the madness that is destroying it.  

"What's the Matter with Kansas" is a classic, showing millions of people who are voting exactly against their (and their childrens') best interest.  It shows that "as long as its not me its ok" is pervasive in the United States today.

And where does this lead us.  The uncaring, hard is best approach to social/economic problems leads us straight to fascism!   And we all know where that got Germany.

But, what the heck, if its not me, its ok!  

Hit the Streets

Ok, the deed is being done.  For the first time in American History a political party is willing to shut down the government to halt a legally tested, and passed law.  The first time!

Republicans were not happy with Medicare, Social Security, even the income tax, but never did a political party seek to extort the country to get its way, with the stakes being the economic well being of the country.

Never.

Now, the House has acted and this "drama" is being played out.

This will take awhile.  But what those of us who are getting more sick of this need to do is this.

Organize as it gets bad, if it gets bad and protest:  Social Security checks not sent.  Military not paid.

Hit the streets.  Put thousands into the streets and demand that the Congress grow up or else we will stay in the streets, just like they have done in Egypt, and simply stop putting up with this idiocy.

I am ready.  As we get more damaged by this behavior, the more we need to take this into our own hands.

I am calling on the 99% ers, the old Civil Rights protesters, the anti-war 65 somethings who will see their social security checks not arrive, to go into the streets, and scream.

I AM MAD AS HELL AND I WON'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE.

It is time we stop tolerating this crap!