Answering Readers Questions…

I’m only going to answer one tonight because I’m under the weather. It comes from Mabochan:

mabochan
What is your take on the likelihood of martial law, the use of the expanded powers of the presidency, the FEMA concentration camps, and so forth?

This is a good question and one I’ve thought about a lot since the Reagan administration when the laws were changed. I think we’ve already seen the effect of the widening of the executive branch’s power. Guantanamo, torture, ignoring the Genova Convention, invading a sovereign nation are all perfect example of what happens when are checks and balances are not equally weighted.

It’s ironic that the Republican party claims to be the party of patriots when they have actually done the most damage to our constitution, chiseling away at the separation of church and state, the right to privacy, eliminating checks and balances, awarding veterans less help then veterans of previous wars and allowing American companies to export jobs while giving them tax breaks to do it. It is also rather ironic that they want to make boat loads of money in our economy, but not pay their fair share of taxes. That to me is unpatriotic as well.

In terms of martial law, we’ve seen it. Here in Los Angeles when the riots happened. And if we continue to be ignorant about the real agenda of the right wing, we will see this country continue to slide toward fascism. I use that term in the way Musolini meant it. He said of fascism, “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power.” It of course also has the added element of totalitarianism or dictatorship which our current president joked he’d like a whole lot better. I believe, honestly that there has been a coo going on over the past 20 years, slow and steady by this radical group of people who truly do want to take over our country and the world. I’ve been seeing that since I was a kid, (psychically I mean). We really have to be on guard because the people calling us (those who respect Democracy and want to make it better through discussion and healthy debate) treasonous, are actually the very people who are inacting treason. In psychology this is called projection. Problem is the way this coo has been evolving has been so behind the scenes until the 2000 and 2004 elections that many people didn’t see or believe it possible. Like the old saying, “never say never” once the collective consciousness feels invulnerable to treason, fascism, authoritarianism or as your question taps concentration camps, martial law, etc. we actually become open to the possibility, because we are no longer on guard against it.

If our country were to continue down the path its on (with George W) we would be nothing, but a banana republic with a third world economy. We are in a kind of war here, a war for the soul of our country. We have to win back our Democracy. Just as those right wing “Christians,” have co-opted Christianity as a shield to do whatever they want in the name of Christ, so have the right wing Republicans co-opted the word Democracy to sell us fascism. It’s a very scary time. And it is utterly important that all of us are engaged, informed and involved in the political process.

Best wishes and good luck.