The Fourteen Points of Fascism: Points 7 & 8
Posted by Jason Easley on 07.25.2007
This week, Brian McLain continues his series looking at fascism with points 7 & 8, Obsession with national security, and Religion and ruling elite tied together.
Part's 1, 2, and 3 of Brian's series can be found here,here, and here.
7. Obsession with national security
February 27th, 1933: German's parliament building, the Reichstag, was destroyed by an arsonist's flame. Immediately following the blaze and the arrest of the alleged Communist responsible for the fire, Chancellor Adolph Hitler requested of the President of Germany the "Reichstag Fire Decree". The first sentence of this decree was "Ordnung des Reichspräsidenten zum Schutz von Volk und Staat" which translated means "Order of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State". This move by the executive powers of the German government made way for the Enabling Act of 1933, and bluntly stomped out the freedoms and rights of speech, protest, and even dissent in almost all cases.
September 11, 2001: Three coordinated terrorist attacks bring down the World Trade Centers 1, 2, and consequentially 7, destroy a section of the Pentagon, as a forth plane fails to reach its speculated destination and crashes in an empty field in Pennsylvania. October 23, 2001 Assistant Attorney General Veit D. Dihn and future Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff introduce a draft of the USA Patriot Act which saw no committee time, almost no debate time, and an almost unanimous approval from both House and Senate within 24 hours of its introduction. The title of the act, in full, is "The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001".
While I would disagree that there are similarities in legislation between the two, there is no denying the relationship in how both were approved, and the ease in which they were approved. Considered by some to be the first step in a long process of freedom relinquishing and quashing legislation, acts and most recently executive orders, the USA PATRIOT Act has become a poster child of the poisoning of the Republic.
However while this administration has taken some of the most blunt action against civil liberties and freedoms in the defense of liberty and freedom, it certainly is not the first. Anti-sedition acts and other constitutionally repugnant methods had consistently been used in modern United States history at time of war and nation emergency, starting with Franklin D Roosevelt in 1933. However these acts had Constitutional merit because it passed the test of Constitutionality by being strictly specific in its aims and a strict timeframe was provided. The War on Terror has no limit or end to it, which makes many of these acts, including the USA Patriot Act, a very worrisome bit of legislation.
The warrentless wiretapping, the detainment of US Citizens without counsel or Habeas Corpus for indefinite periods of time because of their reassignment as "enemy combatants", "free speech zones" are all done in the interest of national security. Perhaps even more grave are the string of executive orders that had recently been issued by Resident Bush such as PDD 51 which has some interesting language pertaining to the possible consolidation of government under the presidency in the event of a national emergency in the interest of national security.
Another executive order has language that has some Iraq war peace protesters concerned that it the ambiguity of the order may put them at risk of having their property or wealth blocked or confiscated by the federal government. Again, this is all in the interest of national security and the government of the United States apparently have things so under control in the interest of national security that Resident Bush's staff won't even allow supposedly separate but equal
-George W. Bush, December 18, 2000
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together
The United States has had a very prominent history of this particular point as well. Communism, being a vehemently secular ideology was very much proclaimed as godless, and thus, evil in the eyes of the Christian United States. To make this very clear, the famous Columbus Day pledge of allegiance was amended to include the words "Under God" in 1954 after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus. The true irony of this is the pledge was written by Francis Bellamy, a Christian Socialist cousin of Edward Bellamy. But, I digress. It is not that this country has not seen its share of religiously tied actions and applications from the government.
It is quite prominent in our society that social and religious issues are closely tied in relation and the ever embattled definition of the "wall of separation" makes that quite clear. It is in other situations, in which the civic and the religious are actually one and the same, and the line of separation becomes blurred to the point in which a civil religion exists. Robespierre attempted this to gain greater approval of the Terror, many dictatorships and monarchies continue to do so today by proclaiming them to be anointed as rulers by God.
George W. Bush proclaiming "God is on our side" in the war against terror, isn't near as horrifying as the Resident stating that he is doing God's work. I have no documented evidence of him doing so; however one would have to wonder with his rather Wilsonian way of looking at his role in the world. I have run into many Bush supporters, however, that have thanked God that Bush was sent to the United States and chosen to win the election, or that Bush won both elections by the grace of God. These people may be scary, but they are not entirely a threat to the Republic with the very small minority that still considers Bush a God-sent.
Above all else, I would watch for government use of Romans 13 in the Christian bible. It has been used many times in the past to install complacency into nervous masses, and there are some unconfirmed reports that FEMA is using it in cases of national emergency or training based around the scripture in the instance of a mass quarantine. The passage begins as this:
"1Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves." (NIV)
I would like to compel everyone to recognize that the Republic was set up in such as way, in which "We the People" are the sovereign and governing authority of this country. Should this ever come about in any church, any meeting, or any resolution, please remembers your Constitution and the position that the Citizens of the United States has been granted by the powers of the Constitution.
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
STAY CURRENT