The New (Deplorable) American Order

[newthinking]

The full article is well worth the read:

The New (Deplorable) American Order

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/03/19/new-deplorable-american-order

1% Elections, The Privatization of the State, a Fourth Branch of Government, and the Demobilization of "We the People"
by Tom Engelhardt
CommonDreams.org

'Don’t for a second think,' writes Engelhardt, 'that the American political system isn’t being rewritten on the run by interested parties in Congress, our present crop of billionaires, corporate interests, lobbyists, the Pentagon, and the officials of the national security state.'

Have you ever undertaken some task you felt less than qualified for, but knew that someone needed to do? Consider this piece my version of that, and let me put what I do understand about it in a nutshell: based on developments in our post-9/11 world, we could be watching the birth of a new American political system and way of governing for which, as yet, we have no name.

And here’s what I find strange: the evidence of this, however inchoate, is all around us and yet it’s as if we can’t bear to take it in or make sense of it or even say that it might be so.

Let me make my case, however minimally, based on five areas in which at least the faint outlines of that new system seem to be emerging: political campaigns and elections; the privatization of Washington through the marriage of the corporation and the state; the de-legitimization of our traditional system of governance; the empowerment of the national security state as an untouchable fourth branch of government; and the demobilization of "we the people."

Whatever this may add up to, it seems to be based, at least in part, on the increasing concentration of wealth and power in a new plutocratic class and in that ever-expanding national security state. Certainly, something out of the ordinary is underway, and yet its birth pangs, while widely reported, are generally categorized as aspects of an exceedingly familiar American system somewhat in disarray.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/03/19/new-deplorable-american-order

[daleanime]

1. ......

[newthinking]

2. Tom Englehart is a long time progressive activist and Journalist - The Nation

I think he is just saying what many are waking up to. Something very different is going on than the swinging of the political pendulum

[blkmusclmachine]

3. 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism (http://www.rense.com/general37/char.htm):

Controlled Mass Media

Rampant Cronyism and Corruption

Corporate Power is Protected

Labor Power is Suppressed

Powerful and Continuing Nationalism

Supremacy of the Military

Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights

Rampant Sexism and Homophobia

Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause

Religion and Government are Intertwined

Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

Obsession with National Security

Obsession with Crime and Punishment

Fraudulent Elections

http://www.rense.com/general37/char.htm

[KoKo]

4. What's that old expression?

"If the shoe fits...wear it?"

[appalachiablue]

6. Love it, keep posting!

[F4lconF16]

5. He's absolutely right about everything but one thing:

This isn't new. The game has been rigged as long as America has been around. The elite and corporate (business, anyways) interests have been in control since the beginning of this country. The Constitution was written for them. The laws made since have been written for them. Everything has been done to keep them in control.

It's not new. We need a different system entirely.

[appalachiablue]

7. Agree. But how to develop a new system is the kicker. I recently looked into some of the Resource

Economy material from the Venus Project. Some kind of alternate process is needed, and soon God knows.