Shades of an American Kristallnacht?
by Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez
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If the Republicans controlled all three houses of government, they could ram through the legislation they’ve been concocting during the past decade or so: legislation powering up the assault on the environment, on health, on social services, destroying any kind of safety net for people, animals or the environment.
They could escalate the war on dissidents who dare to oppose their plans. In short order, the United States could turn into just another big banana republic, with a military-backed regime of elites governing through the indiscriminate use of fear tactics, with violence applied as necessary to keep the people in line.
It happened not so long ago in many countries in Latin America—think Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador—in the 1970s, when wealthy politicians wielding military power and complete control over the ballot boxes ruled their countries with iron fists, “disappearing” anyone who might remotely be a threat, including thousands of innocent students. Often the shift from democracy to fascist dictatorship happened literally overnight.
Lately I have been re-reading Margaret Atwood’s marvelous sci-fi novel The Handmaid’s Tale, and finding it chillingly prophetic. In Atwood’s dystopia, environmental catastrophe has rendered the elites infertile, and pushed them to withdraw into gated communities where food shortages are common, and people are regularly hung in the public square to keep everyone fearful and docile . . . .
Source: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/22-0
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