It Can Happen Here, by Joe Conason

By June Schumacher

Joe Conason has hit the nail on the head.  It Can Happen Here is well written and well documented.  Can it happen here?  You be the decider.

Surrounding himself with the religious right and leftovers from the Nixon days, George W. Bush and gang began their tenure believing their job was to remove the left from power permanently.  Permanent war seemed to provide the means to accomplish this goal.  Thus we've witnessed information management, deliberately distorted and fabricated facts, demonized dissent, conveniently timed terrorist alerts, and politicized science.  What the administration said and what the gang planned to do were directly opposite.  They lied and connived to create excuses to invade a helpless country, all the while pretending to prefer peace.  War would be a last resort.  Using religion to advance their agenda, they formed a strange partnership between the Jews and the Religious Right.  These Evangelicals believe the Almighty has ordained the Bush presidency.  George W. Bush continues this idea.  It's like a strange cult has invaded the government - complete with rituals, torture, renditions, secrecy, and lawlessness.

In just eight days after 9/11, the 300 page Patriot Act was ready to be signed.  It was urgent, little time to read let alone analyze its true meaning.  A shadow government composed of right wing think tanks lent support to their risky agenda.  John Yoo, an attorney from the Federalist Society, fashioned an argument that allowed the executive branch to do whatever they wanted, free from the rule of law.  It was a pattern for permanent partisan domination.  Only those of lower rank would go to prison.

To keep the permanent war on terror going, it was necessary to control the media.  Fake news stories and propaganda were released as real news.  Real information became classified as "secret".  Deceptions were aimed, not at the enemy, but at America and world public opinion.  The goal was to influence American voters and to keep Congress from asking too many questions. 

With the Republican control of government came the rise of corporate big business and big donors.  As a result we've seen consumers, workers and soldiers protections removed, privatization of public services, taxes cut for corporations and those in the top brackets, former lobbyists appointed to agencies that regulate the former industries they once served.  DeLay is gone, but the money culture continues to steer the leaders of the Republican Party. 

The Pentagon has established a secret domestic counter intelligence program, called TALON, to monitor peace groups or any group hostile to the administration.  TALON belonged to a secret wing of the Pentagon and was converted into a secret military police agency with broad domestic powers.  The administration is bound to use any means to create a surveillance society.  Citizens can seek redress from an impartial court, but that right is on the verge of extinction too.  The Bush administration claims the authority to quash civil litigation that may expose "state secrets", or to fire the eight prosecutors that didn't follow his agenda. 

Can it happen here?  It's up to we the people to save our democracy as we knew it.