Learnin' to Live in a Police State

   

 US Capitol 1/6/21  US Capitol 1/6/21

Charlotteville 8/17Charlotteville 8/17

Rittenhouse with Assault Rifle

Books banned in Texas

Germany: Burning the Reichstag

Hitler’s Private Brownshirts

Civilians kicking Jews

Nazi Book burningLearnin’ to Live in a Police State

                                                Walkin’ in Hitler’s Footsteps

“Yet we cannot avoid noting with concern how today, and not only in Europe, we are witnessing a retreat from democracy.” Pope Francis speaking in Greece, December 4th.

There are so many signs that “undesirable” Americans are being marginalized, pushed aside, denied rights, labeled as suspects and eliminated, literally and figuratively. Especially non-white, non-traditional minorities. History has been here before, even in the United States. Slavery and Jim Crow laws. According sparsely populated states vastly more voting power in Congress than huge-population urban states. Voter suppression and gerrymandering to push out vestiges of unwanted voters that the legislatures of over twenty of our states would prefer gone. A highly partisan Supreme Court that has been appointed from a distinct minority of voters, that does not reflect the majority will, by reason of such voting anomalies. Introducing censorship, “what politicians deem reflective of their position and purging the rest” into academia, from public primary and secondary schools to state colleges and universities. Book banning. Faculty loyalty surveys. Few gun restrictions. Moving the whole country back in time.

Take a good hard look at the two maps above. One sure seems to suggest we are a right-wing country with the majority hard into the red. Not really but… That’s where the current political configuration is centered despite a Democrat in the White House and slight Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. Yet because of the filibuster reality, state control of voting and voting districts and the allocation by our Founding Fathers of two US Senators from each state regardless of size, notwithstanding that unambiguous majority of Americans (over 85% live in urban areas) represented in the 3D spike in the second map, on a national basis, 30% of American voters call the shots for the rest. The United States is not a truly representative democracy. Ah, but as Pope Francis noted above, autocratic populism is shoving democracy out the door all over the world. The United States just seems to be on the very active side of that movement.

Add the proliferation of almost as many guns – including semi-automatic assault rifles – as there are people, heavily concentrated in those states marked in red above, and you may be witnessing a transition from what we thought was a peaceful democracy where Americans respected and lived with election outcomes to a dramatically clearly oppressive autocracy. We’ve seen autocrats rise and oppress their people all over the world – Maduro, Castro, Xi, Putin, etc. – and moaned about the toll in human rights and the will of the people. We were boastful, having fought in two world wars to support democracy over brutal autocracy, believing the autocratic oppression would never happen here. The Civil War is long gone. Never again? Ah… if only…

This blog isn’t as much about the empowerment of well-armed vigilantes in lieu of trained police officers. I’ve already written about that. See my November 20th Vigilante Justice an American Tradition and my November 29th The New American Right of Self-Offense blogs. Or the confusion over what “critical race theory” (CRT) is so the right can ban it. Covered in my November 18th OK, OK, It’s Really Bad… But What is It? blog. Or even the challenge to Roe vs Wade currently before that partisan US Supreme Court. See my November 4th Circumventing the Constitution – Unintended Consequences blog. The rise of our right, militias and the concomitant political American leadership shift are reflected in the above photographic comparison of pre-WWII Germany and the contemporary United States.

Today’s is more about the culture wars: banning books and demanding that academics declare their political views as a condition of keeping their jobs. Think that isn’t happening? Well, welcome to right wing mandates that are flowing like polluted water, washing away minority rights, opposing viewpoints, free speech and democracy in a flood of toxic legislation… under the leadership of Texas and Florida, where two governors vying for Trump greatness in 2024 are tripping all over themselves in anti-democratic lurches to the right. The “rest of the red” generally follows suit.

Evangelicals are now empowered to impose their social and religious prejudices on those with other beliefs (most of us) – including through red state anti-CRT and public-school book bans by statute or executive order. Facts folks would like to ignore have left the building. Andrew Solomon, a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia and a lecturer in psychiatry at Yale, found his 2012 book “Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity,” which showed compassion and support for children facing gender identity issues, was being held up as derelict and unpatriotic. It was banned in China… and Texas. Lot of red states have these book bans and teacher restrictions (violations result in firings and defunding offending schools). 

But that’s just the beginning. Back in June, “In his continued push against the ‘indoctrination of students,’ [Florida] Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday [6/22] signed legislation that [requires] public universities and colleges to survey students, faculty and staff about their beliefs and viewpoints to support ‘intellectual diversity.’

“The survey will discern ‘the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented’ in public universities and colleges, and seeks to find whether students, faculty and staff ‘feel free to express beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom,’ according to the bill.

“The measure, which [went] into effect July 1, does not specify what will be done with the survey results. But DeSantis and Sen. Ray Rodrigues, the sponsor of the bill, suggested on Tuesday [6/22] that budget cuts could be looming if universities and colleges are found to be ‘indoctrinating’ students.” Tampa Bay Times, June 22nd. 

It gets worse. A December 2nd Press Release from DeSantis’ office proposes: “Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced more than $100 million in funding proposals to support Florida’s National Guard and establish the Florida State Guard, a civilian volunteer force that will assist the National Guard in state-specific emergencies.” DeSantis announced that the proposed unit would “not be encumbered by the federal government,” adding that this force would give him “the flexibility and the ability needed to respond to events in our state in the most effective way possible.” 

The State Guard movement was implemented in a few states when their federally controlled National Guard was called up during WWII. But the only thing that has changed for Florida is Governor DeSantis’ desire to have his own personal force to enforce his autocratic yearnings. For those who believe that it cannot happen here, unfortunately it is. Remember, we already fought one Civil War. The issues are disturbingly similar.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the dramatic shift of American legal realities to the right have made the United States look very much like those nations we have excoriated for years as abusers of human rights.