Can fascism really happen in America? Even worse, has the country already begun a shift towards fascism, not unlike Nazi Germany or Chile under Augusto Pinochet ? If so, how can we know that these dangers have arrived, and what can we do to combat hem? These are the questions that Naomi Wolf proposes to answer in her new book, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. This short book presents a more disturbing look at recent events in America's history and predictions for a possible future in which the democracy of America is slowly eroded away and replaced with a rising totalitarianism.
Wolf explains that her motivation for writing this letter was the fact that she could no longer ignore the anti-democratic trends occurring in numerous segments of a formerly free America. Noticing these trends caused her to research the methods that dictators have used in the past to close down a society, and search for similarities between various regimes. As she states in the introduction, "I had to reread the stories of the making and the unmaking of freedom. The more I read these histories, the more disturbed I became." The product of her research is presented a set of ten steps that all dictators take when attempting to shut an open society, and the bulk of the book is spent discussing these steps and how they have been taken in the past and how they are being taken now in America.
A short look through the sources that Wolf uses throughout the book indicates the depth of research conducted. Much of the history of America is told through the ideals of the Founding Fathers and their battle for a free and open society, and the checks and balances they included in the Constitution to make a fascist shift in America as difficult as possible. The main sources used to analyze past dictators include studies of Germany under the Nazis and Pinoche's Chile in the 1970's, although other sources are frequently cited, as well. And one only has to look around at books and newspaper articles being published in America on a weekly basis for examples of the profound fear that this country has moved decisively in a direction that has as its conclusion a society completely closed down to the ideas of democracy.
The one most glaring difference between past dictatorial regimes and America is the fact that, according to Wolf, we will not experience a dramatic event to herald the closing of democracy. "There will not be a coup in America like Mussolini's March on Rome or a dramatic massacre like Hitler's Night of the Long Knives," that will shock the society into submission and declare martial law. This means that the shift to fascism would necessarily take much longer, as it is enacted out in a series of progressive steps and, presumably, could be slowed, stopped, or reversed. But, Wolf points out the ten steps that all dictators take when imposing their control over a democratic society, and she sees each step being taken now in America. The steps are the following, taken directly from the book:
Invoke an External and Internal Threat
Establish Secret Prisons
Develop a Paramilitary Force
Surveil Ordinary Citizens
Infiltrate Citizens' Groups
Arbitrarily Detain and Release Citizens
Target Key Individuals
Restrict the Press
Cast Criticism as "Espionage" and Dissent as "Treason"
Subvert the Rule of Law
As noted above, the vast majority of the book deals with the similarities between the current state of America in relation to these steps and various dictatorial regimes in the past. Many of the comparisons Wolf draws are timely and disturbing, especially as some of the very same tactics used by dictators in the past were described with the very same terms as are now being used ("war footing," the use of embedded journalists in the Iraq War). Also disturbing is the brazen way that the current Bush administration is taking these steps in the open. Although the government has been involved in surveilling citizens (wiretapping during Watergate ), infiltrating citizen's groups (the FBI's COINTELPRO ), and developing a paramilitary force outside the control of Congress (the CIA), these were often secretive acts that were not meant to have light shed on them and were claimed to be stopped after being discovered.
Now, however, the government has either admitted openly to these acts, or simply lied about them in the face of evidence to the contrary; no efforts are made to discover the truth or protect citizens' rights. In fact, more of then ten steps are taken in response to the uncovering of other steps being taken, including suing and imprisoning journalists, labeling dissent as anti-American, and invoking the threat of terrorist strikes against the nation. This is the difference that Wolf is concerned with in regards to the open shift in America towards the complete subversion of the rule of law. Formerly secret activities that citizens would have voiced strident objections to are now committed in the open, with no regard to public opinion.
Another disturbing similarity Wolf point to is the progressive desensitization that occurs when a shift to fascism happens over time, instead of through sudden violence. The secret prisons and use of torture may originally be used only on suspected terrorists or "enemy combatants," who are plotting attacks against the nation. However, as the public gets over its aversion to torture, the definition of who is an "enemy combatant" or similarly hurting the nation becomes broader. In short order, those who expose government lies and corruption in the press are decided to be undermining the government and need to be imprisoned and tortured. Then, ordinary citizens who speak out against government policies may become subject to arbitrary detention or prolonged imprisonment.
This step can be seen even recently being acted out in the case of Andrew Meyer, a University of Florida student who was tasered at a forum featuring Senator John Kerry. After a period of shock at the police use of force, and numerous other taser incidents being reported, the public, through media analysis which portrays cops as well within their rights to use such force against citizens displaying no overt danger, has been fed a message which it will recall the next time such brutality is used by government against the people.
It is in the last chapter, "The Patriot's Task," that Wolf provides some final messages of hope that the country's moves towards the closing down of democracy can be reversed. Solutions are also presented, including the need to "hold house parties, set up town halls, convene our neighbors, pass out users' guides to the Constitution, overwhelm our representatives and the Presidential candidates with demands for them to restore the rule of law," as well as "stand up directly to confront those who have committed crimes against the Constitution -- and hold them accountable." As the crimes against the Constitution have been numerous, and accountability has been lacking, it is uncertain how practical these suggestions may be, but neighbors and communities can come together over their disillusionment with the current state of American politics.
In this way, community solutions can be established, including ways to take power back from the government, such as establishing local currencies, making investments in local businesses instead of large corporations that receive huge government contracts and tax breaks, and sustainable methods of keeping small localities open and democratic. Even as citizens work towards reopening the government (a goal whose achievement is doubtful), they can disengage from these same establishments until they are reopened or recreated, and engage in the more productive work of creating sustainable solutions.
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