Dr. Steven Jonas

“The Georgite Version of ‘Freedom and Democracy’ ”
“The Coming 2nd Civil War (Unless),” No. 6

This column is the sixth in this series. In my view, the projected cataclysm will come to our nation, if it does, because of the ideology, policies, and ever-growing political power of the Republican Religious Right (RRR). In different arenas, different sources ranging from the 2004 Republican Party Platform through George Bush to Jerry Falwell and Grover Norquist have stated the primary goals of the RRR. They are: to impose their religious beliefs on all Americans through the use of the criminal law; to reduce the functions of the Federal government to the barest minimum outside of the military-and-prison-industrial complexes and the opposition repression/suppression and private-thought/behavior-control sectors; and to replace Constitutional government as we have known it with overwhelming Executive Branch dominance operating on its own authority – that is via a theocratic-fascist dictatorship.

Except when appealing to its base in the Christian Right, however, the RRR does its best to conceal most of its true goals from the American public. It camouflages them alternatively with foreign wars, the “terror” threat, lies about the true goals of its policies and well as the facts of the cases with which it is supposedly dealing, and appeals to the basest instincts of fear and prejudice. When the American people become fully aware of the true aims of the RRR, I am confident that they will reject them. The rejection may come sooner, as the result of the political process (the “Unless” of the title of the series). Yet unfortunately, it might come later, as the result of a Second Civil War that could take place either before the RRR would be able to institute a true fascist dictatorship or much later, after it did so.

Some will characterize my position as alarmist and premature. I fully intend it to be. We must start focusing on what the RRR is really about. To use Jefferson’s characterization of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 as indicating an eventual bloody conflict over slavery, “the fire bell is ringing in the night.”

A good lesson on what George Bush is really about and what he says he is about is contained in his recent Inaugural Address. What he really is about will, if unchecked, surely lead to violent conflict in our country. As noted last week, the entire speech was a Weapon of Mass Distraction aimed at his domestic audience, primarily his core RRR supporters, and those who otherwise voted for him. He focused almost entirely on the foreign mission that he laid out for the United States, to spread “freedom and democracy” around the world. Nowhere did he tell us exactly what he meant by those words, although he did use terms like “oppression” and “tyranny” as bad and “rights” and “dignity” as good. However, they were all undefined. So perhaps the best lesson on what Bush really means is found in his approach and policies on “freedom and democracy” right here at home. They are legion, and I have addressed some of them in past columns, several on more than one occasion.

We have the 341-page Patriot Act which, for persons labeled on Presidential authority as “terrorists” or “abettors of terrorism,” among other things eliminates: the protection against unreasonable search and seizure without probable cause provided by the 4th Amendment to the Constitution, the guarantee of the due process of law provided by the 5th Amendment, and the right to a speedy and public trial in criminal cases guaranteed by the 6th Amendment. Continuing on with what George Bush’s concept of “freedom and democracy” really is, we have the “Gay Marriage” Amendment, the number one agenda item this year of Bush’s core Christian Right constituency. By depriving a sector of the population defined solely by who they are as people, not anything they have done, such an Amendment would return to certain concepts of non-full-personhood contained in the original Constitution: Negro slaves counted as 3/5’s of a person just because they were Negroes and slaves, and Native Americans did not count as persons at all. Furthermore, such a designation for homosexual persons would vitiate the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment in relation to civil marriage, which happens to be defined in the law by all 50 states.

The abortion-ban amendment that is part of the Republican National platform would criminalize anyone’s belief that life begins at any time other than the moment of conception, to say nothing of depriving pregnant women of freedom of choice in the outcome of their own pregnancies before the time of fetal viability outside of the womb. In the torture controversy, the incoming Attorney General has stated that, in his role as Commander-in-Chief the President can declare war and then, using that declaration as his reason, can violate provisions of the Constitution, as well as unilaterally amend treaties without consulting our treaty partners. There is nothing in the “plain language” of the Constitution, so beloved by Right-wingers when they are looking to suppress individual rights (by ignoring the 9th Amendment, to them, as Robert Bork loves to say, just an “inkblot on the Constitution”), that gives the President anything like these powers.

To the Georgites, “freedom and democracy” means rigging elections. It means buying the news. It means being as secretive about government operations as possible. It means having the Secretary of Defense able at will to violate the law on intelligence functions and services. It means lying to the Congress, the people, and the United Nations about the true reasons for invading a foreign country. It means attacking any political opponent as “partisan,” as if partisanship were not a central element of the political process in a free and democratic nation. Finally, it means describing an election as “fair and free,” despite the fact that it was held by necessity under the tightest security that the US Army and Marine Corps could possibly provide. Perhaps the solution to the problem of no longer having free and fair elections right here at home would be to mobilize our armed forces on Election Day to make sure that they are.

The contradictions are so obviously rife. The contrast between Bush rhetoric and Georgite reality are so stark. One wonders why, given this reality, any other country would want to try to respond to the Georgite call for “freedom and democracy” around the world, when this model for oppression is so obviously what the Georgites are on their way to implementing here at home. The Georgites really seem to think that the way to spread “freedom and democracy” abroad (that is when they are not trying to squelch it as they are doing in Qatar by pressuring the government to shut down the inconvenient Al-Jazeera TV network) is to suppress it as much as they can at home.

To conclude, as I have said more than once in this space, let us hope and (for those readers who do) pray that the Democratic Party wakes up to this reality and joins the political battle that must be engaged if the Georgites are to be stopped in their tracks before it is too late and the Second Civil War is upon us.

Dr. Steven Jonas is a TPJ contributing author. He is a Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY) and author/co-author of over twenty books. Dr. Jonas is one of America's most perceptive Democratic political analysts.

In his book The New Americanism, Dr. Jonas presents his case that the Democratic Party has come adrift from its founding principles. He urges the Party to turn to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to find the new vision and mission that it, and our country, so desperately need. "The New Americanism: How the Democratic Party Can Win the Presidency is available from Amazon.com (just click on the title) and BarnesandNoble.com.

He is also the author of The 15% Solution: A Political History of American Fascism, 2001-2022, originally published in 1996 under the pseudonym “Jonathan Westminster,” and republished with a New Introduction in 2004, under the same author's name. The 2004 edition is available at www.barnesandnoble.com (just enter the title) and www.xlibris.com (“Bookstore,” “Search”). Both versions are available at www.amazon.com (just click on the title).