We May Be on the Eve of a Much Bigger Battle

Naomi Wolf and American elections
By David Hamilton

Naomi Wolf appeared at Book People on Saturday afternoon to talk about her hot new book, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. The book basically argues that the years of the Bush administration have been characterized by a "fascist shift"; that steps taken during this period have paralleled those taken during the early years of the rise of Hitler, Mussolini and Pinochet. She names 10 steps that lead to fascism and gives examples of how each has manifested since 2000. The 10 steps are:

1. Invoke an external and internal threat.
2. Establish secret prisons.
3. Develop a paramilitary force. (e.g., Blackwater)
4. Surveil ordinary citizens.
5. Infiltrate citizens' groups.
6. Arbitrarily detain and release citizens.
7. Target key individuals.
8. Restrict the press.
9. Cast criticism as "espionage" and dissent as "treason".
10. Subvert the rule of law.

In her conclusion, she asks the following question in relation to the 2008 election:

"Is it reasonable . . to assume that leaders who are willing to abuse signing statements; withhold information from Congress; make secret decisions; lie to the American people; use fake evidence to justify a pre-emptive war; torture prisoners; tap people's phones; open their mail and e-mail; break into their houses; and now simply ignore Congress altogether- leaders with currently a 29% approval rating - will surely say, come 2008, 'The decision rests in the hands of the people. May the votes be fairly counted'?

"In trusting that 'the pendulum will swing' when it is time for the votes to be counted, we are like a codependent woman with an abusive boyfriend; surely next time he will do what is right.

"It's a truism that the definition of madness is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome. If for eight years this group [the Bush administration] has flouted other equally precious rules of the democratic game, aren't we rash to assume that this same group will see a transparent, fair election as sacrosanct?"

If she is correct, we are on the eve of a much bigger battle than merely Hillary or Obama vs McCain.

At her talk, an organization had a table set up with petitions demanding a paper trail for all ballots.

Imagine waking up the day after the presidential election to discover that although they lost the popular vote, McCain/Huckabee won with razor thin majorities in states where no verification of electronic voting is possible.


Jeeze, David,

Did we hear the same talk? I heard her say that Bush threw a charge of treason at Hillary because of some stand she took on an issue. I also heard her say that even electing a Democrat does not mean that such treachery as totalitarianism isn't going on beneath the surface right now, that fascism is with us already and the large multinational corporations are the ones really in command. That is what I heard.
I didn't make the connection that the list of her questionable "reasons to assume" could be applied to Hillary Clinton. Those were things indeed done by the present administration. As for the negative approval rating, that was largely created by the media driving public opinion. That grew from unadulterated gender hatred, in my humble opinion.

The contrasts Robin Morgan framed for us in her article, "Goodby..." were sexism at work as a palpable undercurrent in this election. Barack isn't female. If he was I would be torn between them, but he isn't. If he were white he never would have been considered a serious candidate. Here we have sexism being trumped by suddenly PC racism in reverse.

I have referred to the stampeeding "feminists" in NYC as well as Caroline and Maria, as having Political Munchhausen's Syndrome by Proxy. These are not women from the rank and file, they are elitists craving attention for being against the woman in the race. That's all their endorsement amounts to and is as lame as the one by Ted Kennedy, infamous from running away while Mary Jo Kopechne drowned. There are some other things beside Hillary's so called war vote to be recalled.

Best,
Frances Morey