A newsNH.com editorial

The Rise of Fascism in America

Fascism does not spring forth fully grown;  it creeps in slowly by 
quiet steps,  almost unnoticed. On  October 11th, the United States 
Congress, stampeded by the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld propaganda campaign  
to demonize Iraq, voted  to give the President the power to wage war 
at will.  Silently, partof the system of checks and balances created 
by Thomas Jefferson and the Founding Fathers was abandoned.  This is 
only the latest in a series of actions designed   to concentrate all 
power in the White House.

Earlier, in response to the attacks of September 11th and the anthrax 
scare, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act of 2001.   That law canceled 
major portions of the Constitution of the United States.  Under USA 
Patriot we now allow  secret trials, indefinite detentions  of citizens 
who are neither charged with a crime nor allowed access to a lawyer, 
denials of the right of  habeas corpus,  military tribunals empowered to 
use the death penalty, and a system of spying on the citizenry far in 
excess of anything that existed under J. Edgar Hoover, during the McCarthy 
era, or even with Richard Nixon and his "enemies list."  Every phone call 
you make, every  e-mail you send,  and even every web site you visit  may 
now be observed and recorded by the FBI.  Under the guise of "enhancing 
national security" the rights of the citizenry are being  systematically 
stripped away.

The courts are supposed  to protect us from the excesses of the legislative 
and executive branches of government.  However, with the minor exception of 
the judge who ruled that "Democracies die  behind closed doors," the courts 
have abandoned their responsibilities.  The police state practices of John 
Ashcroft have been allowed to proliferate unchecked.  Those practices are 
similar to the ones used by the Gestapo in the early 1930's.

There is a cancer in the heart of America.  A small group of  right-wing 
extremists  have perverted  the normal procedures of government and hijacked 
the reins of power.  Because the courts and Congress have abdicated their 
responsibilities, we now have, in effect,  a one-branch government.  That 
branch is George W. Bush.  He is rapidly accumulating  power and is becoming 
less and less the President and more and more the Fuhrer.   

Fascism is not something that is unique to Germany.  After all, it co-existed 
in Italy and Spain, and, in the broadest sense, was the philosophy of the 
Caesars of Rome and  the Napoleons of France.   At its root,  Fascism is a 
combination of one-man rule, a sense of ultra-nationalism, and a ruthless
willingness to  kill.  This  is the philosophy of  Saddam Hussein ... and  
of George W. Bush. 

In a democracy, the will of the people is the ultimate governing force.  
However,  the  people are being manipulated by a sophisticated propaganda 
campaign.  They are being told that there are dangers lurking on all sides, 
and the only way to be secure is to attack.  That is what Hitler did in
Poland.  That  is what Bush is doing in Iraq.  Bush and his cronies, Cheney, 
Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Rice, and Wolfowitz, are following Hitler's path.  We 
already have a concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, but we are not yet 
stockpiling Zyklon B.  There is still time to stop.  However, with the courts
and Congress AWOL and the people bamboozled, is there anyone who can prevent 
America from becoming the Nazis of the 21st Century?

Only Colin Powell has the public stature, experience, and gravity to stand up 
to Bush.  Only a Powell resignation-in-protest has the power to cut through 
the fog of propaganda and shock the citizenry into reexamining Bush's actions.   
Powell has to choose: he can be loyal to his President, or he can be loyal to 
his country.  For a man who has worn the military uniform for most of his life, 
this is a very hard choice, but choose he must.  He can be a true patriot, or 
he can be a silent Fascist.

The German people chose silence, and they will forever be haunted by the question, 
"Where were the good Germans?"  It is our turn.  If we remain silent, the world 
will be asking, "Where were the good Americans?"
         

                            John P. Galuszka II,  Editor-in-chief,  www.newsNH.com
Copyright 2002 by newsNH.com.  This editorial may be copied, reproduced, e-mailed, 
reprinted and otherwise distributed as long as our copyright notice is included.

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UPDATE

January 3, 2003 -- It would appear that Powell has joined the ranks of the ultra-hawks. 
He has, as one commentator said, "shown the talons of the dove." Powell has become as much 
of a warmonger as Cheney or Rumsfeld. There is now no one of stature to oppose a unilateral 
attack on Iraq. If the American military should make such an attack, then it will mean that 
Fascism has replaced Democracy in the United States. Why are you silent? 
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