The American Warfare State Is Bringing an End to American Democracy …
In my post, Authoritarian Control Requires War, a War Mentality, Enemies, and a Vivid Imagination, I listed the various, mostly real, and a few imaginary wars started by a minority of authoritarian leaders (The ONE%) and implemented by their minority base (The Tea Party) to wrest control of America from the majority of its citizens.
This right-wing warfare state was started by Richard Nixon with the war on drugs in 1971. Since then, the authoritarians have advanced the current warfare state and used the attack in 2001, under GWB, the Shrub, to accelerate the it. We now sanction torture and show little outrage over either recent war crimes by our troops or the incarceration instead of education of the children of the poor.
In Violence, USA: The Warfare State and the Brutalizing of Everyday Life, Henry Giroux wrote about these wars. Here is what he said about some of the elements of the American Warfare State:
The rhetoric of war is now used by politicians not only to appeal to a solitary warrior mentality in which responsibility is individualized, but also to attack women’s reproductive rights, limit the voting rights of minorities and justify the most ruthless cutting of social protections and benefits for public servants and the poor, unemployed and sick.
As seen around the world with other fundamentalist, authoritarian societies, the constraint of women is paramount to the strict father family model. To maintain male dominance, women are kept uneducated, covered head to toe, isolated from others, and kept pregnant or caring for the family – care especially for the dominant male. Women are viewed by authoritarians as property for their pleasure, personal use, and abuse. These constraints on women go back centuries and are fundamental to authoritarian control.
In America, many of these constraints on women were removed during the last century. This became a threat to the right-wing authoritarians and their need to control/abuse both their property and the property and lives of others. They declared war and have been passing laws to reinstate their control over women, and others, ever since.
Frank Schaeffer attributes some of these wars to religious fundamentalism.
Fundamentalist religion of all kinds fears women and gays.
It’s going to take some men, a lot of women, and years of struggle to save our American Democracy.
Joe Brewer, recently stated:
It is time to call out the bullies who shroud patriarchal domination of women under the guise of religious dogma and partisan politics. Nothing less than the heart of our democracy is at stake.
We need women to not only stop the war on women, we need them to end the American Warfare State.
Back during WWII, my mother and 1,101 other women flew 60,000,000 miles in military airplanes – 38 lost their lives in service to America, thousands of others became factory workers, and millions lost their husbands and sons. They all did their part to save the world and America from European Fascism.
Today American women must rise up and save America from American Authoritarianism. You can start by supporting Emily’s List – List of progressive female candidates. Then make sure you vote and get all your friends to vote.
Andy Hailey