Our Own Worst Enemy
Politics in the USA seem to be getting more concerning with each passing year. Anecdotally, I never remember seeing so much hostility, hatred, and division in this country. COVID-19 is probably the most significant single event we’ve had since at least 9/11. After 9/11, I remember a sense of unity spreading through the country as we banded together through a hard time. I had hoped for a similar result from COVID-19, but have seen just as much division as before. The “fake news” talking point and anti-intellectual sentiments have been successful in creating their intended effect of making constructive political discussions nearly impossible.
One particularly concerning trend I’ve mentioned before is the rise of the idea that anyone who points out issues in this country that need to be addressed must hate America. This idea is straight out of the fascist playbook (in fact, it’s #1 on the list of 14 signs of fascism). I’ve already discussed the parallels between the current USA and past countries that fell into fascism in this post, so I won’t repeat that. However, I want to talk about some other countries that the US has become more and more similar to in recent years. These are countries that have long been adversaries to the US, so resembling them is concerning. Pointing out these similarities is not a sign of hatred towards America, but instead quite the opposite: our country’s leadership has told us for decades that these countries are bad, so if we are starting to resemble them, we need to point it out and stop it. Doing so is far more patriotic than ignoring it.
So without further ado, I’ll start with the most predictable country:
Russia
A Senate Intelligence Committee investigation finally found evidence of what was pretty obvious, but never fully proven, from the Mueller Report: Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. I say it was obvious because Trump obstructed Mueller’s investigation on ten different occasions, which is not something you do when you’re innocent. Recently, the DHS leadership called to stop investigations into Russian interference in the 2020 election, because they “made the president look bad”, which is doublespeak for “they’re finding too much evidence of Trump’s corruption”. Also, Trump has been involved with the Russian mafia since the 80’s, so his ties there were already known. And the ties between Russia and the Republican Party definitely don’t stop there.
If you payed attention to the 2016 presidential race, you probably know about Russia hacking and releasing DNC emails before the election. What fewer people know, is that Russia also hacked the RNC and didn’t release any documents. It would be foolish to think either political party would have 100% squeaky-clean email servers. More likely, this hack provided Russia with politically harmful materials, which, by not releasing them, they could use as blackmail against Republican politicians.
The National Rifle Association, or NRA, donates to many Republican politicians, and the NRA was caught taking Russian money. This means the NRA has been, among other things, a money laundering scheme for Russia to fund Republican politicians, which is of course illegal.
Republican leaders Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy were caught on tape in 2016 saying Russia paid Donald Trump and Dana Rohrabacher (both Republicans). Rather than stick up for their country and do something about this corruption, they chose party first, with Ryan saying “This is an off the record … no leaks … This is how we know we’re [Republicans] a real family here.” So that’s one case, that we know of, of Republicans knowing about and covering for other Republicans having ties to Russia.
In 2019, Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, whom the US Senate called a proxy for the Kremlin, invested $200 million in a Kentucky aluminum mine. In order for this to happen, Trump’s executive branch had to lift sanctions on his company, and Mitch McConnell, a Republican senator from Kentucky (the state the mine in), had to block an effort from Congress to block the investment. At this point, ownership through investing has largely replaced physical force as the way powerful countries grow their power over each other. Allowing Russia to invest in, and thus get ownership of, US natural resources is the farthest thing from “America First”. I guess “Russia First, America Second” didn’t pass their focus groups.
The ties between the Republicans and Russia are striking, and if we allow Russia to continue to infiltrate our government, we should expect our government to start behaving more like Russia’s. We’ve already started to see this. The secret police Trump sent into Portland were troops of unknown origin with unmarked military-style uniforms – just like Russia’s “little green men” sent to Ukraine.
We’re also currently seeing the Republicans try to rig elections in their favor, with measures like wrongfully purging 200,000 voter registrations in Georgia, specifically targeting Democrat-leaning Atlanta and removing mail sorting machines across the country, but most often in Democrat-leaning districts of swing states. Trump’s Director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, even explicitly said that Republicans don’t want voter rights. If this cheating isn’t enough, Republican operative Roger Stone said Trump should declare martial law to retain power if he loses. This is the same Roger Stone who was convicted of several felonies committed to get Trump elected in 2016, and then in an act of monumental corruption had his term commuted by Trump – the person the felonies were committed on behalf of.
Putin, of course, rigged Russia’s elections enough to make himself effectively a dictator. If the Republicans aren’t removed from power in 2020, I have little doubt American democracy will be effectively dead. The US would probably follow Russia’s lead of holding elections, but with a pre-decided winner, instead of actually counting any ballots. This is because the image of a democracy will produce less disorder and resistance than an open dictatorship would, which is good for the oligarchs’ bottom line. In this scenario, I’d expect the Republicans to even keep some establishment Democrats around to help with the illusion of fairness, but no true left-wing politicians like Bernie Sanders, AOC, or Ed Markey would be allowed to win elections, as their policies threaten an authoritarian state.
Venezuela
While Republicans were yelling about how Democrats would turn the USA into Venezuela, the Republicans were the ones actually doing the things that destroyed Venezuela: firing experienced people from important jobs and appointing inexperienced cronies in their place, undermining checks & balances and the Constitution, and spending money the government doesn’t have.
Venezuela is a common scapegoat for the right in the US, since it has collapsed under the leadership of the left-wing United Socialist Party of Venezuela. They use it as a cautionary tale about what left-wing policies lead to, but that argument is overly simplistic. No prominent politicians in the US are actually socialist, as I address here, so any comparison between the two is dependent on the listener not understanding what socialism is. Venezuela nationalized innovative industries like oil and manufacturing, which are not proposals by any Democrats. Even the most progressive Democrats only call for nationalizing industries that have been nationalized successfully time and again in other developed nations, e.g. health insurance.
So what are the real reasons Venezuela collapsed?
First of all, most of Venezuela’s economy depends on oil exports, which makes them inherently unstable, as changes in oil prices & demand affect the foundation of their entire economy. This is what allowed the crisis to start – at the start of Hugo Chávez’s presidency, oil prices were high, so they could afford his high government spending, but that didn’t last and the government went broke. It didn’t help that early on, Chávez fired almost 20,000 workers from PDVSA, Venezuela’s nationalized oil company, and replaced them with inexperienced workers. When they tried to increase production to afford their spending, they weren’t able to do so.
At the start of Chávez’s term, he disbanded the existing legislatures and replaced them with a new legislature of almost all politicians aligned with Chávez, called the National Assembly. Soon after forming, the National Assembly rewrote Venezuela’s constitution to their own liking. These actions allowed the crisis to snowball, as a properly functioning government, when faced with the budget deficit Chávez had, would have used their balances on his power to reduce government spending. Instead, they started printing money at a dangerous rate, and ended up with hyperinflation, which brings with it just about every negative economic impact you can think of.
Luckily, the US has a far more diversified economy than Venezuela, making it more stable. However, all the other bad decisions and corruption have been seen in spades during Donald Trump’s presidency, which could have dire consequences that we just haven’t realized yet.
Let’s start with replacing experienced people with inexperienced ones: the list of experienced government workers Trump has fired is unimaginably long – it’s almost like we shouldn’t have elected a man whose catch phrase is “You’re fired”. He does this to ultimately surround himself with yes-men, not experienced people – his own Chief of Staff, John Kelly, said as much.
While we haven’t seen our legislative branch and Constitution completely replaced, the Republicans have significantly reduced the influence of both. The current Congress has been the least productive ever, thanks to Mitch McConnell blocking over 400 bills from even being voted on. Here is a letter from the White House explicitly stating that they don’t recognize the checks and balances that the Constitution gives to the House of Representatives. Trump once called the Emoluments Clause, a part of the Constitution that he has violated every single day in office, “phony”. Then, as I explain here, he broke 40% of the Bill of Rights, without retribution, when he sent the secret police into Portland. These are only some of the countless times Trump & the Republicans have undermined the legislature and Constitution of the USA.
Finally, Trump has also run up the highest deficit in US history, as I cover here.
The Republicans are checking off all of the boxes that led to Venezuela’s crisis. I have faith that the USA’s economy is resilient enough to not end up at the level of disarray that Venezuela has seen, but these changes are still the type of thing that lead to long term harm for any country. These actions will allow for more corruption to happen without oversight, have already decimated our reputation worldwide, are and will continue to cause economic hardship, and will reduce the effectiveness of all the government agencies & services that made America great in the first place.
Middle East
The last “country” is actually a group of countries, since a lot of them have similarities.
One of the founding principles of the United States, and most democracies, is the separation of church and state. Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican candidate for president, and one of the champions of conservatism at his time, warned of the importance of upholding this principal:
Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.
-Barry Goldwater
Today, we’re seeing the line between evangelicals and Republicans become increasingly blurred. Attorney General Bill Barr, has said things like:
The law is being used as a battering ram to break down traditional moral values.
-Bill Barr
And
Judeo-Christian moral standards are the ultimate utilitarian rules for human conduct and religion helps frame moral culture within society that instills and reinforces moral discipline. The fact is that no secular creed has emerged capable of performing the role of religion.
-Bill Barr
Yes, the Attorney General, the top law enforcement officer in the United States, charged with upholding the Constitution, including separation of church and state, stated that religion is a better guiding principal for society than any “secular creed”, like the United States Constitution that he’s supposed to uphold. That is about the farthest thing you can get from separation of church and state without openly becoming a theocracy (government by religion).
Similarly, Amy Coney Barrett, recently appointed to the highest law interpretation position in the United States, is a member of a religious cult where women must be submissive to men. This is obviously problematic from a standpoint of separation of church and state, and also raises serious questions about who will actually rule on cases if she must submit to her husband’s will.
And it’s far from just them.
The entire Republican Party has been fighting to make abortion illegal again, which is perhaps the most prominent issue for evangelicals. A woman’s right to choose was already decided on by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. To try to overturn this, excessively strict abortion laws have been popping up in majority-Republican states. Amy Coney Barrett previously supported the ending of Roe v. Wade. Tom Cotton, possibly the future face of the Republican party, said “it’s time for Roe v. Wade to go”.
Banning abortion and other laws limiting womens’ rights are common in countries dominated by religious conservatism, like Saudi Arabia & Yemen (both in the Middle East). Furthering the point of womens’ rights, Abby Johnson, who spoke at this year’s RNC, advocates for married women to not be allowed to vote, saying that each household should only get one vote, and “In a Godly household, the husband would get the final say.”
Reading those comments honestly made me feel sick. Even just five years ago, I wouldn’t have imagined someone chosen to represent one of America’s primary political parties would be advocating for something so obviously undemocratic and sexist. Aside from Vatican City, which doesn’t have elections, Saudi Arabia was the last country on Earth to give women the right to vote – in 2015. That’s the company we’ll hold if these ideas continue to become more mainstream in the US.
You might now be saying that the comparison is invalid because Middle East countries are majority Muslim, and the US is majority Christian. However, these two are very similar religions anyway, both being Abrahamic religions. The exact religion is not all that important, as similar values are held by both. And if you think Islam is more violent than Christianity, I will point you to the Crusades, manifest destiny, and the Holocaust, all of which were extremely violent acts carried out, at least in part, in the name of Christianity. In the same way that most Christians are non-violent despite these actions, most Muslims are non-violent despite actions taken by some Islamic groups.
And if you think equivalent radical groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS don’t exist in the US, think again. It was a far-right terrorist group that recently plotted to kidnap Michigan Governor Whitmer to start a civil war. That was after two attacks that killed police officers were carried out in California by far-right extremists also hoping to start a civil war. Proud Boys rolling into cities carrying weapons and Trump flags in the back of pickup trucks look familiar:
If Trump follows through with the call to arms he gave to the Proud Boys, their similarities to ISIS will go beyond aesthetics. And the Proud Boys aren’t the only far-right hate group in the US. There’s also Patriot Prayer, Michigan Militia, 3%ers, and Oath Keepers, to name a few. The Base is another neo-Nazi paramilitary group that’s grown inside and outside the US since 2018. Three of their members were arrested this year for planning a murder. And here’s the icing on the cake: “The Base” translated to Arabic is. . .
. . .
“Al-Qaeda”.
Seriously.
Path Forward
The Republicans are the ones pushing us in all of these problematic directions – vote them out.
