Creeping Third-Worldization of the U.S

One of my theses is that the far-right conservative movement and significant elements of the Republican Party are driving the United States to be like a third-world country, in order better to control and exploit it. And one of the defining characteristics of a Third World country is that the military consumes a huge amount of resources and definitively backs one side politically, over all others.

We spend about $1 billion per day on what is euphemistically called "defense," which works out to an average of $3,000 per capita annually. (I know, averages obscure more than they reveal sometimes, but although most people don't pay that much, the figure is telling in comparing it to other averages.)

As I have written before, the officer corps is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party.

Now comes this story of a base commanding officer attending a Bush campaign rally in uniform - a violation of military law - along with 500 soldiers who, while technically not in uniform, wore t-shirts supplied by the VFW instead, ran and marched in cadence and were directed by NCOs who were seen to be giving them orders. In other words, the soldiers were there in their official capacity as soldiers, regardless of whether they were in uniform. The Army is investigating, but won't comment on whether they plan to take any action.

Billmon at Whiskey Bar has an outstanding post up that lays all of this out in more detail, and he reaches the conclusion that the United States is being primed for a military coup. I wouldn't go that far, but I think there is good reason to be concerned and the hour of greatest danger would be in the aftermath of another catastrophic terrorist attack. I think this is a good time for liberals to do two things - reconsider their opposition to personally owning firearms and to make sure they have an exit plan in case things go badly wrong. Keep your passports in good order. It might also be a good idea to think about strategies to move assets out of the country or to deposit them now in a stable, secure, democratic country, like Canada. It probably won't ever be necessary to implement such measures, but I would say it's as likely as another terrorist attack affecting you directly, and that's a risk everyone should be prepared for, too. In fact, they probably go hand-in-hand.

Comments

This is what nightmares are made of.

[DukeJ]

Good post -- it is indeed frightening to me that the right-wing citizenry is armed so much more than the left. On another note, I really think we should spend less time and energy thinking about leaving (or preparing to leave) the country, and more energy trying to prevent such a cataclysm -- Don't forget, there are tens of millions of Americans (indeed a slight majority if the last election was any example) who share our political views, but don't have the luxury of heading to Europe, Canada, etc. in the event of a bush coup.

[nick paul]

and they have that force projection thingy, too.

spewin.

[Hal]

Upside is that they suck at reconstruction and will try to bug out as soon as politically feasible.

[Mithras]

Hal-
You made soda fly out of my nose. Thank you.

[rick pietz]

Yeah, people look at me funny when I tell them, "as a solid general rule, in the army the question isn't are you on the right, it's how far to the right are you? In academia, it's the reverse - not are you on the left, but how far to the left are you?"

I had fun picking on both, my fellow officers and my college professors.

If it gives you any comfort, there are a few radical atheist, patriotic, armed, ex-military people who will be willing to fight in the streets to prevent a take over. But, they can't succeed if the rest of the populace plays pacifist.

Should the fascists win, I still like Belize. They speak English. Nice climate. Low taxes. And last I checked, though it has been years, Belizan citizenship only costs $1600 American. Oh, and there's not enough there to make it worth invading anytime soon.

[Mithras]

Thanks for the tip about Belize. Good diving there, too. The problem is transport in case the balloon goes up. I have a brother in the Keys who drives big boats for a living, so I'll be set, but is everyone else supposed to drive down there? Maybe access to an oceangoing vessel as well as being a good shot is another thing to add to the list.

[Hal]

Mithras: just trying to keep perspective on all of this. . .