The Charlotte News

Tuesday, September 9, 1941

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: Dorothy Thompson's piece on this date's page predicts a part of the future with a good deal of accuracy, that which could happen should America turn isolationist in the way advocated by Senator Bennett Champ Clark of Missouri and Charles Lindbergh. While the part of the model they sought, abandoning ties with Britain, giving up defense of Iceland, Greenland, the Azores, the Canaries, and the Cape Verdes, never came to be, another part arguably did transpire and from just such an isolationist point of view fostered in the country during the 1960's, starting with the Goldwater movement in the Republican Party, that is recoiling from full participation in the United Nations--a form of isolation born largely of appeal to superstitions within a Fundamentalist fanatic portion of a constituency sought by the Republican Party to form a coalition between social and fiscal conservatives, especially after the huge Goldwater defeat in 1964. This superstition has it that the U.N. implies a world government, somehow predictive of the end of the world as set forth in Revelations, at least as their cultist, self-righteous religious superstition deploys in their minds to pre-determine such an interpretation of the poetry of Revelations to match their own ends--political power to establish one view of the world, their own.

From this stance was born, arguably, in both the early seventies and during the eighties, an active imperialism in Latin America, even if accomplished largely in the early seventies by covert CIA operations, to destabilize unfriendly regimes on the premise of thwarting Communist imperialism and aggression, though native born those populist-agrarian movements were, to combat dictatorial and corrupt regimes governing their countries; and again in the eighties under Reagan with covert and illegal operations from the basement of the White House funded by illegal arm sales to Iran to effect counter-revolution in Nicaragua.

The covert operations schemes of the early 1970's had been made illegal after extensive Congressional airing of these schemes prompted such legislation in the latter half of the seventies. Something so ephemeral as the law, however, didn't deter the Reaganissimos. And with that foreign policy came a form of fascism at home as well, just as Ms. Thompson suggested its inevitability.

Now, the same isolationist thinking has been applied to Iraq, with the same result at home. The two go hand in hand. For in order to foster such a policy in the United States, brainwashing methods must be deployed, and in order to maintain brainwashing for long periods, there must be in place deterrence of normal exercise of liberties by those not accepting of this policy or the brainwashing to eventuate its acceptance en masse. If the country had been told in 2003, for instance, that there was only scant and unreliable, unconfirmed evidence, contrary to that which weapons inspectors who had last been on the ground in Iraq were saying, to attest to weapons of mass destruction being present in Iraq, few likely would have voiced support for such a move as going to war in Iraq on the principle of "anticipatory self-defense", getting the other guy before he has a chance to get you. Congress would not have felt moved to act, as polls would not have been so overwhelmingly supportive of such a mission, without the supposed weapons of mass destruction which any day might become operational to afford a launch of tactical nuclear or biological weapons against Israel.

And, likely therefore, there would have been no war in Iraq. Today, gas prices would probably still be somewhere under $2.00 per gallon. (They were about $1.37, depending on your state taxes, when the present Administration took office in 2001.)

Indeed, rewind the tape to 2000 and the point in late November when that fateful decision was made by the Supreme Court to grant the petition for a writ of certiorari to hear Bush v. Gore and also to issue, quite unnecessarily, an injunction to stop the vote counting in Florida pending the outcome of review. That was the first sign, not allowing the vote count to proceed while the decision was being considered. For what would have been the harm in that, regardless of how the Court ruled some sixteen days later? And, as we asked at the time, wasn't it completely contrary to the role of each of the five of the majority justices, as established by their testimony during confirmation, to take the view they did of exerting Federal power over a state in something as fundamental as the manner in which it conducted a recount of votes, mandated by state law; to tell that state it could not recount, that a certified count by a Republican Secretary of State who was obviously looking to climb politically, had to stand, despite an appropriate challenge to the original count under that state's law, because the method of the recount supposedly violated Equal Protection based on varying county by county methods of recount being allowed under the system of state procedures? And that in face of the Constitutional provision which enables each state to determine the method by which electors for President and Vice-President are chosen?

Since that moment, the stopping of the recounts in Florida, nothing has been quite the same in the country. No one may deny it with credulity. What we see displayed in the country for the last several years didn't begin with September 11, 2001. It began, if you want a precise starting place, there, in late November, 2000, though the groundwork for it was being laid for decades before it, spanning back at least as far as November 22, 1963.

We were hijacked, but not by terrorists. Rather, it came from within by the people who call themselves "social conservatives" or "Fundamentalists" or "John Birchers" or what have you, people who are little more than fascists born of the isolationist movement in the country in the thirties, people looking for another Hitler to worship, just like they worshipped Nixon and then Reagan, two who just didn't go far enough for these people. And so now, by degrees, they are attempting to finish the job of converting the country to a virtual dictatorship, bossed by corporate interests, built on a social model of enforced Fundamentalist beliefs, beliefs having about as much to do with traditional religion as an average corporate board meeting has to do with charitable causes. They find their puppets desirous of being known for the sake of being known and thrust those persons into positions of leadership for which they are ill-fitted, usually with no credentials which distinguish them from millions of others, merely a willingness to say and do in government whatever these special interest cliques want them to say and do while they enjoy the vanity ride.

Well, read Ms. Thompson's piece and see what you think.

Incidentally, this just in--Sarah Palin has unveiled a new program for Alaska called "Let Loose the Pit-Bulls". Owners of the breed had complained that neighboring property owners were taunting the harmless pets with abusive epithets such as "Stay put, pug-nose idiot", "Heel, you fascist swine", and "Where's your mama, Juneau?" The incensed owners had sought to rescind the corrupt leash laws as an unfair impediment to freedom and democracy and pit-bullism, indeed that it was tantamount to a resort to slavery and against the will of the Almighty to maintain the gentle house pets chained to a stake, when all they wanted was to be free to roam and bite at will vicious aggressors intruding on their territory, that staked out since their displacement in the 1930's, that conterminous with the State of Alaska. The owners petitioned the Governor under protections afforded by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, claiming that the doggies were "citizens" like every other doggie and thus must not become members of a suspect class subject to invidious discrimination merely because of their erratic temperament bred into them by the human species. The Governor, after meeting with a delegation of the owners, whose organization goes by the acronym "BULL" ("Back Up, Lilly Liver"), agreed without hesitation, releasing a statement: "Pit-bulls now, pit-bulls tomorrow, pit-bulls forever."

The tremor in her voice, the shaking of her delicate hands, as she delivered this remarkable statement of purposeful good will to all true red-blooded Americans desirous of having their very own pit-bull without intrusive and despicable government regulation to protect no one other than the criminal element seeking to find a way around your pit-bull, conveyed the palpable sense of gravity simply and somberly, with a passion unforgettable, one which will undoubtedly carry this message through the ages uncounted, undaunted by negativism voiced by the naysayers against the pit-bulls: Viva le Pit-bull!

There will always be those who will attack harmless pets, but there will always, by equal turns, fortunately for the rest of us, be pit-bulls to protect us from territorial interlopers by getting their revenge before the interlopers have a chance even to think about hopping the fence and interloping where they have no business.

A spokesman for the Governor said that she was also considering a plan by which the natural gas pipeline, possibly to be built from the North Slope, should TransCanada Corp. decide not to spend the half billion on lots and lots of party wine instead, would be made not of steel this time, but rather of rubber and slung by a giant catapult into place, cutting time of construction at least in half, the main time and effort being expended on the catapult, yet to be built but under study. She has approved a billion dollar fund for exploration of the concept to be awarded the company which can most closely meet her specifications--that is demonstrating capability with one rock placed in a slingshot to bring down a giant. The tentative name of this program is "Pipes 4 Jesus". The spokesman said that the Governor got the idea, oddly enough, from seeing the slogan on a skateboard and studying intensely a wiener roasting on a spit at a recent barbecue she attended.

When queried about how the rubber pipe fits with the idea of Jesus, the spokesman hesitated and thoughtfully responded: "We're not here to discuss matters about the Governor's thought processes; the Governor is a genius of rare mind, and comes up with these ideas in ways which most would not understand. I get paid $68,000 per year to do what I'm told, without questioning anything. It's awesome. It keeps life simple. And simplicity is what more of us need today in a complicated world. Because, who wants to go back to some dumpy job being a telephone receptionist. Hey, I've got genius to offer, too. Who needs to be educated at school? We get schooling at home. We love Jesus and Jesus loves us. The 68 thou per year tells me so. Excuse me, the Governor is calling me about a new idea to bring perpetual light to the land through lighting each evening millions of anti-mosquito sticks in everyone's backyard. She's thinking of calling it 'Stick-Up 4 Jesus'."

"Pipes 4 Jesus", the spokesman had already further elaborated, will begin pumping gas no later than the year 2042, unless all the government red tape may be eliminated after the Governor becomes Vice-President and the Palin Plan goes national. Then the ideas, she said, will get really good because the Governor will be paid so much more in annual salary in that job, lots more than as Mayor of Wasilla or as Governor.

In any event, millions across the country are said to be looking forward to the Palin Plan, bringing Wasilla to the whole land. No more museums, libraries, and other such wasteful forms of governmental spending with which to contend. Rather, we shall all participate in mandatory two-hour per day sessions of Bible study, at which we shall learn to interpret and analyze the Bible as the Preacher-in-Chief, the new position in the executive branch to be created by Ms. Palin, tells us to do, and then spend a goodly portion of the rest of the day going to classes in congeniality, where everyone will learn to behave as nice gentlemen and ladies ought, without dissent--something those bad old men back there who were violent socialists in 1776 taught us was correct, but is in fact contrary to the teachings of Jesus. The rest of the day will be spent in work camp, where everyone learns how to work in unity and harmony. The cost of these lessons will be high, but as yet is still under study by the Governor.