Noted author, academic, and by his own characterization former "spear-carrier for the empire" Chalmers Johnson refers to the leader of this Neocon administration, George Bush, as "the boy emperor." He also says the neocons allied with him are fascists - using sanitized language to hide the truth.
We've been slashing essential social benefits since the Reagan years, and it's all contributing to the greatest wealth and income disparity at least since the 19th Gilded Age of the first generation Robber Barons. We're destroying the nation's industrial base and exporting millions of jobs abroad, including many high-paying ones, as this country hurtles toward "banana republic third world status and not giving a damn how many have to suffer for the greed and lust for power of the few at the top."
Do you think that the United States will eventually reach the point that the levels of plutocratic domination, corruption, and tyranny rival those of so-called "Third World" nations? Or do you think we are already there?
"I mentioned Paul Krugman above and quoted from his Great Wealth Transfer article in my year end one to be finished right after Christmas. He's outraged and so am I, even more than he is. I think we're getting very close to the level of "plutocratic domination" in third world countries and exceed any of them in the level of federal government and corporate corruption (mostly below the radar) and a state of tyranny following the same path as Nazi Germany did in the 1930s. Most people haven't a clue that the parallels to that era are frightening as hell, and I've written several times that the US today is a national security fascist police state that so far is just short of sending the jackboots and tanks to the streets, stripping off the mask of respectability so even the dumbed-down public finally knows the score."
You have written well-researched articles exposing how fraudulent and farcical federal elections have become in the United States. Do you vote? Why or why not?
"I've abstained from voting since I learned how corrupted the process was, and that was even before the 2000 election and the dominance of privatized and rigged electronic voting machines that now count over 80% of the votes. The most fundamental of all bedrock rights in a democracy is to have free, fair and open elections denying no citizen for any reason their constitutional right to vote. We never had that, but today no semblance of democracy exists and any pretense it does is just an illusion that sadly still too many in the country believe in. But many, like me, refuse to go along any more and choose instead to boycott federal elections. The only hope for real change ahead has to come from the bottom up. History shows it's always been that way, and it's why we once had a revolution in this country. I'm sure one day we will again and equally sure we'll never get the kind of society and culture we deserve from the kinds of elected officials we now have from either party, equally corrupted."
Many loyalists of American Capitalism and the Empire often challenge domestic critics of the United States with questions such as: "If you hate the United States so much, why don't you just leave?" As a powerful voice of dissent against many aspects and dynamics of the United States, how do you respond to this question?
"I've been asked at times why I don't leave and move to Venezuela, Cuba or anywhere I think I can get relief from what I rail against here justifiably. I've asked myself that too and would never rule it out. Still, I've lived here all my life, am 72, have roots, and it would be a tough adjustment living in a new society, having to learn a new language if moved to a non-English speaking country, and needing to make new friends and connections from scratch."
When did you first become aware that the United States was not exporting "freedom and liberty: through its economic policies and military interventions?
"I've known for ages how oppressive US policies have been abroad and at home as well. But during my formal working life I never wrote or spoke out against them beyond occasional private conversations with friends or family that never went into depth or got heated. Only over time did things boil over for me once I spent more time focusing on them and then later saw them getting worse.
I was appalled to learn the "Cold War" was a fraud and the Russians were never coming, but we needed to convince people they were or might to justify all the harsh policies we followed in the name of national security. I was even more outraged when the "Cold War" ended but the need for enemies to scare the public didn't, we never got the promised "peace dividend," and we managed to find a way to stay in a permanent state of war. Later I was astonished to learn this country was at war with one or more adversaries every year since we became a nation in 1776. That's besides all the mischief we generated abroad through agencies like the CIA created in 1947."
In your view, what is the US actually "exporting" through its foreign and economic policies?
"The US emerged after WW II as the only dominant nation left standing. It was decided, maybe in the late 1930s, that policies would be pursued to make this country the world's preeminent political and economic power, and during the war the most powerful military one as well. It worked, and we've kept that status since. I believe our preeminence reached a peak sometime in the late 60s or early 70s and has been declining since because of the Vietnam disaster. It accelerated in the last six years under the disastrous Bush administration agenda worrying the hell out of the country's power structure because they know how badly these incompetents messed things up for them.
All US policies since WW II were intended to build and maintain American supremacy including the "world" institutions set up supposedly for other purposes like the UN, NATO, IMF, World Bank and others completely dominated by Washington under all administrations. Since that time, this country's goal has been to pursue policies serving the interests of wealth and power and give back as little as possible to the people, only enough "to keep the rabble in line." Even in The Great Depression, FDR got important social policies enacted only because he and some enlightened business leaders were scared into doing it. Economic conditions were so bad, they feared a Russian-style revolution unless they acted to prevent it. The New Deal was a plan to save capitalism, and the idea was better to give back enough than do too little and risk losing everything.
We know now other corporate interests weren't so enlightened, planned a coup against FDR to depose him and tried recruiting General Smedley Butler to lead it who exposed it. Butler later wrote a book on my shelf called War Is A Racket in which he denounced the kind of military adventurism he once led saying things like he once "helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American (banana) republics for the benefit of Wall Street....and purify Nicaragua (for the bankers)" and much more. Butler was awarded two Congressional Medals of Honor for his service. For his post-military nobility, he really ended up deserving them. Where are the leaders like him today in any part of the government or military? None I know of, and that goes to the heart of the problem.
Despite the 1930s New Deal age of enlightenment, things began changing after the war. It moved slowly at first with measures like the harsh anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 (passed over Harry Truman's veto) that began reversing the great labor benefits under the Wagner Act of the 30s (that to this day was the high water mark for organized labor rights). Today, worker rights have been crushed as the corporate threat to export jobs leaves many unions with little option but to surrender to management. The ones able to fight back and win at times are those representing the kinds of service jobs (mostly low-paying) that can't be offshored, like restaurant and hotel workers."
