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  A dream turning into a nightmare
by Michael Werbowski
Imagine a charismatic and power-hungry politician supported by a clique of financiers and industrialist, being elected President of the world’s greatest democracy, on a pseudo populist platform, promising to restore the country to prosperity and greatness, a universal health plan for every citizen and, more importantly, promising millions of jobs thanks to billions of dollars going to the world’s richest men on Wall Street and the city of London.
Once in power, however, the great leader, begins to undermine the laws and constitutional rights of the land and becomes a dictator; outlawing dissent, limiting freedom of speech on under the pretext of “hate speech” and putting his political enemies in interment camps , and creating a paramilitary force or a “storm troopers” calling them euphemistically , let’s use the term a “citizens brigade,” who terrorize those citizens who hold contrarian views not compliant with the official ones.
After being elected on a platform of “change” one of his first moves as president is to make changes to the Constitution which gives the President sole power over the country, rendering Congress a useless, toothless, emasculated political body. This is met by protest from outraged citizens, yet the elected people’s legislature willingly and with total complicity gives its consent to this blatant power grab. The head of state (now a de facto dictator) declares a state of emergency or ‘Martial Law light’ and, with the help of his secret services (made up of informers, uniformed goons and private mercenary thugs) continues to throw the protesters in jail. As this leader dismantles democracy, most of the brain washed populations who revere, adulate and support him and his regime wholeheartedly or reassure themselves that fascism cannot happen in here at home. Home in this case, can be many places these days among the G-20 nations, like those which are run by a right wing corporate fascist regime, or third world fanatical theocracies (Iran) or on the other edge of the policies spectrum maybe a country run by a “caudillo” strongman in South America. Whether it’s neo fascism for neo Stalinism this is the end of democracy as we know it. Anyhow in this dystopia eventually the great leader’s hold on power begins to weaken; the economic prosperity he promises has not materialized, and more and more people are fleeing to Canada ( a post modern multicultural paradise or utopia which welcomes all the world’s discontents) to escape their government's brutality. Eventually, lieutenants stage a military coup; the Secretary of State , the president’s number two man ( or woman), then becomes president and has the elected leader exiled to France ( a country which he has always loathed , but he only country willing to have him now).
In the ensuing power vacuum, factions within the regime fight among themselves for control, setting the stage for the regime's self-destruction. Another coup takes place, ousting the new leader who assumed power with the help of the military in favor of the generals. Never the less, the regime’s power slowly starts seeping away, due to a prolonged economic “downturn” which has wiped out the middle class and thrown millions out of their homes and into the streets. So the government desperately tries to find a way to keep the people happy with the regime by force feeding them bread (fast food) and circuses (block buster movies and talk shows with freaks making confessions about their sex lives). They also decide to stir up patriotic fervor by slandering places like Mexico and blame all the country’s woes on illegal immigrants in the state-run newspapers, deciding an all-out “internal invasion” of the country will rally the American people around the government. But the resulting draft of 5 million men for the invasion splits the country into factions: those pro-war and loyal to the government, and that anti-war who now see that they have been manipulated for years. This story ends with a bloody civil war in the country which leads to its break up just as was the case of the Soviet Union 20 years ago. Does this scenario for the future bear any resemblance to what is happening in the present? If not then we have nothing to worry about and can go on leading our high tech zombie like lives and sleepwalk ever closer towards the abyss. If any of this sounds too scary to be real, then maybe it’s not just Halloween fright or a fictional account by Sinclair Lewis (It Can't Happen Here). Or maybe it’s a version of a reality, we simply can’t bear to even contemplate in these perilous times.
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