In 2004, Davidson Loehr answers the question Ray Pensador asked yesterday: How Come Some People Understand What's Happening And Others Don't
Words fall short of expressing just how spot on Loehr's speech is. It is a must read.
In December, 2004, Black Maned Pensator posted a complete transcript of Loehr's speech.
It is time to read and share this important speech again, if for no other reason than to fire up a GOTV effort for 2014 NOW, everyday, to end GOP control in states and Congress.
Here's the link to the diary where you will find the entire transcript:
Fascism arrives in America: the Elephant in the Bathtub
Many here are unwilling to call the November elections fraudulent; most are uncomfortable with doing so without proof; others are uncomfortable with the very idea that our elections may no longer represent Democracy at its finest.
An Austin, Texas-based Unitarian Universalist minister, Davidson Loehr, is not only willing to claim that the elections are fraudulent; he uses this fraud as a given in his proof that the U.S. is now more nearly a fascist state than a democracy.
Fascism is here, he says, and, unless we fight, here to stay. It's a fascinating argument, and one that I hope you will read in full below the fold
Written almost 10 years ago (my how time flies), the diary, comments, and Davidson Loehr's message is even more spot on today. I also recommend reading the 410 comments attached to Black Maned Pensator's diary.
The diary ends with:
My point is that we are looking at a vastly intermeshed system of power structures, and that unless we begin to look at the underlying construct and pattern, and critique them as what they are (correctly identifying the elephant in the bathtub as an elephant, and not merely a collection of body parts), and begin to talk about how to evict it as a whole and at once, our efforts may well be futile.
Are we living in a democracy, or nascent fascist state? What do you think?
The web is worldwide, militarized, rife with religious zealots, and funded by multi-national corporations, Wall Street Banks, private equity funds, and the attendent neoliberal millionaires and billionaires all working in tandem to end the gains made since the New Deal in the 1930s.
Their dream?
A theocratic, militarily enforced return to the Dicksonian era enabled by new technology, so the rich can get richer and maintain power while the middle class become poor, and the poor die.
To see examples of the "vastly intermeshed system of power structures, check out these Muckety maps, double click on each map to see an enlarged version:
Note how Eric Prince, founder of Blackwater and Abu Dhabi-based Reflex Responses mercenary armies, helps fund the Haggai Institute dedicated to creating "A global community of leaders obeying the Great Commission." :
Here's a clip from the Leader of Haggai:
The Koch Brothers, the Waltons, and other 1% richies fund Americans for Prosperity:
Americans for Prosperity funds the following right wing agenda:
The Walton Family really wants to replace public education:
With the help of none other than Grover Norquist through the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation:
If you dig a little deeper, you will find the Rocket program also funded by the Gates Foundation as well as Democrats, good grief!
And no web presentation would be complete without ALEC - American Legislative Exchange Council. Who would have guessed that Bill & Melinda Gates helped fund this sidestep democracy organization. The names on the left are the three "founders" on top and the present executive staff. The names on the right are donors:
And who are those 10 FORMER DONORS? Multi-national corporations, no surprise:
But who the heck is Mondelez International Inc? Mondelez bought Cadbury, Mondelez's CEO, Robert S Morrison, is Vice Chairman of PepsiCo, the President, Robert Eckert is a director of McDonald's corporation, and it is the parent company for the Altria Group.
The web is vast. Tools like the NSA Prism can watch our every move online.
I also recommend reading the 410 comments attached to Black Maned Pensator's diary for an insight to the hearts and minds of readers back in 2004 and ask:
Have things improved since 2004 or have things gotten even worse?
This comment about Loehr's article really resonated with my research to date:
Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse analysis. His "Perfect Storm" is a restatement of the thesis. Good to see it validated by an independent voice.
The only mistake he makes is to assume that there is no connection or coordination between the Plutocrats, the Neocons, and the Dominionists, that this is an accidental alignment of the planets. Not so, and this is a critical point.
These three groups formed a deliberate unholy alliance to seize power in America. United in their disdain for democracy and inpatience, if not downright intolerance, of dissent, these groups intended to use one another to further their own goals. They modeled their strategy on Lenin's communist cells, ironically (Grover Norquist has a picture of Lenin on his office wall, not admiring the communism, but admiring the revolution), forming loose coalitions organized under umbrellas such as the Coalition On Revival and the secretive Olson Salon held by US Solicitor General Tom Olson, and funded broadly by billionaire fundamentalists like Scaife and Ahmanson, with an army of zealous young politicians and bureaucrats trained in Pat Robertson's Regent University's school of government--whose former dean, Kay James, has been for the past four years the head of personnel for the US Government in charge of HR for the entire Executive branch.
However, the calculated Machiavellianism of the Plutocrats and the triumphialist Manifest Destiny of the Neocons are no match for the messianic zeal and patient determination of the theocrats. The first two groups need at least the appearance of democracy (to appease the masses) and the trappings of capitalism (to provide cheap labor and desperate troops) to carry out their agendas. The Dominionists, on the other hand, are openly hostile to democracy itself, and intend to end it. They have been working to reach the pinnacles of power for twenty-five years, and they are poised to execute their revolution.
Robber barons have always been with us, and neocons will come and go. But theocrats intend to change the rules of the game forever.
Other than that minor nit, his "Perfect Storm" analysis is right on.
Love to see folks dismiss his mention of the Dominionists as an "Atheist Conspiracy Theory" as some have tried to dismiss mine here at dailykos. Of course, as a maverick UU minister, he's probably a closet atheist, right? Out to destroy the church from within, or something. I can't wait to hear the spin from those desperate to avoid any discussion of the excesses of religious zealotry in America among our homegrown "Taliban".
Or, we could focus on substance, for a change, and recognize that theocracy threatens us all, regardless of our religion.
Who is
Davidson Loehr? In addition to being a contributor on the former progressive radio show Air America:
AUTHOR BIO: Davidson Loehr is a former musician, combat photographer and press officer in Vietnam, owner of a photography studio in Ann Arbor, and a carpenter.
He holds a Ph.D. in methods of studying religion, theology, the philosophy of religion and the philosophy of science, with an additional focus on language philosophy (The University of Chicago). From 1986 to 2009, he served as a Unitarian minister, and has been a Fellow in the Jesus Seminar since 1992. He is the author of one book, America, Fascism & God: Sermons from a Heretical Preacher, (Chelsea Green, 2005).
Not surprisingly, this truth-telling minister
was sacked in December, 2009.
Davidson Loehr is also the minister singing in this Norman Lear video which is called Born Again American, the title of which is a turn off to many here because of the double speak of so-called Christians, but is really about the decline of the Middle Class and a call to stand up for each other to stop the assaults that have really escalated since 2004, even under our Audacity of Hope and Promise for Change President Obama.
Here’s the lyrics:
Just a workin’ man without a job
It got shipped off to China via Washington, D.C.
And I know I’m nothin’ special, there are plenty more like me
Just the same
I thought I knew the rules of the game
I stood up for this country that I love
I came back from the desert to a wife and kids to feed
I’m not sayin’ Uncle Sam should give me what I need
My offer stands
I’ll pull my weight you give me half a chance
I went up to a congressman and said to him “you know
Our government is letting people down”
He said he’d need a lot of help to buck the status-quo
I said there was a bunch of us around
I’m a Born Again American, conceived in Liberty
My Bible and the Bill of Rights, my creed’s equality
I’m a Born Again American, my country ‘tis of me
And everyone who shares the dream from sea to shining sea
My brother’s welding chassis at the plant
He’s earning what our granddad did in 1948
While CEOs count bonuses behind the castle gates
How can they see
When all they care about’s the do re mi
It’s getting where there’s nowhere left to turn
Not since the crash of twenty-nine have things been so unfair
So many of our citizens are living in despair
The time has come
To reaffirm that hope’s not just for some
The promise of America’s surrendering to greed
The rule is just look out for number one
But brace yourself ‘cause some of us have sown a different seed
A harvest of the spirit has begun
I’m a Born Again American conceived in liberty
My Bible and The Bill Of Rights
My creed’s equality
A Born Again American, my country ‘tis of me
And everyone who shares the dream from sea to shining sea
It’s clear my country’s soul is on the line
She’s hungering for something that she lost along the way
The principle the framers called upon us to obey
That in this land
The people’s will must have the upper hand
I felt the calling once before and took a sacred vow
And faithful to that vow I have remained
I hear the calling once again, my country needs me now
And to her cause I have been re-ordained
I’m a Born Again American conceived in liberty
My Bible and the Bill Of Rights, all people living free
A Born Again American, my country ‘tis of me
And everyone who shares the dream
From sea to shining sea
And everyone who shares the dream
From sea to shining sea
A M E R I C A
BILL MOYERS COVERS THE BORN AGAIN AMERICANS progressive movement.