A.D 2050

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Nigel Doowrite: 'The late, great, American Republic'
Date: Tuesday, July 08 @ 10:28:31 EDT
Topic: Commander-In-Thief


A Report from Mid-Century

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With the American credit-rating thus reduced to zero, the United States was
effectively isolated from the world economy. The Americans then discovered that
they were in desperate need of raw materials that were unavailable within their
borders. The world at large, on the other hand, enjoyed resource-independence
from the Americans. The Americans suffered most acutely from the severe
shortage of petroleum, upon which their once-thriving agricultural industry
depended. And so the spectre of famine, unimaginable in the previous century,
haunted the unfortunate Americans. (See "The Oil Trap")

In the 20th Century, America's primary contribution to the world economy was
its advanced technology, as young students from around the world flocked to its
excellent universities to acquire advanced degrees and to engage in cutting-
edge research and development. With the closing of the public education system
and the end of federal research funding (except, of course, for the military),
superior centers of scientific and technological research appeared in Europe
and Asia. First to depart was bio-medical research, severely crippled by the
United States ban on stem-cell research. But this was only part of the story.
The manifest contempt for science by the Bushes and their corporate and
fundamentalist supporters accelerated the demise of the scientific and
technological pre-eminence of the United States.

Finally, with the United States government in the complete control of the
petroleum industry, the Bushes had no inclination whatever to build a bridge to
the post-petroleum age - with predictable and disastrous results. In stark
contrast, the Eurasian Union clearly foresaw the coming emergency, and made
massive preparations for it. Thus, in Eurasia today, the remaining petroleum
reserves are being properly utilised for their petrochemicals, while the
combination of biomass, solar, nuclear fusion and other sources, and the
hydrogen fuels produced thereby, offer abundant energy to the peoples of
Eurasia and Islamia. The United States, with no exportable commodities or
technologies of any worth, and bankrupted by the tax policies of the George and
Jeb Bush Administrations, is unable to enjoy the advantages of these
innovations, except, of course, out of the largesse of humanitarian aid from
Eurasia.

The New Despotism

The American democracy died with the invention and complete implementation of
paper-less computer voting. But this was a coup-de-grace, delivered to a body
politic critically injured by the rigging of the 2000 Florida presidential
election, engineered by Jeb Bush and his accomplices, and the subsequent vote
of five Republican operatives on the Supreme Court in the notorious ruling,
Bush v. Gore. The winner of the 2000 election, Al Gore, meekly acceded to this
judicial coup d'etat, and the public followed his lead.

Encouraged, if astonished, by this passivity of the public and the "opposition"
party, the victorious George Bush administration proceeded to snuff out the
civil liberties of the American people, until the final lights went out halfway
through the Jeb Bush administration. This twilight of the American democracy
was accelerated by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 upon New York
City and Washington, DC, whereby a stunned public and Congress accepted without
protest a draconian attack on the Bill of Rights, cynically named the USA
PATRIOT Act.

Soon after the re-election of George Bush in 2004, and the "uncovering" by the
CIA and FBI of an alleged plot by al Qaeda to set off a nuclear device in New
York Harbor, "Patriot Act II" was enacted by the Republican Congress. With
this, habeas corpus, and the constitutional rights of citizens to open trials
by juries, access to counsel, were all suspended. On the assumption that "you
are either for us or against us," as articulated by George Bush soon after the
September 2001 attacks, critics of the government were regarded as "traitors."
Mere hours before their intended arrests, dissenters Noam Chomsky and Paul
Krugman esca[ed to Canada and thence to the faculties of Oxford and Cambridge.
Democratic presidential aspirants Howard Dean, John Kerry and Dennis Kucinich
were not so lucky, and have not been heard from since their disappearance in
the summer of 2004.

Quite possibly these dissenters joined millions of others in the Alaskan Gulag,
perchance to work in the oil fields of ANWR and Prudhoe Bay. Or perhaps they
were impressed along with the millions of the unemployed to toil as farm
laborers when, due to the acute petroleum shortages, the farm machinery was
shut down and it became impossible to transport sufficient food for the
starving masses in the inner cities. "You work or you starve," was the stark
choice given to the unfortunate unemployed. Sadly, many who remained in the
cities did, in fact, starve or, weakened by malnutrition, fell victim to the
great plagues of the "twenty-teens."

Despite these catastrophes, the Republicans have been the sole ruling party in
the United States throughout the 21st century to this date. Typical Congresses
have contained about 80% Republican seats. The Democrats exist at the
sufferance of the Republicans, as unpersuasive "window dressing" to preserve at
least the appearance of democracy. Republicans congressmen who show any
independent tendencies are generally marked by the Party bosses for defeat in
primary elections, or in the general elections by designated and compliant
Democrats.

Observers from abroad regard American elections with the same contempt as
historians show toward "elections" in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
Informal polls (conducted with great difficulty and at great risk) show a
residual opposition to the Republicans, and often an overwhelming majority
preference for the Democrats. But no matter. The official results issuing from
the paperless voting machines are uniformly just what the Administration
desires. As always, the voting machines are manufactured, and the secret
software codes are written, by corporations completely controlled by the
Republicans (as, indeed, are all corporations). Exit polling is banned. Advance
polling by organisations such as Gallup accurately predict the final results.
But, of course, the Gallup organisation was acquired in 2006 by the Murdock
corporation.

Ninety percent of the media are owned by the three interlocking corporations
of "The First Amendment Consortium." The remaining ten percent are licensed by
the federal government. Independent newspapers or magazines that dare to
criticise the government are soon absorbed in "hostile takeovers" by the
Consortium. Of course, independent broadcast media no longer exist in the
United States.

In 2005, Rupert Murdock acquired full ownership of the Internet, whereupon
dissenting ("unpatriotic") websites were banished from the Net.

A tragedy, to be sure, but not unforeseen. As early as 2003, the journey toward
this dreadful destination was well-embarked. The stolen 2000 Presidential
election, well known to those who cared to study it, was two years in the past.
The PATRIOT Act had been enacted and several American citizens were being held
incommunicado, in violation of the Constitutional rights. The use of paperless
computer ballot machines was widespread and growing. The FCC successfully ruled
in favour of media conglomeration, and dissenting liberal opinions were
severely restricted on television, and virtually non-existent on the radio.

Finding no resistance, the triumphant Republicans proceeded, and by unopposed
increments, destroyed the American democracy.

The New World Order

A fundamental rule of politics, well-known to Aristotle and political
philosophers since, asserts that alliances are formed out of the shared

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The New World Order

A fundamental rule of politics, well-known to Aristotle and political
philosophers since, asserts that alliances are formed out of the shared
perception of a common threat. Thus, in the mid-twentieth century, the United
States, England and the Soviet Union joined forces against Nazi Germany.
Following the defeat of Germany, that alliance fell apart, as the NATO alliance
arose to meet the Soviet threat.

The unification of the Eurasian continent, long assumed to be a fantasy, was
brought about by the shared perception of a threat by the "rogue" American
imperialists. The American neo-conservatives could not have been clearer in
their intention that the United States would go it alone in the world.
Following their statement of this intention in such documents as the "Project
for the New American Century," the George Bush administration proceeded to
follow this guideline to the letter, abrogating treaties at will, invading
defenseless countries on patently false pretenses, and in general earning for
itself the fear and contempt of the global community.

In the face of this, the once-inconceivable unification of the nations of
Europe and Asia became an inevitability.

Similarly, following the invasion of Iraq in early 2003, and thence of Iran in
the spring of 2004, the Islamic nations united to form the Federation of
Islamia, which now stretches from the Atlantic, across north Africa, all the
way to Indonesia. The unity of Islamia was enhanced by the expulsion of the
American forces from Iraq in 2005, followed by the establishment of a Shi'ite
Islamic republic. As in neighboring Iran, Iraq suffered through a period of
fundamentalist repression, until the fanaticism consumed itself and was
replaced by a moderate semi-democratic government. So it has been throughout
Islamia, as the member states, faced with a choice between religious
fundamentalism and technical-economic development, have chosen the latter
option.

The overwhelming American military, the budget for which, at the turn of the
century, almost equaled the sum of all other military budgets combined, proved
to be of little use to the United States. Nuclear blackmail would not work
since, of course, the Eurasia was also a nuclear power. And as Viet Nam and
Iraq proved, the strategically astute response to a technologically
overwhelming force is to absorb the force and then to bleed it white with a
thousand cuts. (The Russians used the strategy successfully against Napoleon
and Hitler. The Americans, typically, learned nothing whatever from this
history).

Furthermore, the Eurasians and Islamics wisely understood that even if the an
opposing nation's military is invincible, it does not follow that the nation
itself is invincible. It might be vanquished non-militarily. And this, of
course, is exactly what happened. The United States, starved of resources and
credits, weakened internally by the fiscal insanity of the Bush brothers,
blinded by dogma to the insights of science and scholarship, collapsed from
within. (See "The Vulnerable Giant").

After their military had suffered several defeats in Islamia, the United States
withdrew, whereupon the military was put to use by the Department of Homeland
Security to put down insurrections, to protect the few oligarchs in their gated
communities, and to keep the masses confined to their gated ghettos in the
inner cities. In this capacity, aircraft carriers, submarines and ICBMs proved
to be of little use.

And so, the world beyond the shores of the United States has gone on to an era
of prosperity and enlightenment which the Americans cannot share - excepting,
of course, those fortunate American who manage to escape from the despotic
Republican regime and are welcomed immigrants to the Global community.

The growing community of American expatriates, who have contributed so
generously to world science, scholarship, literature, art, industry, and
culture, have also brought to our world the vivid memory of the magnificence of
the first two centuries of the American Republic - and the undying aspiration
for its restoration in that once-blessed land.

In the American Diaspora, the spirit of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln
and Roosevelt survives and flourishes.

May it soon return to its home.

Copyright 2003, by Ernest Partridge

Dr. Ernest Partridge is a consultant, writer and lecturer in the fields of
Environmental Ethics and Moral philosophy. He publishes the website, "The
Online Gadfly" www.igc.org/gadfly and co-edits the progressive website "The
Crisis Papers" www.crisispapers.org