Pandora’s Box

The lid to Pandora’s Box is raised. Previously, a trickle seeped through holes some lawmakers tried to plug, but evil now rushes out and seemingly can’t be stopped. The pandemic flies out as nature’s way of demonstrating who’s boss. It is followed by poor leadership that helps it stay in power and multiply. It produced an economy in shambles with food banks stretched to the limit. People without jobs live in fear of losing their homes and being forced to shelter in cars or on the streets. Youth tired of isolation, party in crowds while religious zealots pray en-mass. Since ignorance and self-centeredness flew from the box at the same time, they don’t wear masks. So, illness increases, deaths rise, and hospitals are stretched to the limit. When boredom was released, social distancing collapsed and witch doctors with voodoo beliefs in medical cures contrary to scientifically backed research from the CDC, floated untruths heard by a leader more interested in money than health care.

Out of the box marched troops stirring up riots in Portland, a city where protesters had dwindled to fewer than 100. With hatred and power on the loose, the storm troopers escalated the situation until more than 2000 people protest nightly. The Federal troops withdrew from public view last Friday but are not leaving. On the 29th of July, the Justice Department said it would send law enforcement officials to Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Detroit.  Leaders in Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Washington sent a letter imploring Congress to make it illegal to send federal agents to cities where they are unwelcome. Chicago troops are buttoned down inside a federal building waiting for orders.

The virus and protests are nothing compared to how democracy has been eroded. They are simply distractions that hide what was set in motion years ago when evil began seeping out of Pandora’s Box. Finding the combination to unlock it has been in the works since the 1960s civil rights movement. Two books provide a roadmap to what is happening today.

Nancy MacLean, a Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University, published Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America after spending ten years doing in-depth research.She was on  a quest to find the origin of the far right movement.The book won many awards including the Nation’s “Most Valuable Book” award and it was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Watching troops deployed to Democratic cities and hearing Trump threaten to postpone the next election, demonstrate they way Americans are manipulated. Since he became president, distanced the country from democratic Allies, undermined NATO, pulled out of the World Health Organization, negated treaties around global warming, and threatened international trade. He befriended dictators and masterfully divided the country by distracting us with comments that instill hatred and fear.

What  we see today, is the result of years of brilliant, well-funded planning. Economist James McGill Buchanan at the University of Virginia put the wheels in motion in the wake of Brown vs. Board of education in 1955 by initiating a program aimed at  undermining the ability of the majority to use its numbers to level the playing field between the rich and powerful and the rest of the nation. Buchanan divides the country into “makers” and “takers” and trained a select group of students in how to convert Americans to embrace economic freedom for the wealthy.  

When the Koch brothers heard of his program they got involved  and made millions of dollars available to start think-tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, The Cato Institute, Freedom Works, ALEC, and the Reason Foundation. Each one focuses on a singular area—schools, courts, media, constitution, taxes, etc. The far right eventually took Republican party away from its moderate wing and the Federalist Society spun out Libertarian judges and had them appointed to the federal bench in record numbers.

Realizing that change had to occur slowly by subterfuge, they were patient. They set goals to privatize Social Security and Medicare, eviscerate the environment, control medical insurance and financial regulators, bust the unions, marginalize federal bureaucracies like EPA and CDC, cut taxes for the rich and corporations, and suppress voting rights. Plans call for an oligarchy in all but the outer representative form. With Mike Pence as Vice President,  a longtime loyalist was in the White House to work with like minded Republicans in the House and Senate, in State Governments and the courts. The pandemic gave them with two trillion dollars to spend as they wish. I imagine much of it is being used to prop up the stock market. 

James Buchanan was hired by Augusto Pinochet in Chile to help him rule. The arrangement provided him with an opportunity to try out his ideas. They worked well enough to keep a right wing dictator in power for seventeen years. During that time they changed the courts and constitution so that even though Pinochet was kicked out of office, the laws of the land continued to operate.

To succeed back at home, the group needed a voting block that would not get in their way, so they chose to bring in the religious right. Planners weren’t concerned about dogma as long as religious leaders got people out to vote. If someone wants to date a call girl or have affairs outside of marriage, they do so without worry. If a wealthy woman needs an abortion, she gets it. They lie, cheat, steal and travel in an insular world away from the masses.

The way the religious right is involved in the plan is spelled out in the The Family: The  Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet (now a Netflix film). I know several people who are members of The Family. They attend prayer breakfasts in Washington and subscribe their truncated “Jesus Plus Nothing” bible. In Jesus Plus is a selection of passages from the bible that support those who have  money and power. The book describes The Family as being the most influential religious organization in Washington. It is interwoven with the affairs of nations worldwide and rules through backroom diplomacy. It was instrumental in changing laws in Uganda that have Gays and Lesbians stoned to death. They brainwash dictators into believing they are chosen by God because of their wealth or position of power. The autocrats are told they can do nothing wrong for their sins will be forgiven in heaven. The people I spoke to who are (or were) on the inside of the Family, confirm that everything Sharlet discusses in his book is accurate.

Democracy in Chains and The Family  are well documented investigations, and should be read by anyone who wants to understand what is happening to the country. The planners are smart, secretive, and have been testing their ideas for over sixty years. They  have been meeting regularly with similar secret societies operating abroad. Americans should be terrified that Pandora’s Box stays open. We need to find a way to put the evil back in and close the lid again.

This fall, I plea with you not to sit back. Let your meditation lead to action. This movement cannot be willed away by chanting love and peace. Understand what is going on and get involved. Help change the leadership of the country. Make phone calls. Write letters. Talk with friends who don’t agree with you and seek common ground. This is a Democracy, and we each have the right to an opinion. Democracy requires us to fact check, and not react to emotions, hearsay or gossip.  Remember the quote from  Martin Niemöller during the Nazi rise in the 1930s.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

That is how peaceful protesters felt who were pulled from their cars and off the streets of Portland and shoved into unmarked SUVs by an occupying military force.

References:

Klein, C. (2020) Trump is strong-arming Cities with Even More Federal troops. Vanity Fair. retrieved from https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/trump-strong-arming-cities-with-even-more-federal-troops-portland

France 24 (2020)Troops to deploy in three more US cities as federal forces begin Portland withdrawal. Americas. https://www.france24.com/en/20200729-troops-to-deploy-in-three-more-us-cities-as-federal-forces-begin-portland-withdrawal

Sharlet, Jeff.( 2020) Jesus Plus Nothing: Undercover among America’s secret theocrats. Hoper’s Magazine. retrieved from https://harpers.org/archive/2003/03/jesus-plus-nothing/

Farrant, A. & Tarko, V. ( 2019) ( James M. Buchanan’s 1981 visit to Chile: Knightian democrat or defender of the ‘Devil’s fix’?. Ideas. retrieved from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/revaec/v32y2019i1d10.1007_s11138-017-0410-3.html

Long, C. & Colvin, J .(July, 22, 2020) Trump deploys more federal agents under ;’aw and order’ push. Associated Press. retrieved from https://apnews.com/eaa951c352353133c0ea95c12fa05781

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