The Day Democracy Died

This week the PGA comes back to the city of Benton Harbor. There's a protest going on, although I doubt you'll hear about it from any mainstream media outlet. There's a history here in the city of Benton Harbor, it's bubbling beneath the surface, on the daylight side of the media blackout.

I never thought these things could happen in America. But the video below was not shot in some far away banana republic. The man parading himself in the streets is not some egomaniacal, power hungry foreign dictator. This video comes from the state of Michigan. The man you see is right wing governor Rick Snyder.



WATCH: Rick Snyder Walks In Benton Harbor:

I repeat, I never thought these things could happen in the United States; that legally elected officials could be replaced with puppets of a totalitarian right wing regime, that public property could be quietly seized by fascist officials, that the will of the voters could be dismissed as inconsequential in both local and statewide elections, that citizens could be locked out of the state capital building, that all of these things and many others, could be done with little to no media fanfare.

Since coming into power in the state of Michigan, Rick Snyder has made himself sole dictator. He's granted himself the right to remove any elected official he does not want in power. He's taken away the right of every citizen to have a voice in government, by making his puppet government accountable only to himself. He's cut off open meetings and quashed participation in the democratic process, especially for those who are likely to express a point of view he does not want heard. He's trampled on the rights of the voters time and time again. He has pepper sprayed protesters and locked them out of their own capital building. He has appointed official 'spokespersons' as approved media representatives, while at the same time banning the right of local leaders to speak on behalf of the cities, towns and school systems they were elected by the voters of this state to represent. Given all of this, it may not come as a surprise to learn that he's also made drastic changes to long standing legislation, now making it nearly impossible for the citizens of Michigan to recall their Governor.

Last week about 500 tea partiers gathered in Washington DC to 'overthrow the 'Obama regime.' The same tea party fanatics that think the President is an out of control dictator, voted for Snyder and are apparently as blind to reality as they are ignorant of facts. Every time I see a tea party, infowars, Fox News, don't believe the liberal media bumper sticker I cringe for the future of our country. I can't comprehend how the same people who claim that Obama is a dictator who is taking away their rights (which ones?!?) are complacent as Snyder strangles democracy and creates a dictatorship right in front of their faces. I don't understand how they willfully and blindly excuse - even support - Snyder, even as he slowly takes away every right any citizen in this state ever had. They don't seem to understand what a dictatorship is...

And all the while the media fails to cover protest after protest, where thousands have gathered to fight against the right wing's illegal and unconstitutional seizure of power, here in Michigan and elsewhere around the country, in Wisconsin, in North Carolina, everywhere the right wing has set out to destroy the system of government that has been in place in this country since the days of our great grandparents and in many cases, before.


Protesting Governor Snyder at the Michigan State Capital:


Even as the right wing continues it's oppressive regime across Michigan and across the country, the tea party seems to remain under the delusion that they are the oppressed, rather than the oppressor. Their leaders are pepper spraying their neighbors and trampling on the rights of their brothers, sisters, friends and family members. Yet they are oblivious. Even in those rare moments when the media does report on what is happening in the state of Michigan, the picture is distorted, the reality of the situation is most often lost in the 'unbiased' equal weight to both sides, coverage.



Who was pepper sprayed during the recent fiasco better known as 'Operation America Spring'? Who was beaten, who was arrested, who was denied access to public property? The right wing agenda rolls on unrestrained, while across America peaceful protesters are arrested by the hundreds, if not the thousands, for opposing the right wing agenda of environmental destruction, oppression, sexism, racism and human rights abuses that range from denying healthcare coverage to the poor to denying food to children at school.

To me, Benton Harbor and Jean Klock Park are the symbols of the America we lost, the democracy they stole, the freedoms they squashed. The truth behind Michigan Emergency Manager law, a land grab, a money grab, a seizure of public dollars whether it's the seizure of a park, a city, a utility, a pension fund or a an art collection, billionaires want what they want, and with the help of the fascists they propelled to power, they get what they want.


The funeral for democracy was held in Benton Harbor, long before the Fascists arrived in Flint or
Pontiac, before they came to public schools across the state, before they seized the long awaited prize, the city of Detroit.


The funeral service was conducted by Rev. Pinkney, who, like so many other civil rights leaders in the history of the United States, has since been arrested on bogus charges, a transparent effort to intimidate and silence. The state of Michigan is now a frightening place to stand for freedom or democracy, or to speak for the poor, or to fight for the rights of workers, or to speak for women, or to have a set of religious beliefs that differs from the one promoted by the right wing government.

I wonder how long it will be before the fascists are finished with their test run in Michigan... They're perfecting their policies, learning from their mistakes, preparing to duplicate their successes in other states, before the final coup, which will take place in Washington, maybe within a decade. If it doesn't get shut down here in Michigan, then where and when?

Fascism is like a cancer, if it's not contained, it will spread through the system. We didn't stop it in Benton Harbor, so it spread through the state and the school system and it continues to spread, advancing further every day. We still have a voice, we still have a vote at the state level and the federal level. It's clear that the republican/tea party of today is not the party of the past. After years of propaganda and brainwashing, it's now the arm of the fascist movement, although I believe that most of the supporters of that movement have no idea what that they are supporting the overthrow of our system of democracy.

Is it too late to restore democracy in Benton Harbor, or in Flint, Pontiac, Detroit and all the other cities that have been taken over? Is it too late to stop the invasion through the next city, or the next state? It depends. In November Michigan voters will make their voices heard. The 2014 election will reveal a lot about who we are as a people, how much we value freedom and democracy and how willing we are to allow those things to be taken from ourselves and our fellow citizens, if the excuses are pretty enough and the propaganda is potent enough.