Republicans are Right: The Coming Tyranny

From Rant’s, Raves and Rock n’ Roll Sept. 3. 2012

For four years the republicans have been giving us dire warnings of the impending tyranny of President Barack Obama, even before he was elected. How did they know it was coming? Because the coming tyranny is being brought to us courtesy of conservative/republicans. With Presidential elections just about upon us, exactly what is the Republican vision? This election is becoming less about being one of the most important elections of this country’s history, and more for the soul of this nation.

To see an example of the future republicans, have in store for this nation, if they were to win the coming election, one should look no further than Michigan. When the new republican state legislature took over in 2011 they passed the “Emergency Managers Law,” which in effect states that if a city is deemed insolvent by the governor he appoints an emergency manager who has the power to fire duly elected city councils, and mayors, as well as selling off city assets, and can unilaterally alter or throw out collective bargaining agreements. No sooner was the law enacted than the Michigan governor declared emergencies for Benton Harbor and Detroit. In Benton Harbor the manager there immediately fired the mayor and city council. One avenue of dissent was available to the citizens of Benton Harbor and that was a small radio station and the citizens of Benton Harbor did voice their first amendment rights (the founding fathers made freedom of speech the first amendment for a reason) in opposition to the emergency manager. What happened? The emergency manager shut the radio station down and tried to sell it off. Does that all sound familiar to you? It should, its exactly the template dictators use when seizing power. Emergency powers are granted for the duration of the emergency with the promise that as soon as the emergency passes Democracy will return, but some-how it never does. The emergency never ends, and the same has occurred in Michigan. Not one of the cities that have received emergency managers has had control of their local government returned to them. The emergency manager law is in a state of limbo. To their credit, Michigan voters signed petitions to get the law up for a referendum vote in this coming November’s election. The Michigan Supreme Court has suspended the law pending the outcome of November’s election, but the Governor is trying to end run the court’s decision and is refusing to cede power back to the local governments.

Voter suppression. This is the highest visibility item in the republican arsenal. Under the auspices of republican banner in many states (especially swing states), republicans have enacted laws with the stated goal of eliminating voting fraud. Never mind that there isn’t a problem. Entire states, over the course of decades, have examples of voter fraud that is in the tenths of a percent. What these laws do is target groups that traditionally vote Democratic. They aim to disenfranchise minority groups, the poor, students, the elderly, and early voting by either imposing what amounts to a poll tax on registering to vote, or by making so many potential hoops to jump through so as to discourage potential voters altogether. If you’re looking for actual voter fraud, again, see the republican party. Michigan congressman Thaddeus McCotter was forced to resign recently because he and his staff were caught with fraudulently adding voter signatures to petitions to get him on the ballot for re-election. Another recent example of voter fraud was by Charlie White, the Indiana Secretary of State, the agency that is supposed to guarantee the integrity of elections, was found guilty of false registration, voting in a precinct he wasn’t eligible to vote in and submitting a false ballot. Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has a history of voting in Massachusetts elections he wasn’t eligible to vote in. I guess that means republicans know voter fraud because they are the face of voter fraud.

What does that leave for the future? Well, if republican rhetoric and behavior when in office is any indication, if republicans are given control of the future of this country they will enact restrictive gun laws with the purpose of limiting and confiscating firearms, after all they don’t want any “second amendment remedies” once their true face is exposed. I also believe republicans will bring jobs back to this country, but only after unions are broken, minimum wage and child labor laws are repealed, as well as deregulation of environmental and safety laws are assured. In short when the American worker is broken and it is cheaper to bring jobs back to America than paying the wages in third world countries, in short, when republicans have succeeded in making America a third world country.

Republicans have been very forthright in their plan for America, except they have been projecting these dire and Orwellian scenarios onto Democrats. However, when put they are put into actual practice, they are republican policies. When you go into the voting booth this November consider whether this may be the last time you’re afforded the chance to cast a vote in a free American election.

Note: This article was first published in Rant’s, Raves and Rock n’ Roll magazine, September 3, 2012, and aired on their internet radio show for discussion. Minor editorial changes have been made for clarity.