The Slow March To Totalitarianism
“We are doing everything in our power to dismantle this demonic rule” by VOCSociety is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Long-lasting alterations to the structure of American government have often been made during moments of duress. Typically, the policies that are enacted during difficult times outlive the predicament they were created to address. In some aspects, America has been down this road before. Maybe not exactly to the extent of the current situation, but the population has been in a state of fear in the past. During times of crisis, the American government has a history of expanding its legal sovereignty and then subsequently leaving the new laws in place. For example, Abraham Lincoln was the first U.S. President to institute the military draft. He did so due to the lack of adequate numbers of volunteers during the Civil War. After the war ended, conscription remained a part of the American way of life for over 100 years. President Abraham Lincoln also introduced the first federal income tax in U.S. history to fund the war effort. Even though the income tax law later expired, it served as the inspiration for future legislation. During Woodrow Wilson’s administration, it became a permanent part of American existence.
Speaking of Woodrow Wilson, while the United States was engaging in World War I, Wilson pushed a number of controversial bills that drastically curtailed the civil liberties of American citizens. The Sedition Act of 1918, which was an ancillary part of the larger Espionage Act of 1917 made it illegal to speak out in verbal or written form against America’s involvement in the war, blatantly infringing on the First Amendment right to free speech. Penalties for expressing opposition to the war included fines and imprisonment. Many U.S. citizens were arrested during Wilson’s Presidency as a result of the Espionage Act, with some estimates of over 2,000 U.S. citizens being detained. The Espionage Act of 1917 still remains in force to some degree in the modern day. Its initial purpose was to proscribe interference with U.S. military operations and to prevent the support of United States enemies during wartime. But in modern times, whistleblowers such as Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden have all been accused or convicted of felonies under the Act. Arguably unfairly so.
In the midst of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) rapidly broadened the purview of the federal government through his New Deal legislation. He was given a blank check to do so while American citizens were struggling under the heavy burden of the economic crisis. They looked to FDR as their savior, and he took full advantage of that fact. Many of the laws that he passed back then are still in force now. For example, he passed the Fair Labor Standards Act which permanently created minimum wage laws in the United States. During World War II, FDR imposed federal rent control laws throughout the U.S. to combat wartime inflation and to ensure that tenants would not be evicted. The policies had mixed results, but some states, especially liberal states like California, New York, and New Jersey, continue to enforce rent control laws on landlords to this day.
After the September 11, 2011 attacks by Al-Qaeda on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the entire world was in a state of shock. The mighty United States had taken a blow that it had never experienced before. The motif of American strength and power had been shattered. Millions, if not billions around the globe watched in stupefied horror as the towers burned and crumbled to the ground. It was the first time that a foreign enemy had inflicted that level of destruction on U.S. soil. Citizens immediately looked towards the President for guidance and leadership. President George W. Bush promised that the safety and security of American citizens would come first and foremost, and that is precisely what the American people wanted to hear. Little did they know that life as they knew it would change forever. To ensure that a terrorist plot like 9/11 would never happen again, the Bush administration passed the Patriot Act a little more than a month after the attacks occurred. At the time, most of America’s attention was focused on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Fear and anger were still high, so there was no serious effort to examine the provisions that were laid out in the 132 page piece of legislation. It was only until later, much later, that Americans realized that the Patriot Act legalized mass surveillance in the United States and made it far easier for the federal government to spy on ordinary Americans. According to the Act, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) can search any U.S. citizen’s computer, phone, and financial records without a court order in what amounts to a bold repudiation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. The most disturbing aspect of the law is that it was supposed to expire over a decade and a half ago, yet the U.S. government has continued to renew it every few years with little attention or fanfare.
“George Orwell, 1984” from Wikimedia Commons
While U.S. citizens obsess over the virus, the democratic process is being suspended and subverted. Bureaucrats, technocrats, “public health experts,” journalists, and small groups of politicians are now running the show. There are no votes and no referendums on this situation; everyone just has to follow state and federal orders. As the United States hurtles towards permanently becoming a police state, it is clear that the regulations that are being put in place are not all that different from the regulations that are present in authoritarian or totalitarian countries. Coronavirus outbreak aside, are the rules against going to the gym, going to the beach, going to the movie theater, visiting a restaurant, or visiting the mall any different from what a tyrannical leader would suddenly impose or what a totalitarian government would arbitrarily enforce? Not really. Furthermore, is there any reason to believe that the actions that are being taken now will not set a precedent for future action?
Typically, once the dam of tyrannical force is breached, it is virtually impossible to restore the original barricade halting the deluge. The Constitution is a powerful theoretical document but practically, it is fragile. To maintain its force, it requires constant attention and constant review even in moments of adversity in order to keep it from being swept away by the tempest. As the states and the federal government continue to unlock more and more previously untapped power, and continue to do so with minimal resistance from the populace, a new status quo will very well be reached in which the government looms large over the masses.
If you enjoyed what you read, please take a look at Section 4 when it is released
Comments