Nobody asked me, but when she was stumping for the Democratic Presidential nomination, back in 2008; I remember Hillary Clinton saying, “We are facing a right-wing conspiracy to take over the country”.
Those words seemed a bit alarmist to me then. Now they do not.
Oligarchy: A form of government in which power effectively rests with a small number of people, distinguished by royalty or great wealth.
The election of Barack Obama jolted the oligarchy into full court press mode. The racist backlash was palpable, both on Main Street and in the halls of Congress. Since the 2008 election, membership in hate groups has skyrocketed across the country. Congressmen and governors are shouting and wagging their fingers in the face of the “brother” President.
In 2011, shortly after the mid-term elections, Florida passed the “Stand Your Ground” statute which George Zimmerman used to defend himself in the murder of Treyvon Martin. The mid-term elections brought Republican control to the House of Representatives and a number of state houses and governors mansions.
The template of that “Stand Your Ground” statute was devised by the National Rifle Association. Since those mid-term elections, 25 Republican controlled states have either passed “Stand Your Ground” laws or have them in the pipeline. Even more ominous are the ongoing efforts to suppress the vote of populations that supported Obama in 2008. The voter ID ballot measure here in Minnesota is but one example. Even more insidious are measures passed by newly Republican controlled state legislatures or unilaterally enacted by Republican governors that restrict the capacity of organizations like The League of Women Voters –a non-partisan organization – to register new voters. In some states, absentee and early voting has been severely restricted or wiped away. This suppresses the voting power of college students and elderly churchgoers; two groups which supported Obama overwhelmingly in 2008.
All these things add up to:
1. A rogue, conservative court with a game changing decision.
2. Twenty-five newly red states moving toward “Stand Your Ground” laws and numerous voter suppression enactments.
3. Hundreds of millions of a few men’s dollars being deployed around the country in support of “far right” initiatives such as the support of Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin and Gov. Rick Scott in Florida.
4. A spate of anti-women, anti- immigrant initiatives focused on bringing back the 1950s.
It suggests to me an overall nationwide plan to reshape the country. They seem to me to view themselves as this planet’s super-elite with the entire rest of the world’s population as their underclass.
The freedoms for which young American men and women have so recently given life and limb are being deliberately and cynically eroded and erased. Hillary Clinton knew whereof she spoke.
