This is the Shock Doctrine - http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine - in full force --
overwhelm, distract, and divert. The "country’s willingness to capitulate
to a fascist regime" is being tested. I agree that it is deeply important,
it is critical, to go deeper and deeper and deeper in our research and awareness
of what is happening. ~ Molly
by Jake Fuentes
When I read about
the incredibly active first week of the Trump administration,
I struggle with two competing narratives about what’s really going
on. The first story is simple: the administration is just doing what it said it
would do, literally keeping its campaign promises. Lots of people won’t agree,
but it’s playing to its base. They’re also not really good at this whole
government thing yet, so implementation is shaky. The second is more sinister: the administration
is deliberately testing the limits of governmental checks and balances to
set up a self-serving, dangerous consolidation of power.
A legitimate
argument can be made for the former: a relatively extreme and inexperienced
administration was just put in place, and they haven’t yet figured out the
nuances of government. But a few of the events in the past 72 hours —the intentional inclusion of green card holders in the
immigration order, the DHS defiance of a
federal judge, and the timing of Trump’s shakeup of the National Security Council — have pointed to a larger story. Even worse, if that
larger story is true, if the source of this week’s actions is a play to
consolidate power, it’s going really well so far. And that’s because mostly
everyone — including those
in protests shutting down airports over the weekend— are playing
right into the administration’s hand.
I obviously can’t
pretend to know the intentions of the new President, but let’s pretend the
power consolidation move is what’s actually happening. In fact, let’s pretend
we’re the Trump administration (not necessarily Trump himself, more likely his
inner circle) for a second. Here’s our playbook:
1. We launch a series of
Executive Orders in the first week. Beforehand, we identify one that our
opponents will complain loudly about and will dominate the news cycle.
Immigration ban. Perfect.
2. We craft the ban to be
about 20% more extreme than we actually want it to be — say, let’s make the explicit decision to block green card holders from
defined countries from entering the US, rather than just visa holders. We
create some confusion so that we can walk back from that part later, but let’s
make sure that it’s enforced to begin with.
3. We watch our opposition
pour out into the streets protesting the extremes of our public measure,
exactly as we intended. The protests dominate the news, but our base doesn’t
watch CNN anyway. The ACLU will file motions to oppose the most extreme parts
of our measure, that’s actually going to be useful too. We don’t actually care
if we win, that’s why we made it more extreme than it needed to be. But in
doing so, the lawsuit process will test the loyalty of those enforcing what we
say.
4. While the nation’s
attention is on our extreme EO, slip a few more nuanced moves through. For
example, reconfigure the National Security Council so that it’s
led by our inner circle. Or gut the State Department’sability to resist more extreme
moves. That will have massive benefits down the road — the NSC are the folks
that authorize secret assassinations against enemies of the state, including
American citizens. Almost nobody has time to analyze that move closely, and
those that do can’t get coverage.
5. When the lawsuits filed
by the ACLU inevitably succeed, stay silent. Don’t tell the DHS to abide
by the what the federal judge says, see what they do on their own. If they
capitulate to the courts, we know our power with the DHS is limited and we need
to staff it with more loyal people. But if they continue enforcing our EO until we tell them not to, we know
that we can completely ignore the judicial branch later on and the DHS will
have our back.
6. Once the DHS has made
their move, walk back from the 20% we didn’t want in the first place. Let the
green card holders in, and pretend that’s what we meant all along. The
protestors and the ACLU, both clamoring to display their efficacy, jump on the
moment to declare a huge victory. The crowds dissipate, they have to go back to
work.
7. When the dust settles,
we have 100% of the Executive Order we originally wanted, we’ve tested the
loyalty of a department we’ll need later on, we’ve proven we can ignore an entire
branch of government, and we’ve slipped in some subtle moves that will make the
next test even easier.
We’ve just tested
the country’s willingness to capitulate to a fascist regime.
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