Naomi Wolf Speaks About Saving Democracy

It was my pleasure and honor to hear celebrated author, Naomi Wolf, speak about her new book, Give Me Liberty, on Monday evening. This important new book gives an inspiring history of the founders of the American republic, then goes on to offer a large amount of information on how to re-energize and reclaim our democracy on behalf of the people. I plan to say more about this book in future posts.

For now, I will comment briefly on Ms. Wolf's dynamic talk on Monday. "Speaking from the heart," as she said, Ms. Wolf spoke about the fascist shift in America which she documented in her last book, The End of Ameria. Already in the midst of research when her book came out, I was startled nevertheless to see the evidence laid out so clearly: America had already drifted into fascism. As Wolf points out, this is not the fascism of the later years of Nazi Germany. This is the fascism of the beginning years, from 1930-1933, a time when a democratic and civil society still flourished. But Hitler had studied Mussolini and had a plan. Little by little the brown-shirts began to close down a free and open society, through intimidation -- often physical. Because the intimidation was aimed at those deemed undesirable -- thieves, homosexuals, and gypsies, for instance, there was no large public outcry. Then came the arrests of mainstream citizens -- journalists, and outspoken clergy among others. This caused the population to stop criticizing the Nazi movement. And the long night of fascism had begun in earnest.

In America, unused to coups and dictators, the population, kept ignorant by a compliant press, looked the other way as George W. Bush was installed in the White House by a nefarious and specious legal pronouncement on December 12, 2000.

Now the American people stand on the precipice. Below us is the abyss of economic collapse. Above us is an incompetent, ill-informed President who is subject to virtual manipulation by powerful economic forces controlled by Wall Street, such as former Goldman Sachs head, Henry Paulson.

Wolf's new book, Give Me Liberty, offers a way out, if we take it. Where Wolf fails is in any kind of deeper psychological analysis. Such an analysis would prove most helpful in taking the energy out of those who would send hundreds of billions of dollars into the pockets of those who have brought us this crisis. It would help us understand how people were willing to look the other way as an unsustainable bubble gurggled into existence, then grew up to be an unmanageable adolescent.

In spite of this criticism, this book is extremely valuable. I urge you to get this book and be informed, enlightened, and inspired into action.