It’s time to get real about imperialism. It’s not enough to rail against Putin — though we should, under the circumstances. The problem we have as Americans is that we’ve done the same thing. Our version, corporate imperialism, is what led us to invade Iraq under false pretenses. It’s also what motivated Donald Trump to become president — despite what he may have told us.
It’s time to come clean.
This is not hyperbole — it is a lesson in history.
If you want to destroy a country, you can easily find a template. Just look at what corporate money, unfettered capitalism, and the CIA did in South America in the 70s and 80s.
There is a haunting similarity between what Donald Trump tried to do here and the horrors that evolved when a group of misguided economists, headed by Milton Friedman and the University of Chicago School of Economics (aided by the CIA), made a laboratory of South American countries to experiment with laissez-faire capitalism.
Instead of freedom, there was bondage. Instead of protecting families, families were torn apart. Neighbors were made into watchdogs, forced to turn on each other to protect themselves.
People were tortured and murdered if they dared speak out against the government’s policies — and the torture mechanisms used were advocated and even taught to the South American dictators and their cronies by American citizens who believed no price was too high as long as they could create a new state where corporations aligned with the government would control the citizenry and the only goal would be increased profits for the men at the top.
These experiments in free-market capitalism cost hundreds of thousands of lives and resulted in the most horrific torture techniques imaginable — still used in places like Guantanamo Bay. And all of it was done in the name of free-market capitalism. If you didn’t like what was happening and dared to protest, you’d be whisked off to a torture lab where “scientific” experiments would be used to break you.
In the minds of the men who consistently advocated that the dictators they work with use violence to subdue the natural democratic impulses of their people, their theories ruled the day — even when reality stood in stark contrast to what they believed would work.
In the end, their theories proved false. Economies, in every case, went from bad to worse. Instead of allowing everyone to benefit from their free-market policies, the gap between rich and poor grew wider, and eventually, their economies collapsed.
We have plenty of evidence to show that “Reaganomics” doesn’t work. Democrats understand this. Republicans still want to pretend it does. That’s because, for wealthy people with blinders on, it works quite well; it’s the rest of us who suffer.
The Shock Doctrine
The terrible legacy of American capitalistic ambitions is meticulously documented in a 2007 book by Naomi Klein called “The Shock Doctrine.”
In her book, Klein explains how impatient economists — too eager for quick profits and unwilling to concern themselves with the violence and poverty their policies created for millions (who were not in a position to benefit from privatization efforts of national industries and widespread corporate takeovers of large sectors of the economy) created widespread economic chaos wherever they went.
Years later, when Amnesty International documented the atrocities committed in the name of the free market, they conveniently failed to tie the economic policies of the right-wing extremists who invaded these South American countries to the torture, mutilation, and murders of hundreds of thousands of people, despite copious evidence supporting this connection.
The failure to connect the dots was not an accident. It was a deliberate attempt to hide the gruesome reality, and it was successful because the report on the horrors inflicted in South America was funded, in part, by the same corporation that would eventually provide most of the funding for the report to Amnesty International. (Klein, 2007, pp. 154)
According to Klein, even reporting by esteemed publications like the New York Times failed to expose the lie that crony capitalism and the privatization of national resources were the causes of the widespread suppression of liberties, the disappearances of countless people, and the torture of thousands.
When recounting the “experiments” the U.S. conducted in other countries, a selective batch of data touted the profitable malls and luxury goods markets that never existed before as the basis for their claims of success — ignoring entirely the millions in poverty and the brutal actions that were taken by these governments to subdue those who dared to disagree with the capitalistic policies being forced upon them.
“Just as the Chicago economists had nothing to say about the torture (it had nothing to do with their areas of expertise), the human rights groups had little to say about the radical transformations taking place in the economic sphere (it was beyond their narrow legal purview).
The idea that the repression and the economics were in fact a single unified project reflected in only one major human rights report from this period: Brasil: Nunca Mais. Significantly, it is the only truth commission report published independently of both the state and foreign foundations.” (Klein, 2007, pp. 154–155)
Klein’s book is a remarkable account of what really happened in the 70s and 80s, a story mainstream media failed to cover entirely at the time. Since then, other publications have finally covered this story in the detailed manner it deserves.
While I highly recommend reading the entirety of The Shock Doctrine, the Guardian also published an in-depth accounting of these events in 2020.
Most of what is recounted here came from Klein’s book.
It starts with a coup
When the University of Chicago School of Economics (the Chicago School) theorized the capitalistic takeover of South American countries, they may have expected to be welcomed. (Not unlike Putin, who deluded himself into believing Ukrainians would welcome his invaders with flowers.)
When they met with resistance instead, the capitalist contingent forced their policies upon the citizens via CIA-backed coups. When the people resisted, they killed or tortured them.
Over time, the only thing the citizenry could do was go underground — where they were pursued even more relentlessly.
The evil these men did can never be justified. But to make matters worse, their theories didn’t work. In fact, in all of the countries where it was tried, the local economies fell apart.
The same “shock and awe” doctrine George W. Bush tried to use in Iraq in the early 2000s had been proven decades earlier to be a destructive and reckless plan which inevitably led to destroying nations, both economically and culturally.
In every case, rampant greed and corruption followed. With nothing to mitigate the lawlessness of unbridled capitalism, inflation rose to unprecedented levels, unemployment became rampant, and people were forced to sacrifice their liberties to stay alive.
This is exactly what would have happened here had Trump been successful in his recent coup attempt — an effort he admitted was designed to put him back in the White House and make him our permanent “dear leader”.
While many claim we saved democracy on Jan. 6 when we certified the 2022 election results in the aftermath of an insurrection, it would be foolish and naïve to think democracy is safe.
It can happen here
In Florida, Texas, and Georgia, these same anti-democratic tactics are being used today to wrest control of the government from the people and place it in the hands of corporations — who will, if not stopped, do precisely what they did in South America.
They’ll take over our country. Even as they claim to protect democracy and American values — they will do the opposite.
It’s already begun in Texas, where ordinary citizens can report women suspected of seeking abortions for a “reward” of $10,000. The law was backed by the Supreme Court, but only after Trump appointed three judgmentally, and temperamentally unqualified judges (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barrett).
Prior to Trump’s re-making of the court, SCOTUS would have placed a stay on the law due to its unenforceable nature and its clear violation of Roe v. Wade.
Instead, the current unbalanced and illegitimate court allowed the law to go into effect and then reversed Roe v. Wade, eliminating the contradiction between their inhumane law and SCOTUS precedent.
Today, even in states where abortion is still legal, companies like Walgreens have chosen to stop selling the abortion pill for fear of reprisals from the government. Likewise, doctors fearing prosecution are now systematically failing to deliver appropriate care to pregnant women who need an abortion to protect their health and safety.
SCOTUS may lack legitimacy, but they still have power
SCOTUS no longer cares if laws are clear or fair — it’s even better when they’re not. Fear is the weapon of choice now. And it’s one DeSantis has become proficient in wielding.
If you think outlawing abortion is the main reason Trump appointed Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barret to the court, you’re missing something.
The fundamental goal of Trump’s SCOTUS appointments was to lay the groundwork for duplicating what happened in South America. That’s why the big money is behind Ron DeSantis now — Trump’s legal woes require right-wing corporate interests to have a backup plan.
When the anti-democratic policies DeSantis is implementing in Florida end up in the Supreme Court, who will vote to overturn them? Not Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, or Amy Coney Barrett.
Will Chief Justice Roberts save the day? Don’t count on it.
DeSantis is a shill for corporate interests
It wasn’t a fair fight when DeSantis won the governorship in Florida. Reporting shows he received about $100m in financing — far and above what his opponents were able to raise. That’s because DeSantis is funded by the same kind of dark money operatives who fueled the South American coups.
Corporations whose sole goal is profit care little for working people. We are their cannon fodder. We are dispensable. We are in the way of their version of progress.
So how do they get us out of the way? They scare us into believing democratic freedoms are the enemy.
There has been no credible documentation of drag queens attempting to indoctrinate children, but Ron DeSantis will have you believe that a man dressed as a woman while reading books to children is enough to make them gay. Never mind science, which tells us sexuality is determined by biology.
DeSantis wants you to believe the mere existence of transgender people will somehow force a deterioration of your family’s beliefs and identity. Of course, no documented case of this has ever occurred, but as long as DeSantis can create this fear, he wins. These are just two examples, but there are more.
What makes us great is our acceptance of individuality and willingness to acknowledge that being an American does not mean being Christian, white, or male. Nor does it mean buying into the idea that money is more important than freedom or self-respect.
The culture war Republicans are promoting is a calculated attempt to divide us and cause us to believe the enemy is freedom: freedom to love whom we love, freedom to believe what we believe, and freedom to be who we are.
Yet no evidence has ever been provided to show DeSantis’s twisted vision of America is real because it’s not — just the opposite. What makes us great is our acceptance of individuality and willingness to acknowledge that being an American does not mean being Christian, white, or male. Nor does it mean buying into the idea that money is more important than freedom or self-respect.
In their greed and lust for power, DeSantis and the men behind him are poised to push the same rhetoric that led to the torture, disappearance, and murder of countless people in South America and the ruin of their peaceful, democratic lives — all in service of Milton Friedman’s economic theories — theories that brought disaster to the people they were forced upon.
And what did these so-called wise men do when confronted with this reality? They doubled down — just like Trump, DeSantis, and the rest of the right-wing leaders are doing today. They do not wish to learn from their mistakes — they wish to punish those of us who do.
In Georgia, the other day, the state House and Senate passed a law allowing prosecutors to be removed from office if Republicans don’t like how they operate. Georgia Governor Kemp has already announced his decision to sign it.
Do you think it’s a coincidence that this is happening just as Fulton County DA Fani Willis is about to indict Trump for his part in the Georgia election scandal? Fat chance. The proponents of this bill have been careful to avoid mentioning Willis as they push for another unnecessary law designed to address a non-existent problem. But let’s see what they do once it passes.
In the meantime, there is one thing the rest of us can do: Stop voting for Republicans.
One day, we may have a conservative party that promotes democracy while upholding conservative values, and if that day comes, we can all breathe a sigh of relief.
But, until then, we must be vigilant, or we will be the ones without a country.