Shrubbyism

Shrubbyism might "more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power."  This under the management of those who control the corporation and benefit from the accumulation of power and wealth in corporate hands.  (Example)  In its organization of power corporatism  "has the following characteristics:

• The state has the ultimate authority over production and distribution without (as in socialism) actually owning the means of production and distribution.
• Control is generally accomplished through cartelization, the creating of industry-wide councils in which the representatives of the most powerful firms set policy in conjunction with representatives of government.

But it is more than simple Corporatism, since:
 
• From the point of view of economics, Shrubbyism is  an extremely but predictably anti Schumpeterian species of Corporatism. 
  
• It seeks to freeze in place or even roll back the current organization of the US economy, with special attention to the "disruptive" effects of the computer and communications revolution of the last 20 years. 
  
• It adopts regulatory policies, especially in telecommunications and  "intellectual property" (patent and copyright) policy which work against the 'creative destruction' that is essential to the development of new technologies on which growth in productivity and economic progress is largely dependent. 
  
• This not only slows the growth of these "new economy" industries, but chokes off the availability of new methods of expression and communication which are just now being widely used by citizens the world over to defend their liberties and interests from authoritarian governments and corporations.  They are scared to death of popular control over mass communications.
• Shumpeterian economic and social theory, and the so called "Shumpeterian Hypothesis" are discussed at these links:
• http://www.aabss.org/journal2000/f07Raines.jmm.html
• http://www.legamedia.net/legamall/2002/02-10/0210_porter_michael_competition-antitrust_01.php
• http://www.jimpivonka.com/weblogs/weblog040323.html#Schumpeter
  
• It is authoritarian and overtly unfriendly to civil liberties and the Bill of Rights.   It rushed to enact enact the "USA unPatriot Act", has a draconian extension of that act "Patriot II" drafted and waiting to be submitted, and seeks to greatly expand federal police powers across the board, as well as encouraging similar expansion at the State and local levels.  It uses, and seeks to expand the use of secret courts, torture of prisoners, and similar means of social and  political control.
• It seeks to increase social inequalities, and to escape the consequences of the social unrest which results by expansion of police powers and presence, and by the use of sophisticated means of social control through media based propagands and disinformation campaigns.  Public policy measures in support of this include:
• Tax reductions which result in permanent underfunding of public needs such as education, health, and social security, while increasing disparities in wealth and income.
• Regulatory policies further concentrating media ownership and the control of information available to the public.
• The dismantling of the system of free public education which has supported an informed and competant electorate for two centuries.
• The disconnection (and further disaffection) of the people from the electoral process through the introduction of unverifiable, corporate owned, electronic voting systems.
• It is militarist, glorifying war and the use of military power.    It has sought to break down the barriers (posse comitatus) between military and police powers.  "If we do not want to live in a nation where opposing perpetual war is an act of sedition, then we must register that view at the ballot box." (David Podvin)  It  seeks to transfer immense amounts of our national product and resources to military use, for the purpose of terrorizing and threatening other nations into compliance with its demands that they conform to and support its economic and rightist social agenda around the world.  Graeme Watson of the European Union Parliament has said:
• "It is claimed in London, Washington and Madrid that war could be short, swift and successful. With U.N. support this could indeed be the case. But without it, in a conflict which divides the international community, we could be on the brink of another Hundred Years' War which could bring down regimes well beyond Iraq."
But from the point of view of totalitarian Shrubbyism, which depends upon a  'perpetual war' strategy to both to gain political support and retain power, and to justify the transfer of government resources away from non military purposes, that is not an undesired result.
• It is shown to be racist by it's antipathy to the civil rights of women and minorities, a taint which  is accentuated by:
• a  quote from PNAC:  'advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool',
• as well as bythe expression of racist sentiments by powerful politicians among its supporters, as well as the confidence of some members of certain the public that it is aligned with their racist political agendas, a
• and by its efforts  to reverse decades of legal advances which have begun to correct the effects of centuries of oppression, through the appointment of rightist extremists to the Federal Judiciary.
• It looks back to 'past days of glory', rejecting 500 years of advances in social and political relations which the "West" has benefitted from and, in the past, has unfortunately used as a rationale for intervention in other parts of the world.  Instead, it seeks to return to, and now to impose on rest of the peoples of the world a pre Renaissance, anti Enlightenment and neo medievalist social and political order - a return to an imagined "Golden Age" of fundamentalist religious belief and feudal social and economic organization.

What makes fascism distinct is that it comes to power via citizen organizations whose members are willing to use violence against their fellow citizens to deprive them of civil rights and liberties: Fascisti (Italy), Storm Troops (Germany), Falange (Spain), etc. So long as they do not gain control of the central government, the country is not fascist.

• The willingness of this NeoCon-Dominionist alliance to use violence against opponents is well established as of May, 2004, by revelations of the Shrubbyist policies with respect to torture and treatment of prisoners of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the background of Shrubbyist policy statements and discussions creating the context for that violence.  
• The existence of extensive private armies allied with NeoCon power centers in the US has also been disclosed by news about the use of 20,000 or so "security contractors" in Iraq and Afghanistan, provided to the US military by private military organizations such as Blackwater Security.   Some of those contractors were instrumental in establishing the pattern of torture and abuse in the Abu Ghraib military prison in Iraq.
• Discussions on the street with adherents of these political agents and religious agitators, in their letters to the editors of newpapers, and in their postings on many rightist websites make explicit the willingness and intent of many of them to resort to violence against their fellow citizens to deprive them of civil rights and liberties.