Among my circle of friends, a certain topic of conversation seems to arise with alarming frequency. Is our government becoming totalitarian? Is one particular political party the spearhead of this transition? Before I can attempt to address the questions, let's take a look at the definition of totalitarianism.
Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition, outlaws individuals and group opposed to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high degree of surveillance, censorship, control and regulation over all public and private life. Wow, if that doesn't fit what we have seen in the last few years!
In the broadest sense, totalitarianism is characterized by a strong central rule that attempts to control and direct all aspects of individual life through coercion and repression. Under totalitarian rule, traditional social initiatives and organizations are discouraged and suppressed.
Thus, the social fabric is weakened and people become more amenable to absorption into a single, unified movement. Participation in approved public initiatives is at first encouraged and then required. Old religious and social ties are supplanted by artificial ties to the state and its ideology.
It is my opinion that we are indeed living under a sort of soft tyranny. Been so, since at least the Clinton administration and his trigger happy agencies, like we saw in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas. Then came Bush 43's DHS and the Patriot Act. When Obama became President, the intrusive surveillance programs were expanded under the NSA.
Then Trump's election shocked the country and the Deep State spent four years trying to purge him from power culminating in the installation of a senile, aging conman politician they totally control from the shadows, through myriad of staffers and proxies of the Obama Administration. The question should be then, when will we transition to a full tyranny?
I present to you the preposition that this all began as far back as the Democrat's demigod FDR, and his Über leftist administration, which by all indications, was our first crypto-Fascist administration. And they didn't hide their affinity and admiration for the World's first true Fascist government, Benito Mussolini's pre-world war two Italy. FDR and his cronies were very fond of Mussolini's form of government, which it described as "the most efficient they had ever seen." Don't take my word for it. Look it up.
Mussolini's government denied individual freedom and subordinated all aspects of individual freedom to the authority of the state. Mussolini coined the term "totalitario" in the early 1920s, to characterize his new Fascist state of Italy, which he further described as, "all within the state, none outside the state, none against the state.”
Everything thus far, certainly does point to our entering an era of full blown totalitarianism. But we aren't there yet. Today we can still fill up the car—if you can afford the gas—and drive to the other side of the country without telling anyone or asking for anyone's permission.
However, the day may come when you may have to submit a request from the local authorities which will then, conduct a study on the environmental impact of your proposed driving excursion and decide whether your proposal is in the best interest of the state. When that occurs, then I will say yes, we are indeed living under totalitarianism. But not yet.