Unexceptionalism:
A Primer
By E. L.
DOCTOROWAPRIL 28, 2012
TO achieve unexceptionalism,
the political ideal that would render the United States indistinguishable from
the impoverished, traditionally undemocratic, brutal or catatonic countries of
the world, do the following:
PHASE ONE
If you’re a justice of the
Supreme Court, ignore the first sacrament of a democracy and suspend the
counting of ballots in a presidential election. Appoint the candidate of your
choice as president.
If you’re the newly anointed
president, react to a terrorist attack by invading a nonterrorist country.
Despite the loss or disablement of untold numbers of lives, manage your war so
that its results will be indeterminate.
Using the state of war as
justification, order secret surveillance of American citizens, data mine their
phone calls and e-mail, make business, medical and public library records
available to government agencies, perform illegal warrantless searches of homes
and offices.
Take to torturing terrorism
suspects, here or abroad, in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the
Constitution, which prohibits the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment.
Unilaterally abrogate the Convention Against Torture as well as the Geneva
Conventions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war. Commit to
indeterminate detention without trial those you decide are enemies. For good
measure, trust that legislative supporters will eventually apply this policy as
well to American citizens.
Suspend progressive taxation
so that the wealthiest pay less proportionately than the middle class. See to
it that the wealth of the country accumulates to a small fraction of the
population so that the gap between rich and poor widens exponentially.
By cutting taxes and raising
wartime expenditures, deplete the national treasury so that Congress and state
and municipal legislatures cut back on domestic services, ensuring that there
will be less money for the education of the young, for government health
programs, for the care of veterans, for the maintenance of roads and bridges,
for free public libraries, and so forth.
Deregulate the banking
industry so as to create a severe recession in which enormous numbers of people
lose their homes and jobs.
Before you leave office add to
the Supreme Court justices like the ones who awarded you the presidency.
PHASE TWO
If you’re one of the
conservative majority of a refurbished Supreme Court, rule that corporations,
no less than human beings, have the right under the First Amendment to express
their political point of view. To come to this judgment, do not acknowledge that
corporations lack the range of feelings or values that define what it is to be
human. That humans can act against their own interest, whereas corporations
cannot act otherwise than in their own interest. That the corporation’s only
purpose is to produce wealth, regardless of social consequences.
This decision of the court
will ensure tremendous infusions of corporate money into the political process
and lead to the election in national and state legislatures of majorities of de
facto corporate lobbyists.
PHASE THREE
Given corporate control of
legislative bodies, enact laws to the benefit of corporate interests. For
example, those laws sponsored by weapons manufacturers wherein people may carry
concealed weapons and shoot and kill anyone by whom they feel threatened.
Give the running of state
prisons over to private corporations whose profits increase with the increase
in inmate populations. See to it that a majority of prisoners are African-American.
When possible, treat
immigrants as criminals.
Deplete and underfinance a
viable system of free public schools and give the education of children over to
private for-profit corporations.
Make college education
unaffordable.
Inject religious precepts into
public policy so as to control women’s bodies.
Enact laws prohibiting
collective bargaining. Portray trade unions as un-American.
Enact laws restricting the
voting rights of possibly unruly constituencies.
Propagandize against
scientific facts that would affect corporate profits. Portray global warming as
a conspiracy of scientists.
Having subverted the
Constitution and enervated the nation with these measures, portray the
federal government as unwieldy, bumbling and shot through with elitist
liberals. Create mental states of maladaptive populism among the
citizenry to support this view.
PHASE FOUR
If you’re a justice of the
Supreme Court, decide that the police of any and all cities and towns and
villages have the absolute authority to strip-search any person whom they, for
whatever reason, put under arrest.
With this ruling, the
reduction of America to unexceptionalism is complete.
