Not all holders of extraordinary wealth are anti-social and dangerous for democracy.  However, the obsessive drive for power and control of some wealthy elites comes with little or no sense of connection to other people except for opportunities to exploit them.  Their egocentric orientation to life and other human beings makes them staunch enemies of inclusive democratic governments.

Current moves to destroy democracies worldwide are maneuvers that have been more than fifty years in the making and are similar to actions that led to World Wars I and II.  A new league of power-seeking elites believe that a plan for political change based on research conducted around the world by American Economist Milton Friedman will finally enable them to succeed.  A growing number recent publications shed new light on their attacks against American Democracy.

In December of 2017, Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University Nancy MacLean published Democracy In Chains: The Deep History of The Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America detailing the private planning of elites to impose on America an updated version of the Friedman scheme promoted by wealthy Industrialist Charles Koch.  Secretive planning led by Koch was based on pronouncements of his adviser, right wing economist James Buchanan, who believed and taught that the proper role of the majority in a society is to serve wealthy elites.

On November 20, 2018, ALTERNET published an expository article by American and Canadian scholar and cultural critic Henry Giroux on destructive tactics of the current phalanx of power and control seeking elites. https://www.alternet.org/2018/11/donald-trumps-endless-lying-meant-undermine-free-thought-and-democracy-and-lead-us-fascism/?src=newsletter1098070 Giroux reveals that public discourse has been debased in ways that lead to distortion, ignorance, fakery, and mistrust.  Public denigration of any dissenters and veiled threats promote a formative culture of fear leading to unbridled racism and indifference to rampant criminality at the highest levels of government. The following quote from his article illuminates the destructive inroads made by stealthy operations of elites that already threaten our democracy:  “The endless lying is about more than diversion or a perpetual motion machine of absurdist theater.  It is also about creating a mediascape where morality disappears and a criminogenic culture of thuggery, corruption, white supremacy and violence flourishes – and democracy dies.”

In April of 2018, Yale University Professor of History Timothy Snyder, a multilingual expert on the politics of Central and Eastern Europe, published The Road To Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America, documenting in detail the kind of government wealthy Russian oligarchs have re-established in Russia and want to promote in other countries around the world, especially in the United States of America with the help of Donald Trump and other wealthy American power seekers.

Creating major diversions to refocus a nation’s attention and energy was a favorite trick of Hitler and the Nazis in prewar Germany.  The burning of the Reichstag and the terror of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) were two prominent examples.  Bombarding the media with fake news to divert attention from the stealthy takeover of the German government was another tactic.  The refocus of attention and anxious concern is now being successfully employed by Trump and his minions to distract Americans by inflaming racism, nationalism and xenophobia while inducing an epidemic of myopia that overlooks the weakening of democratic and legal norms.

The time to expose and oppose the assault on our democracy is slipping away.  Trump and his cabinet are already working to diminish the efficacy of the nation’s established laws and norms.  Executive branch officials are appointed as directors of government agencies not with the goal to further the original mandates of their office but to weaken and destroy them.  Many laws are being violated or deliberately ignored, including those prohibiting public lands and Native American resources from being sold to private interests. Counteractions must be undertaken quickly to avoid reaching a tipping point at which the rule of law and democratic freedoms are lost for many future generations.

What we must do as a country to confront the emergency we face is to: (1) expose the goals and tactics of power and control seeking elites, (2) block all efforts to destroy the rule of law, (3) strengthen creative, constructive, and protective features of democracy, (4) cooperate with elected officeholders who work for the good of all citizens, and (5) repair the integrity of our elections which have been distorted by gerrymandering, voter suppression and electronic vote manipulation to shift elections to undemocratic and privately supported interests.

Resources are now available that offer opportunities to volunteer for active participation in these vital efforts:

• INDIVISIBLE is a nationwide grass roots organization of volunteers that works to protect the waning integrity of our voting processes and get citizens mobilized to vote.

• ACLU People Power is a special project of the American Civil Liberties Union for organizing grass roots volunteers across the country to resist attacks on civil liberties and the rule of law.

• The Trust for Public Land invites volunteers to help educate the public about the threats to our public lands and to work for revitalization of The Land and Water Conservation Fund.

A growing number of other organizations are being developed to offer volunteers constructive ways to protect and strengthen our American Democracy.