We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, March 12, 2016

The Sea Island Conspiracy

Click here to access article by Pat Buchanan from Town Hall

Buchanan is a traditional American conservative (Wikipedia labels them as a "paleoconservatives") who basically believes in a nationally oriented agenda of capitalism without much emphasis on imperialism. With the election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency in 1980 a new version took over which consciously enlarged the scope of capitalist thinking into thinking on a global scale: neoliberalism, an advanced form of imperialism. The formal expression of this global political and economic vision was labeled by H. W. Bush as a "New World Order". 

The seeds of this thinking were present from the end of WWII with the rise of secret agencies within the US government such as the CIA, NSA, etc. After the power of this hidden "deep state" was demonstrated with the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers, Martin Luther King, and other less notable political figures and after years of consolidation of their power, this new global and more secretive form of conservatives took over the formal reigns of government beginning in 1980. They became known as neoconservatives. A strong component of this new group are Zionists who are inclined to support the interests of Israel. (Many of the Zionists have, and have had, duel citizenship.)

Traditional conservatives like Buchanan, Craig Paul Roberts, and Ron Paul have resented this takeover and are very critical of these upstarts. In this piece Buchanan reveals how the neoconservatives are very much threatened by the strong following that the maverick Donald Trump is attracting in the Republican primary elections, and are covertly organizing to stop him. 

Traditional conservatives know a lot about real power, because they once had it and are still well-connected with powerful people. Buchanan demonstrates that knowledge by exposing how the New World Order/neoconservative operatives are using one of their favorite strategies to attack opponents: the use of non-profit agencies. The neoconservative administrations (Obama's included) have used them with much success in foreign countries to destabilize unfriendly governments (think Ukraine and all the color revolutions), and are now using them covertly within the US to stop Trump's nomination. (Note the term "NGO" or "non-governmental organization" is used to label such non-profit organizations in foreign countries.) What Buchanan omits in his exposé is that neoconservatives use these tax exempt organizations to spread their propaganda on an ongoing basis in support of the neoconservatives' neoliberal policies both domestically and in foreign affairs.