Fascism in America

If you’ve lived in America most or all of your life you have probably noticed that a good share of us enjoy our freedoms.  It’s something we have fought to the death for and tend to shout about during nearly every election period of late.

So what if our freedoms became a pawn right here at home?  What would you do if you heard that Small Town America has become the testing-ground for fascism?  Would you blink or would you fight?

I’ve been reading, lately, about a town in Michigan called Benton Harbor that has come under a lot of scrutiny over a change in laws that affect that small community.  First some back-tracking.

Some time back in the history of Michigan, their governor had introduced a bill that allowed for an Emergency Financial Manager to go into any town that is having financial difficulty and help them to get their books in order and make suggestions on how to make the town or city viable.

After the most recent elections that installed a new governor, those laws were altered to change the title and the duties of the Emergency Financial Manager, now called the Emergency Manager.  The Emergency Manager is now capable of going into one of these failing towns and take over.  Literally. 

On December 15 of this year the NY Times published an article about Benton Harbor.  It was an in-depth discussion of what is going on there and how all of this came into being.  Approximately a year after Joseph Harris arrived in Benton Harbor to attend to the emergency financial manager’s duties, the change in his focus took hold. 

The article stated that “His power grew exponentially last spring when Governor Snyder and the state’s Republican Legislature passed Public Act 4, which allows emergency managers to renegotiate or terminate contracts, change collective-bargaining agreements, even dissolve local governments (subject to the governor’s approval). They have almost unfettered control over their respective cities.”

There was a subsequent addendum to this article by the NY Times, authored by a Benton Harbor scientist named Chris Savage, discussing the powers of the Emergency Manager and his concerns on its application. 

Here is what he described as a sample of the emergency manager’s, or E.M.’s,  powers:

1) Assume complete control over local governments and can prohibit elected officials’ access to office facilities, e-mail and internal information systems
2) Remove current department heads, administrators
3)  Sell, lease, convey, assign or other use or transfer assets of the local government or school district
4) Dissolve or disincorporate the local government and assign its assets
5)  Develop academic and educational plans
6) Receive and disburse all federal, state and local funds earmarked for the local government or school district
7) “Take any other action or exercise any power or authority of any officer, employee, department, board, commission or other similar entity of the local government whether elected or appointed”

He stated a special concern for number 5, saying “I have seen the training materials for the training sessions held for potential E.M.’s, and they contain nothing that would help an E.M. develop academic and educational plans. In fact, the trainings were run primarily by representatives from companies who stand to benefit”

An emergency manager in Michigan has “unfettered” power to take control of the city.  Joseph Harris is the Mayor, City Manager and controls the City Council.  None of the business of the democratically elected officials in that town will be allowed to be implemented due to the actions of the E.M.  Because of a financial crisis, this small town has lost its right to practice democracy.  And Benton Harbor isn’t the only one.

In September of this year Louis Schimmel was appointed emergency manager of the City of Pontiac by Governor Rick Snyder.  In a subsequent interview, when asked about his feelings about the state’s emergency managers being called “tyrants” he responded “I guess I’m the tyrant of Pontiac…”

Other towns that have been gifted with the presence of an emergency manager are Flint and Ecorse as well as the school district of Detroit.  There’s talk of a potential that the whole city of Detroit will be under the purview of an emergency manager in the not too distant future.

Equally concerning is the fact that these E.M.s are being paid salaries with six-figures.  While cities are struggling to survive the state has added insult to injury.  Paul Jordan, a Flint resident asked, “What is the proper salary of a dictator?” and I find myself echoing that sentiment.

I also begin to wonder if, by some slim chance, there is a consensus amongst our lawmakers that the emergency manager experiment in Michigan is a success where does that put the rest of the country?  Will E.M.s begin popping up in other communities in other states?  Which state will be next, California, Las Vegas?  And I also wonder how long before this state law becomes a national policy.  Can we allow this slippery slope to swallow our freedoms we enjoy in the name of financial security?

It wasn’t long ago that our country watched as fascism spread across Europe and changed the landscape of foreign policy.  It was also during that time that our own country fought to rid itself of a creeping community of fascism in the form of Nazism; an underground movement that sought to slowly invade our political system.  Can we risk allowing such policies to take root in the face of fear even in small, struggling towns like Benton Harbor and Pontiac, just as it had in pre-World War II Germany?  No.

We have to remember to keep our American values and to not allow fear to consume our rights and liberties.  As FDR said during his first inaugural address: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

All eyes should be on Michigan at this moment and our minds should be keenly focused on solutions that exclude the loss of our democratic process.  Only then can we truly contain the spread of this disease that threatens us all if we don’t inoculate ourselves.  As much as it may seem practical to take over a city to ‘save’ it, our best interest isn’t being served by turning a blind eye to an overreaching law that could, someday, become viral.