When was the coup?

[leftofthedial]

It is clear that the forces of evil--oligarchs, corporations, the war industry, whoever--have assumed power behind the scenes and havecontrol of our political systems. When did this happen?

Was it a slow, steady usurpation since FDR? Was it the JFK assassination/coup? Raygun? The Coup of 2000?

What are your thoughts?

[Webster Green]

1. Here..

[Lasher]

2. The real demise started with Saint Ronnie of Reagan

And it has accelerated under Junior. Clinton was a bump in the road and didn't do much to reverse the extreme shift to the right.

[bryant69]

3. It is clear ?

I guess it must be to some people.

However, it goes without saying that Corporations were more powerful before FDR than after. It also has to be noted that both Johnson and Nixon put in things that corporations don't like.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[leftofthedial]

4. so the takeover was since FDR

and had small hiccups along the way

[alfredo]

13. Thomas Jefferson warned us.

[bryant69]

14. If you already know the answer why did you ask the question?

Why did the corporatists allow the EPA to be created?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[leftofthedial]

22. I'm asking you

I gather from your answer that it was since FDR, it has had interruptions and that it was not a single event

[Beelzebud]

5. The coup occured in Dallas Texas on November 22nd, 1963.

It happened at approximately 12:30 P.M. Central time.

[Thothmes]

11. You mean the one LBJ pulled off.

[Beelzebud]

17. I don't pretend to know what happened, other than it was most definitely a coup.

[AzDar]

23. Precisely. And I suspect many of those 'actors' in Dallas that day

are still pulling the levers of power today.

[L. Coyote]

6. Look to the sum of many actions by various right wing forces.

Assassinations are part of a complex tilting of the political trends. The JFK, MLK, and RFK murders essentially put Nixon in the White House and Republicans in control for eight years, irrespective of who did the deeds.

It is in the sum of many actions and actors that we arrive at this moment. Likewise, to restore greater democratic control of governance, many actions and actors must play a role.

[smoogatz]

7. Eisenhower warned us.

The military-industrial complex was becoming entrenched in the 50s and now it's running the show, enabled by the media and politicians of both parties, which it owns. I think JFK's assassination was the real turning point; Kennedy's head on a pike as a warning to those who resisted the doctrine of military Keynesianism. With the exception of the Jimmy Carter blip, we've essentially been a more-or-less fascist country ever since. In fact, a cabal of rich asshole domestic fascists including Prescott Bush plotted to take down FDR; had the general (that's right, a military general) they tried to recruit not turned them in, we'd have been on Hitler's side in WWII.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/07/hbc-90000651

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml

The Bush/Cheney dictatorship may be the apotheosis of American fascism, but it's hardly the beginning.

[mod mom]

9. That BBC radio report is a must listen to for anyone who wants to understand

how we got to where we are now!

[smoogatz]

12. Yep. It's stunning.

I had no idea. And the progeny of the people plotting the fascist coup are now running the country. Holy crap.

[mod mom]

8. National Security Act of 1947

when a shadow power came to be:

National Security Act of 1947

Aside from the military reorganization, the act established the National Security Council, a central place of coordination for national security policy in the Executive Branch, and the Central Intelligence Agency, the United States' first peacetime intelligence agency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Act_of_1947

[Botany]

10. U.S. Supreme Court 2000

Stopping the counting of the vote.

[paparush]

15. 19631123

[donsu]

16. JFK

poppy

[Dora]

18. GMTA nt

[Peace Patriot]

19. I'm not exactly sure when it started. I tend to agree that JFK's assassination might be

the starting point. But I know when it was completed. October 2002, with the passage of the "Help America Vote Act"--which fast-tracked electronic voting, all over the country, run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PRORPIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls--accomplished during the 2002 to 2004 period, in time for the 2004 (s)election, and still in place. Both party leaderships were in collusion on this. Same month as passage of the Iraq War Resolution, and closely related to it. The IWR guaranteed unjust war. HAVA provided the means to shove that unjust war down the throats of the American people, 56% of whom (a significant majority) opposed it from the beginning (Feb. '03) and a whopping 70% of whom oppose it now.

November 1963 to October 2002 could be considered as the period of consolidation of this fascist coup. There were two other assassinations within a five year period--1963-1968--that I think are related to the beginning of the coup: RFK and MLK. But the end point--the coup de grace--was the seizure of direct control over our election outcomes, via HAVA.

And HAVA is what we must reverse, in order to start peeling back this coup. It's still doable at the state/local level. Pressure state/local officials. Demand vote counting that everyone can see and understand. Without transparent vote counting, no other reform is possible.

[Orsino]

20. The rich have always run things in America...

...but until recent years/decades, they could be shamed out of acting that way, and into accepting limits on their power.

No more.

[Toucano]

21. There is no single event.

It's all those you cite and more, and it has been systematic.