Book: The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot
Author: Naomi Wolf
Pages:155
Date: 3/17/25
I remember reading about this book sometime in the past year, so I added to my list of books to read. Given the current political climate, you would think that it was written written in 2023 or 2024, but it was actually written in 2007. I think it is an excellent synopsis of the path an authoritarian leader (democratically elected or not) takes to become an ultimate dictator. It is an easy read and not too long, so can be read quickly.
The Author outlines ten steps that every dictator in history has taken in order to become an authoritarian leader in his country. They are listed below with a number. I have added in specific information under each title.
1) Invoke an External & Internal Threat
a) All those who intend to close down an open society invoke a terrifying external threat.
b) What matters to a fascist leader is not to get rid of an enemy, but to maintain an enemy. Thus, when one enemy goes away, focus can be transferred to another enemy.
c) In the US now, the surveillance industry that helps to monitor for threats, is huge business. One company, ChoicePoint, quadrupled he money it put into lobbying for govt contracts after 9/11; contracts that it later won.
d) Peace is bad for business. Monitoring and “fighting” threats is good for business as it transfers millions of dollars into government contracts.
2) Establish Secret Prisons
a) The right to habeas corpus means that if they grab you and throw you in jail, you have the right to see the evidence against you, face your accusers, and have a hearing before an impartial judge or jury.
b) By “secret prison,” the author means that the prison system is not accountable and that it is beyond the rule of law. Ultimately, there is alwasys mission creep, forcing the line between “us” and “them” to blur. Even today, mission creep means that Guantanomo was originally used for Islamic terrorists, but is now being used to house illegal immigrants to the US.
c) In all fascist regimes, deportations to the secret prison start out the same – opposition leaders, outspoken clergy, union leaders, well-known performers, publishers and journalists are sent there. The regime then starts to refer to them as “enemies of the people/state, traitors, criminals or spies.” There will then be show trials or secret trials where citizens are stripped of the right of due process and the independent judicial system is bypassed altogether. This doesn’t have to happen to very many people before dissent from others is silenced.
d) If there were a fair legal system that sorted the guilty from the innocent, it would be impossible to maintain the main goals & profits from the War on Terror. Too many innocent people would be sent home instead of going to prison.
3) Develop a Paramilitary Force
a) A would be dictator never bypasses this step – key among the ten steps – of creating a paramilitary force that is only responsible to him.
b) An example of this is Blackwater, which had 2300 private soldiers in nine countries (including the US) in 2007. It also maintains a list of 21,000 special forces troops, soldiers and law enforcement on whom it can call. Other valued Blackwater recruits are Jordanians, Nigerians & Salvadorans – all trained by countries that practice savage abuse of their civilians. The President can direct this private army of highly trained men who are not accountable to Congress – one of the possibilities that the Founding Fathers feared.
c) The Secret Service was historically non-partisan, but is no longer. In 2004, a couple were arrested by the SS at a Bush appearance in Charleston, WV because they were wearing anti-Bush T-shirts. There were multiple other instances of similar behavior of intimidation from the Secret Service listed in the book.
4) Surveil Ordinary Citizens
a) Future dictators usually start with their Iron Triangle – surveil where you live, surveil where you work and maintain a file of your past wrongdoings – illegal or otherwise. This basically covers your entire life.
b) In July of 2002, Bush rolled out the Terrorism Information & Prevention System (TIPS). It sought to recruit letter carriers, meter readers, cable technicians and other workers with access to homes to act as informants to the Justice Department on suspicious behavior. This would have doubled the informant-to-population ratio of East Germany’s Stasi organization. Fortunately, there was a great deal of pushback on it and it did not go through.
c) Dictatorships use citizen surveillance to blackmail & coerce critics. In the 60’s & 70’s, J. Edgar Hoover amassed files on political, union, Civil Rights, anti-war and other leaders and used this to harass them.
5) Infiltrate Citizen’s Groups
a) Since 2000, there has been a sharp increase in US citizen groups that are being harassed & infiltrated by police & federal agents, often in illegal ways.
b) After a rector gave an anti-war sermon, the IRS soon asked for their internal documents & emails to see if it had violated tax law.
6) Arbitrarily Detain & Release Citizens
a) As of 2007, TSA’s “no-fly” list had 45,000 names on it. There were 75,000 names on the “watch list.”
b) Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen and software consultant, was detained in 2002 when flying through New York and rendered to Syria. He was kept in prison for a year – suffering repeated beatings with a metal cable. After a 2-year investigation by Canada, it was determined that the US had made a mistake & Arar was released.
c) Brandon Mayfield, a lawyer from Portland, OR was accused of supporting terrorism by the USG – all under the guise of the Patriot Act. They indicated that his fingerprints were on evidence from a Madrid bombing. The charges were dropped when the Spanish govt proved that his fingerprints did not match the ones on the bomb.
c) Just last week, the USG detained a Green Card holder for organizing & demonstrating at Columbia University-possibly to have him deported.
7) Target Key Individuals
a) The government starts to put pressure on colleges, which put pressure on administrators which put pressure on students to get them to conform. There is also pressure put on artists & entertainers to encourage them to conform. Lastly, pressure will be put on civil servants with special ire shown towards lawyers & judges.
b) This is what happened to Chinese students after the Tiananmen Square. Some might say this is what Trump is doing now towards colleges where certain demonstrations (albeit anti-Semitic in nature) took place.
c) In the 1930’s, Germany led with professional purges that led to Jewish academics to emigrate. By 1933, 2,000 of the nation’s premier artists & writers had also fled the country.
8) Restrict the Press
a) In all dictatorships, targeting the free press begins with political pressure – loud, angry campaigns for the news to be presented in a way that supports the group that seeks dominance.
b) The press can be threatened with prison at home or violence abroad.
c) False news & fake documents can be created or organized.
d) In 2006, CBS was notified that one of their cameraman would face a trial within 12 hours. His lawyers were given no notice of a trial.
9) Cast Criticism as “Espionage” & Dissent as “Treason”
a) During George W Bush’s term in office, the President tried to move “treason” from its narrow Constitutional definition to a looser definition. The Constitution defines treason as actually levying war against America or giving aid & comfort to its enemies.
b) Criticism of the state is first charged as slander and then ultimately redefined as treason.
c) The smear of treason has a long, ugly history of use by 20th century dictators, as do the accusations of sabotage & espionage. This is a weapon used to harass critics and frighten opposition leaders.
10) Subvert the Rule of Law
a) The escalation of presidential executive orders means that each president signs more of them than the previous presidential administration.
b) the 2007 Defense Authorization Bill stated the military could intervene on behalf of the State whenever there was a threat to the state. This provides for a legal infrastructure that could support a “paper coup” – a more civilized, more marketable version of a real crackdown. The provision makes it easier for the President to declare martial law, stripping state governments of part of their authority over state National Guard units in domestic emergencies. This guts the “Posse Comitatus Act,” the provision that the states control their own National Guard units.
c) In March, 2007 a scandal erupted when eight US attorneys were abruptly fired with the AG’s knowledge. Internal DOJ emails indicated that they had been targeted as being insufficiently loyal to White House policies.
Summary:
The US is not vulnerable to the violent, total closing down of the system like Mussolini’s march on Rome or Hitler’s roundup of political prisoners. Our press, military and judiciary are too independent for a scenario like that. But the erosion in all of our institutions, that could close down democracy in ways that would look very American & familiar, would still leave us less than free. What is concerning to me is that when you look through the lends of each of these steps, the US has progressed to a more authoritarian state on each individual step over the past 50+ years. When taken in summation, you can see that the shift towards dictatorship is even greater.
