Totalitarian Politics in America

Over the next couple of weeks we are going to talk about totalitarianism. We'll talk about the origins of the word, the conditions out of which totalitarians forms of government emerge, its goals and features, the relationship between the government and the citizen, and a number of other interesting topics related to this type of political arrangement.

In a totalitarians system, like in North Korea or what is emerging in Iran, the state and its charismatic leadership become omnipresent features of peoples' everyday lives. Indeed, in the most extreme cases, the aspects of your life that you usually call "private" (e.g. life in the house, emotional and intimate relationships, business transactions, etc.) practically disappear. The state government becomes a feature of most every aspect of one's life. For instance, in Iran, there is a moral police who enforce a public dress and appearance code. It is illegal for men to wear necklaces and certain kinds of hair cuts are outlawed. Also, at Iranian universities, men and women may be separated.

During the 1930s and 1940s, many Americans started asking publicly: Can America become a totalitarian state? With the rise of Japan, Germany, Italy, and Spain under totalitarian governments, some Americans were concerned that in the case of a nuclear threat from a foreign enemy the US Constitution would be streamlined -- civil liberties would be curtailed and Americans' lives would be totally mobilized against the foreign threat.

Since 9/11, some people are asking once again: Can the US become a totalitarian state where American's civil liberties (e.g. freedom of speech, freedom to bare arms, right to a trial by jury, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble and protest, etc.) mean very little?

Naomi Wolf argued, for instance, that the Bush administration has started America down the path to a totalitarian system. She notes 10 steps the Bush administration has already taken, such as 1. invoking a terrifying domestic and foreign enemy, 2. creating a secret prison system (Gulag), 3. developing a thuggish groups of citizens, 4. setting up an intensive domestic surveillance system, 5. harassing citizens groups, 6. engaging in arbitrary detainment of citizens, 7. targeting citizens for assassination, 8. controlling the press, 9. equating dissenting voices with treason, 10. suspending the rule of law.

Similarly, Glen Grenwald has argued that the Obama administration has continued down this path. Particularly, the Obama administration has stripped certain US citizens of their civil liberties and assassinated them without their Constitutional rights to due process or freedom of speech.

The fear is that both Democrats and Republicans are ushering America toward an totalitarian state.

What do you think?

Do you think it would be possible for totalitarian politics to emerge in the US? Why or why not? Is it necessary in the fight against terrorism to limit Americans' civil liberties? Or, are civil liberties too important to give up in the fight against terrorism?