The vast right-wing conspiracy

Jerry Landay writes a brilliant article in Media Transparency: "The Apparat -- George Bush's Back-Door Political Machine"
I have wondered why, when so many nations of the world, including Canada, are moving toward a more liberal, open, diverse society, the United States seems to be moving backwards. This article explains what has happened in the United States over the last 30 years, the ideology and tactics behind it -- its frightening to realize how entrenched this is, how strategic, how organized -- and how difficult it will be and how much it will cost to turn this around now. Bill Gates, your country needs you!
You know, when I first read Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale 20 years ago, I thought her description of a facist American society went a little over the top. Futurist fiction is supposed to be based on an extrapolation of current trends, and so my enjoyment of the book was tempered by my belief that there was no way the US would ever allow itself to become the kind of state she described in this book. I thought that American pride in their country as a beacon of human and civil rights to the world, their national character of individualism, plus a self-confident swagger which skewered fools and ridiculed government bureaucrats, meant they would never allow a totalitarian political system to develop. More fool I.