Bloomberg `Mussolini Option'
Is Kicked Off in Oklahoma
by Harley Schlanger
The campaign of fascist New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for President was given a big boost, at a so-called Bipartisan Forum in Norman, Oklahoma on Jan. 7. Co-hosted by former Democratic Senators David Boren and Sam Nunn, the ostensible purpose of the conference was, according to Boren, to demonstrate the willingness of the participants—who were primarily former elected officials from both parties—"to work together across party lines to help our country."
Boren's statement, which sounds rather timeless and generic, was typical of most of what was said in the public portion of the event. There were reminiscences about the "good old days," when Democrats and Republicans could jointly take up challenges; homilies about civic duty; and blather about holding candidates "accountable." The biggest cheers from the audience were evoked by denunciations of "rampant partisanship," and calls for "putting our nation first," with a government of "national unity."
The 17 establishment figures attending did not come to an out-of-the-way college town just to deliver a freshman civics lecture. Nor did a large cross-section of the national press show up to receive such a lecture. The real purpose of the meeting was to shine a spotlight on the up-to-now underground campaign for President of the billionaire Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg.
Bloomberg's Nuremberg Rally
While Bloomberg stated both before and during the forum, that he is not a candidate, it was his presence at the event which drew the crowd of reporters. All of the media hype focussed on Bloomberg, and his relationship with Boren, who was among the first to launch a trial balloon for a Bloomberg candidacy, after the Mayor delivered the May 2007 commencement address at the University of Oklahoma. (Boren is the president of the University of Oklahoma in Norman.)
In the press room prior to the forum, all the chatter—especially from reporters from New York and the national media—was about whether Bloomberg would announce his candidacy in Oklahoma. The possibility that he might spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a campaign is an explicit threat to candidates already in the race, and was voiced by Boren in a discussion with reporters after the forum, when he said that it may be necessary to deliver "shock therapy" from an independent candidate, to assure that their concerns are met. He added, during an interview with National Public Radio journalist Diane Rehm the following day, that a possible Bloomberg candidacy is a "healthy" threat, that a third party campaign is a "visible option."
There was one departure from vague generalities about "their concerns," which provided a glimpse into the real agenda of the forum: the need for a candidate (Bloomberg) from outside the parties ("bipartisan" or "nonpartisan"), to hammer out a consensus for fascist austerity. This was first voiced by Susan Eisenhower, who said that there are "a number of issues that are all big-ticket items ... very costly to address ... and we are in a diminished financial situation. So the reason we need bipartisanship is, it's going to require political courage to make choices."
This was bolstered by former Republican Senator William Cohen, who interjected, "So let's get back to talking about sacrifice, what each of us has an obligation to do, what we're willing to give up, what we have to pay for."
Boren then indicated precisely what sacrifices are intended, by saying that spending on entitlement programs—Medicare, Social Security, interest on the debt—will consume "all of our tax revenues ... within the next decade or so." This implies that there must be tough cuts, the kind of draconian austerity which California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) announced two days later: cuts which kill. Therefore, a person "above the parties" must be brought in, who will not hold back for fear of alienating or angering those constituencies—the unemployed, poor, elderly, disabled—that will be brutalized by the cuts.
This brief exchange most likely reflected the more serious policy thrust of the private meetings that preceded this forum. When this reporter asked several participants about those discussions, he was told that the participants had agreed they would remain "confidential."
For his part, the would-be Mussolini, Bloomberg, presented himself as the man who could make the trains run on time! In clipped sound-bytes, he said, "Government is dysfunctional. I think there's no accountability today.... What we want is people to be selected for government based on competency" (i.e., the competence to build consensus for fascist austerity, beginning with slashing "entitlements").
As to Bloomberg's repeated denials that he is running, one of his leading political operatives, Doug Schoen, told Associated Press that Bloomberg is already spending millions on polling and voter analysis in all 50 states, in preparation for an independent campaign!
LaRouche: 'Tell the Truth About Fascism'
On Nov. 10, 2007, Lyndon LaRouche issued a statement in which he predicted that Bloomberg would run for President, after the candidacy of another would-be Mussolini, Rudy Giuliani, goes down in flames (for details of this prediction, see Chronology). Bloomberg would be brought in, LaRouche said, as "a 'man on a white horse' ... a politically saleable product under the presently shattered reputations of both the Republican Party, and a Pelosi-discredited Democratic pack."
When briefed on the events in Oklahoma, LaRouche insisted that the truth must be told about Bloomberg being sold as a candidate "above parties," who will act to impose a consensus for sacrifice.
"Bloomberg equals fascism," he said, on Jan. 8. "It's time to say it, stop the bullshit: This is fascism. That's what is being promoted as the Bloomberg 'national unity' operation. This is what Hillary Clinton is facing in New Hampshire. Obama is a tool for this fascist operation. Bloomberg himself is a tool of it.
"Those who can remember fascism will recognize it today. Another name for it in the 1900s was corporatism. Most people who fought it are dead now. The Baby Boomers don't remember it. But what is being proposed on behalf of the Bloomberg operation is fascism. Let them deny it."
LaRouche continued, making the point that what Schwarzenegger is doing with his budget cuts and declaration of a "fiscal emergency" is part of the same fascist operation (see article in this section). "Today, we are seeing pure, outright fascism in what is being proposed. It is no different from before. The Schwarzenegger and Bloomberg operations are what we once knew as fascism in the 1920s and 1930s. It was also called Schachtianism in Germany, but it came first in Italy as corporatism and fascism. And it was Made-in-London.
"Hitler was a London creation. Once he came to threaten the British Empire, London worked with FDR against him, but London created him. London created Mussolini. And it's the same today. This is what Boren, Schwarzenegger, and Bloomberg are pushing—'nonpartisan' corporatism, fascism."
On Jan. 10, LaRouche emphasized that the fraud conducted by the Washington Post and other media, to derail Hillary Clinton's campaign prior to the vote in New Hampshire, is part of the same operation to put Bloomberg in the White House. The purpose of the lies that her campaign was collapsing, and polls showing Obama far ahead, was to panic people. The intent is not to elect Obama, but to knock out Hillary Clinton, and then "throw Obama away like used toilet paper, at the point that the British imperial financial interests move to usher in 'Benito' Bloomberg."
The victory by Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, based on her decision to address the economic issues facing the nation—especially those facing the lower 80% of family-income brackets, beginning with her call for a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures—was a significant defeat for the forces behind Bloomberg.
However, nothing short of a national mobilization, which identifies Bloomberg as the fascist he is, and which he presents as an alternative the Franklin Roosevelt-type financial bankruptcy reorganization proposed by LaRouche, and embodied in his Homeowners and Bank Protection Act, will stop the forces of the British Empire from destroying our republic.
