Given the present day orientation of the G.O.P. (the “Grand Old [Republican] Party”) as fanatic defenders of the very rich and apostles of fiscal inequality, it is fair for Americans to conclude: “My God, they’re trying to turn us into a Banana Republic.”

The term Banana Republic apparently was coined by none other than the famed American short story writer O.Henry in a book of his, Cabbages and Kings, based on a stay he made in Honduras from 1896-97. The expression, not a flattering one, has been defined by Wikipedia to apply to “a politically unstable country…ruled by a small self-elected wealthy group who exploit the country by means of a politico-economic oligarchy.” The banana part was applicable to Honduras at the end of the 19th century and start of the 20th because the monopoly industry growing the yellow-skinned fruit there so dominated that nation. To be sure, the phenomenon that originated in Central America and on the Caribbean islands has since expanded elsewhere and also refers to commodities other than just bananas. Christopher Hitchens, a wasp-tongued British writer turned American citizen has penned an article entitled America, the Banana Republic, stating that his dear adopted land was putting itself “on a par with Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Equatorial Guinea.”

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Since Governor Rick Perry of Texas has entered the Republican Presidential Primary, he seems desperately anxious to distance himself from remarks he made not long ago about his State’s seceding from the Union. Having a Jefferson Davis in the White House, he realizes, is probably not something most Americans would welcome, even in the South.

However, if I were a reporter covering Mr. Perry, I would confront him on this issue with a number of direct questions. Like: “Governor, if you were President and a State – say it was your own Texas – said it was determined to secede, would you let them go or would you, like your fellow Republican Abraham Lincoln refuse to allow them to break up the United States of America and use force if necessary?”

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A recent front page photo in the New York Times showed job seekers lined up at a jobs fair in Arlington, Virginia. An unremarkable illustration of the plight of the American middle class all over the country, this scene is only noteworthy due to where it is happening. For this portrayal of desperate job searching was occurring in the bailiwick of Eric Cantor, the third ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives and a loud proponent of the GOP movement to bring us back to the days of Hoover, Coolidge and Harding.

I cite Cantor because of the contrast between the image of his fellow Northern Virginians currently seeking jobs and his own recent pronouncements on the future of unemployment insurance.

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Leona Mindy Roberts Helmsley died in 2007, enormously rich but still burdened by her status as an ex-convict who had served time in Federal prison for tax evasion. Even more of a weight on her persona was a remark she supposedly made to one of her housekeepers. “We don’t pay taxes,” she had boasted, speaking of herself and her billionaire husband, Harry Helmsley, New York City real estate mogul and luxury hotel owner. “Only the little people pay taxes,” she continued, a statement that to paraphrase FDR, has lived in infamy, Harry Helmsley and has never been more pertinent than in America’s current economic and political climate.

            Leona Helmsley had become famous for the ads she ran promoting the Helmsley Hotels, playing the part of the “Queen,” who with royal hauteur pursued every avenue of producing perfection for her guests.

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   Historically, all kinds of justifications have been given for the economic phenomenon, born in the late 18th century, which came to be known as Capitalism. Perhaps the all-time favorite was “the invisible hand” thesis, proffered by Adam Smith, (1723-1790) a Scotch economist centered in Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow. This much manipulated phrase still has current usage and is taken to mean that there should be no interference with the mystical, magical workings of ultra laissez-faire Capitalism because left to its own profit-making devices, it will provide prosperity for all.

            Early Capitalism through its Industrial Revolution techniques did, indeed, increase wealth. Adam Smith, whose most famous work was entitled The Wealth of Nations, had aimed his barbs at the previous economic system in fashion, namely Mercantilism, which entailed a good deal of interference by governments that were controlled by monarchs and their aristocratic hangers-on. Yes, wealth did increase under laissez-faire (meaning “leave alone in French) but so did poverty. Working and living conditions were so bad that a backlash developed and was best articulated by a pair of German economists, Karl Marx and Friederich Engels, who offered an alternative they called Socialism, the extreme form of which, known as Communism, grew into a powerful political movement.

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Some years ago, during the reign of President of George H.W. Bush, I stopped during a campaign walking tour for a talk with an old friend, a good old boy Democrat in farmer’s overalls, who took one of my signs for his lawn.

I always remember what old Tom said to me apropos of the party then in control of the White House:

“I thought we got rid o’ them Tories back durin’ the Revolution. By God, now we got ‘em again, rulin’ the roost in Washington, D.C.”

Franklin Roosevelt had his own name for the type of people Tom was talking about; he called them “economic royalists.” My own homespun, salt-of-the earth- supporter in overalls had nevertheless delved even deeper into the American psyche.

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Al Qaeda is in the news more than ever these days, especially with the sensational report from Pakistan of Osama bin Laden’s unexpected death. It seems appropriate, therefore, to touch upon Islamic history and discuss the birth, development and demise of a very similar cult-like body of Moslem political killers, led by an equally charismatic figure, an austere fanatic named Hassan-I Sabbah. The precise setting of his equivalent of a Pakistani sanctuary was a fortress called Alamut in the wild Alborz mountains of northwest Iran. From this remote location, Hassan-I Sabbah periodically sent out members of his band on suicide missions, striking down politicians and major government officials throughout the Moslem world.

As background to the story of this murderous forerunner to Al Qaeda, a term popularized by Osama bin Laden, himself — the Caliphate — needs to be cited. Bin Laden’s ultimate goal, as he expressed it, was “to restore the Caliphate,” an imperial-type of monarchical government that from the 7th century had covered all or most of Islam.

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Maine’s new Governor, Paul LePage, a quondam, Tea Party-backed businessman, has so far (four months since his Inaugural) not directly taken on the State’s labor union… Whoa, wait a minute, didn’t I in my Blog #2 tell how he peremptorily had removed a pro-labor mural from the building housing his Labor Department, thus creating a nationwide stir? True enough. But LePage, to date, hasn’t yet confronted the state’s unionized workforce in the brutal manner of several Midwestern governors, who have sought to end their employees’ collective bargaining rights.

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continued from the last blog:  Had the British government left well enough alone after repeal of the Stamp Act, we Americans might still be loyal subjects of the Crown. Had Charles Townshend stayed out of the fray … well, you get the picture. However, as chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister) and even acting prime minister, this glib member of the “establishment,” who had held various top political offices, could not ignore Great Britain’s fiscal situation as he saw it after 1766. The Townshend Duties he sought to foist upon the 13 colonies re-opened wounds in the transatlantic relationship that had seemed on the verge of healing.

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At dusk, on a cold mid-December day in the year 1773, a group of Bostonian men assembled near the Massachusetts city’s waterfront as the evening’s shadows fell. They might well have been going to a party, for they were all costumed, Native American style, wearing fringed buckskins, moccasins, and head feathers, their faces and exposed hands blackened by coal dust. One of them, a George Hewes, was later to write that he and his fellows carried little hatchets they agreed to call “tomahawks.” There might have been as many as 200 of these “Mohawks” and they were soon divided into three sections under three squad leaders. Hewes knew that his commander’s name was Leonard Pitt, but the other two remained strangers to him. Then off they all went to Griffin’s Wharf, where they boarded three English merchant ships — the Dartmouth, the Eleanor and the Beaver — tied up along the dock.

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