"Notwithstanding their stated aversion to 'big government,' now that they have become the government [right wing Republicans] have not hesitated to expand its powers in precisely those areas that are most threatening to individual freedoms ... . The likelihood that those powers will be abused has increased, moreover, as the conservative movement accuses its ideological adversaries of 'treason,' 'terrorism' and 'un-Americanism;' threatening long-standing traditions of tolerance and diversity. ... In sum, the direction in which forces in the GOP are moving looks - at times absurdly, at times ominously - similar to the 'banana republics' of Latin America: nations dominated by narrow corporate elites, which use the pretext of national security to violate the rights of their citizens." [This is an excerpt [3] of our new book Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing is Turning America into a One-Party State [4], now in thousands of bookstores. Please buy a copy [5] and also help us to publicize the book by emailing this excerpt to your family, friends and co-workers. All proceeds from Banana Republicans support the research and education work of our non-profit Center for Media and Democracy.]