Too late for revolution

Wisdom is wasted on the young

Vote, Don't vote? That is the question.

I'm trying to figure this voting thing out, you know, the dilemna of not voting for either candidate and, of course, the democratic party premise that a no vote for either is a yes vote for trump, in the case where we voters actually create another trump presidency by our absence at the presidential polls.

That is a dilemna. I was listening to jamie raskin, democratic representative from maryland, who articulated very well what the democratic party represented, which was, according to him, respect for the rule of law, both domestically and internationality, including international humanitarian law and the two -state solution, which, he says, has been the policy of Biden and the democrats, well, "forever"

So, i guess my question is, if we have a candidate, such as trump, who does not believe in the rule of law, nor believe in anything that doesn't have something to do with himself or getting wealthier on the backs of regular people and another candidate, such as Biden, who claims he represents the rule of law (international and humanitarian law plus two state solutions) but who during his entire political career has and continues to be fostering unhumanitarian law, no progress on the two state solution, while allowing Israel to maintain apartheid and the taking of palestinian land for decades, a belief in war as a solution for every problem, a disregard for citizen outrage, and an inability to practice in deed what he says he believes, then i think i can say' fuck rule of law, up with power to people in whatever way we can to show both these candidates we're more serious than they are. 

For any president since 1948 to claim they've supported and actively pursued a two-state solution and humanitarian law in regard to guantanamo, my lai, fallujah and the palestinian question, et al must really be cynical, a believer in the public as fools. One thing you can say about trump is, he's a purely self-oriented, power-hungry fascist, catering to the most destructive principles, like machiavelli but Biden and his ilk are the better liars, and practitioners of putting the lie before the horse or maybe worse, actual believers in their own lies, another example of a similarity with trump, typical sociopaths in a suit and tie.

For both parties, its more about preserving the corporate, business, military/intelligence, and political elites than having anything to do with preserving democracy or the rights of the public to steer the course of the nation. 

Why shouldn't we vote or not vote the way we want. We're certainly not the only ones who may not vote or vote only for those matters that matter to us.

They're the ones who give us the choices, that's part of the problem.

Voting for either candidate gives you the same thing but with a different colored ribbon around it. A package designed to explode in the long run into the same stalemate and your worst nightmare.

If trump gets elected again, i can say, i believe there will be nearly universal outrage, much like the famous women's march.

If biden gets re-elected it will be an outrage for sure, but the same o, same o, nothing will get done type of outrage.

We'll have been fooled again.

Pick your poison or pick your fight. It is one or the other.

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Freedom and What We Give Them

 (Although written in 2010, like most politics, things remain the same. It wasn’t anymore then about Obama as it is now about Biden and others, in positions of power before or since him. Currently, (2024) we are in what I believe to be a much more dangerous world as we, everyone one of us, are being moved inexorably forward, helpless and hopeless. It’s still true though, without us they are nothing but only what we give them.)

(2010)

First of all, I want to try and rectify any potential misconceptions about the previous post before I go on with this new related rant. If I’m not successful, so be it.

I believe in freedom overall, but my belief has a limit. I believe in benevolent freedom.

In regard to sexual freedom, I believe in consensual sex between age defined adults.

So, I believe gay and straight have the same human rights as far as sex goes. I could apply this principal to any of the freedoms I believe in. We as humans are equal, everywhere, all the time, regardless of country, ethnicity, etc.

So, I also believe the greatest threat to everybody’s human rights freedom is the government. From the moment in this country when it was stated that “all men are created equal” we Americans have prided ourselves, without much humility, in expanding/explaining what “all men” really means. What part of “all” isn’t understandable?

Part of this “pride” is exactly what the problem is. We have given (and in some cases it was taken by) governments, our right to ‘self-determination” which is another term thrown about but even more obscure as the phrase “all men”

This giving up and eventually conceding the right of government to define what is freedom and what is not, comes from an early historical concession, giving up our rights to our own relationship with god.

Institutional Religion has defined our relationship with god, while Institutionalized Government has defined our relationship to each other.

How did this come about? By force, with force, by fear.

Force is the Prince, the Knights Templar, the Church, the small, despotic armies from Sparta to Saddam Hussein, and the large empire builders, Alexander to Biden, et al.

They’re all the same.

People have always formed consensual social relationships because it is necessary in order for providing each other through mutual consent the necessities of living. Cooperation has been built out of necessity and not necessarily on the basis of a mutually acceptable term of conditions. Sex has a history of being coercive and on top of that, law made coercion legal. Sharing other aspects of living, i.e. food, territory has always been based on who had the food, who didn’t, who had the territory, who didn’t, usually defined by who did. Life has never been easy, paradisical, except in stories and fables. Wealth for anyone certainly adds an element of paradise to some people’s lives and since universal concepts of freedom have come to be realized, freedom has taken on an aspect of seeking paradise, pursuit of it has become a monologue of self-interest, for those who seek it. But freedom is like food or territory. It’s a matter of mutual consent again. The “freedom” to restrict someone else’s freedom is an oxymoron.

When force is applied to mutual consent, coercion and distrust and eventual collapse of the consensus takes place, creating a void which is always manipulated by any new dominant order,

To fill with whatever, it’s needs are. Societies are restructured. That’s why the military is the main instrument in this domination and usually, a complete destruction of a society’s infrastructure is necessary, regardless of whether of not, more likely not, the general, innocent population becomes the primary victim of its own governments defeat, usually by having freedoms gained taken away or sometimes, the state gives more freedom/privileges to a special class.

What about the general population of the “greatest military in the history of the world” as Obama says we are? Well, Obama, or Bush, or Clinton, or Biden, or Trump, whatever you want to be called, this is what your type of thinking has done.  

You have allowed the US Military to suck the lifeblood from our democracy as if we were the conquered, and in an idealized way, we are. We have stood by while allowing and giving all of our resources and future security over to an unelected corporate cabal who, through bribery (which we politely call “contributions”) and manipulation of world economic markets, has utilized our public resources to dominate these global markets in oil and other natural resources, outside of America. In some ways, this is the way it’s always been, and in other ways, it’s much more dangerous and devious now, as we are all being convinced to continue breaching our common sense and our own nature in lieu of accepting a highly structured assault on our human rights, our freedoms.

So, gays can now be themselves in the military but they can’t marry, (Biden says its inevitable). Marriage, another institution I wonder why we insist defining ourselves through religious and civil institutions which almost always put constraints on our human nature and pit each of us against the other but at least it’s a benevolent institution, legalizing and standardizing love.

This assault has taken decades. From the corporation as “individual” or person, the new majority(60) rules of the Senate, the legalization of our democracy, the acceptance of Zionist atrocity over decades, the privatization of public education, the gradual elimination of social security in exchange for the gambling hall of Wall Street, to the gradual acceptance of fact/fiction/contradiction that we entered a war by mistake, a mistake created by our fear, although we still need to rationalize in order to make heroes out of those who follow orders, because to do otherwise would be (what?) a “sin”, an “affront “ to our principals, an ‘anti-american” insult?

Accepting this war ( war in Iraq) and claiming everything about it as patriotic, pride etc, is like  standing by while a violent, horrible murder takes place. ( George Floyd had not happened yet).Its one big bully club made up of mostly men, who went to Yale or a place like it, never really left high school. If it wasn’t so deadly, it would be funny.

Welcome to the Brotherhood of Give Em Hope. We all stand and watch.

 

Where in the fuck did we lose the notion that an illegal war, a war of imagined self defense, is a war of national pride and nationalistic love of country?

Obama, you have mined the fears and mind fuck that political and corporate thugs created to thwart the public power supposedly given to us by high minded concepts such as democracy and freedom. 

This war and that war have been going on since before you were born, and I would have you mind the words of your own Secretary of Defense when he said “You’re looking at the world through a soda straw.” There is a method to the madness of constant strife and now you have opted, yes chosen, to ignore the pig in the poke.

A mindset, as if being in the military is the last bastion of patriotism. It didn’t work for black men in the early nineteen hundreds who were led to believe that if they fought it would ease their civil rights struggle. It didn’t.

You and all your entitled ilk belittle the persistence and positive charity of millions of Americans as well as others throughout the world who truly have sacrificed without profit or patriotic motive, trying to make the world a better place. Stop acting as if joining the military and fighting in it is the ultimate charitable contribution. You look like a shill.

Usery

Usery"

No one believes in sin anymore nor should they. Grievance yes, sin no. The sin implies punishment by god but we all know that no one is going to wait for that.

Usery is the practice of lending money with interest as suposedly both, an incentive to pay back as soon as possible or as getting value back for the lender. A more modern version has been accepted, whereas the interest has to be excessive in order for the sin/grievance to be rendered legally as usery.

The sin-usery. The moral value- greed  the acceptable- profit or obligatory debt.

Everyone acts as if there is a universal morality composed of compassion, empathy, selflessness, common sense, and/or a belief in the universality of love.

I suppose a cynic, that is, one who is a pessimist, that is, one who doubts, might counter that if there is any universal morality it is one composed of greed, thievery, self-preservation, selfishness, and a lack of any of those values mentioned above.

Its a toss-up. And im not even saying that to have the lessor of two evils morality is not justified when many innocent people are victims of those who are immoral or sinful or cowardly.

We are either victims, perpetrators, or we occupy the ground between sin (morally bankrupt) and good ( morally righteous), moving through life as mediocrity.

The cynic, stoic, the connoisseur of life, euphoric, sensual, what body mind type are we? 

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Mussolini Fascism

 Ironically, Mussolini's fascism sounded alot like Trumps and a whole slew of modern progressive thought. It put all the ideas in a bag, hoping to catch the undecided, uncommitted, and unraveling.  Once everyone bought in, the bag was thrown into the river, like a sack full of cats.

The Fascist program, issued two months later, was a curious mixture

of veterans’ patriotism and radical social experiment, a kind of “national

socialism.” On the national side, it called for fulfilling Italian expansionist

aims in the Balkans and around the Mediterranean that had just been

frustrated a few months before at the Paris Peace Conference. On the

radical side, it proposed women’s suffrage and the vote at eighteen, 

abolition of the upper house, convocation of a constituent assembly 

to draft a new constitution for Italy (presumably without the monarchy), 

the eighthour workday, worker participation in “the technical management of industry,” 

the “partial expropriation of all kinds of wealth” by a heavy and

progressive tax on capital, the seizure of certain Church properties, and

the confiscation of 85 percent of war profits.

Mussolini’s movement was not limited to nationalism and assaults on

property. It boiled with the readiness for violent action, anti-intellectualism, 

rejection of compromise, and contempt for established society that

marked the three groups who made up the bulk of his first followers—

demobilized war veterans, pro-war syndicalists, and Futurist intellectuals

What is america made of?

 This year we will see what america is made of. Will trump be re-elected? I dont think so. But another Joe Biden presidency will be equally disastrous for the future of america. The world's climate, both environmentally and politically is moving on and we can no longer wait for these men and few women To get their asses together (and "together" is pure euphemism). 

We, the people, are caught between a rock and a hard place. But we all must share and take responsibility for this disaster. Too many times have we denied our voices to the righteous cause, taking refuge in our obscure security. I dont believe in karma, retribution, spiritual justice, but i do believe in a natural revolution cycle, what goes around, comes around, which climate change of one form or another, being counter to human waste, abuse, and overuse of the earth's resources and balance. Humans have thrown inbalance, we no longer live in accordance with universal principles and laws, created a billion years ago.

The truth of the matter is that nearly all the representatives of authority have given up the privilege of being respected. 

Change is too slow now, if it even moves at all. Over the decades change has been like a funeral death march to our own graves. The change they represent has nothing to do with the change thats needed. Wrong page, wrong number.

It is our responsibility to make sure our home-made weapons are not used in violations of humanitarian and international law. If we don't prevent it, we are culpable, no matter what side of the wrong you're on

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Innocent Born

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Innocent born, we're bound for heaven's door,
Even those born in the forest, or rock-strewn plains, painted like tropical birds, pierced by bone,
There is something out there, beyond our seeking, beyond our contrivances,
Something burned, fed, nurtured, praised, supplicated to, and defended, claimed allegiance to, call it whatever you want, 

it's just not you.

Who will go, dare to take a peek, who will stay until the very end,
witness, sightless, voiceless, the last eclipse of the sun. 

The swallowing of light, darkening of our time
I was born a simple lad, innocent.
Different now from beguiling, carefully crafted false beliefs of my summery youth, as was/is many of my generation,
not monster enough as adult,
To find reasons
To pop open a child's head
From secret vantage points,
cowards hiding amidst cross haired hopes, targets,
powers of illusion, takes us to st peters gate,
ribboned awards hanging from a sniper heroes' fate,
Nor did i nurture masked men's fanciful dances with destiny,
Assured that machete/sword is enough, guns to back you up,
To get me into a saintly martyr's shroud,
NOr did i entertain hacks and hawkers of my lifetime,
proxy wars between so called witches, werewolves, warlocks and their evil ilk, threatening one, while hand feeding another,
Monstrous battles for our souls to keep, lands to confiscate,
Sciences, beliefs, tales, lies, fanatical and fantastical expedience's 
claimed would make us free, miracle elixirs, chants and necromancer delights, my nation supreme, 

Thus, their secrets eventually revealed, as magical incantations, rubric phrases Passed from mouth to ear, ear to mouth, tucked in clandestine shadows, our prison walls,
We cherish, always looking toward the sky, the opening bell, is it falling? Should we give a warning?
The sacred horn sounds, announcing deliverance, of an aborted paradise, a reckoning of sorts. 


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Loving the Colorado

 

I love the colorado river. I lived near there for several years. Recently, in the last decades the river and its artificial reservoirs have suffered, according to climatologists. 

Well, i have good news and bad news.

The good news is for climatologists and climate profiteers. The reversal of lake meads drought levels inflicts more skepticism on the belief that climate change is imminent.

The bad news is for the general public. Though mighty slow, climate change will continue causing erratic and inconsistent climate changes upon which no one will be able to predict from year to year, where or when any particular area will be affected.

What the old politicians dont realize is the further away from their last day as president they lose their freshness fast. Clinton, both clintons, are now irrelevant, and obama himself has been buried beneath his anti immigrant, pro nationalist zionist legacy.

We are eight years from obamas last day and a whole generation born since clinton. No more democrats. Do we want to be shouldered with two more politicians who can't articulate anything other than the same old platitudes we've been fed for nearly a century, or two. Have faith in us, have faith in america (whatever that is), have hope in change (incremental and always reversible) and don't forget to vote for the lessor of two evils, the math of 1/2 evil is better than one whole one.

Kamala Harris, our vice president, if you remember, has been saddled with campaigning on the abortion issue, as if because she is a woman, she understands women but doesn't understand that roe vs wade is dead, the supreme court will overturn any new legislation (even if democrats can convince enough fools to get elected and legislate new federal abortion rules), and who will not advocate for women to get back in the streets and quit infighting about who should believe what (farakhan vs netanyahu) before we can believe in each other.

That's what feminism on a national level has come down to. No one will say it. The Great Women's March of 2017 after the defeat of Hilary and real re-emergence of fascism in america amounted in the end to infighting between feminist idealists over what Man-Netanyahu or Farakhan- should represent the future of america. If no one can put aside those type of differences, then american progressives and liberals are doomed.

Here we are, nearly eight years later and the arbitrary and unreal split between Zionism and Progressive Nationalism have widened the cultural gap in the american landscape and brought us to an impasse once again- genocide, self-defense in the name of nationalistic hubris, and proxy world wars, all humming along under the watchful corporate- military elites around the globe.

When will we ever learn?

I think we all ought to go down to our favorite river and watch it flow down to the sea until we understand how little and unimportant we all are. Get off our high horse, as my dad's generation would say.

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World War Three

 

08/20/2012

World War Three

I actually try and think good rational thoughts but they always revolve around my society’s insanity and I can never tell in the end if I'm on the live earth or on the dead moon.

I have nothing but sorrow and empathy for the japanese people and have no reservations in saying that their attempts to avert a bigger catastrophe have been heroic. I have little respect for the western liberals, environmentalists, anti-nuke’s philosophy that always has tinges of "we told you so" mixed in with their empathy or sympathy.

And why is that you may ask?

In the last few weeks, we have witnessed events that on the surface seemed progressive and hopeful but events both natural and unnatural (politics)have moved us rapidly back into reality. Now we are choosing sides. There is nothing wrong with choosing sides I suppose but once the world powers begin to differentiate between similar events in their own self-interest and begin imposing both political and military pressure in order for certain ends we have a situation that is no longer in the control of any progressive idea but becomes the same o, same o.

What's happening in Libya is no different than what is happening in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Saudi Arabia. Political violence is in meltdown and has been for a long time.

Here at home, we endure the constant, consistent eroding of whatever is left of unions and humanistic or social programs in the name of money rather than need. Worldwide Economic resolutions are in meltdown. We are moving forward to feudalism. It's been this way for a long time. 

So, it's As if we (americans specifically) as a nation haven't done any better in preventing what our actions wrought. We are long past the moment when we can retrace the military and economic philosophies that have engendered the most dangerous society and culture in world history.

We are in the most dangerous era in world history, not because things are so different about governments and people who rule in the modern world, it's because we live in such a highly technological society, the fear is not that machines will control us, but that the same type of people who gave us all the atrocities throughout history now have it at their disposal to control the technology that controls us.

Liberals, or those who love the security of the modern nation state, I suppose, can take heart that the small armed right-wing extremist will never be able to match the firepower of what could come at them if the little right wing wanted to act out consistent with its fears. Big government weapons will rule that day.

As the right-wing extremist can also take heart in the fact that society won't entirely collapse into complete socialism for the middle class, just continue to slide forward into a form of corporate feudalism, a condition just as akin to their own bits of fascism. It's whatever form of blindness you have that gives us our melancholy wishful thinking.

Everybody (the middle class at least) gets enough to still be able to imagine Hope, the bastard god of slaves and peasants and the materialistic middle class. And if there is credit to be had, the working lower class will be able to dream of "things" that someday in the future they may have.

I guess we can be thankful that World War Three is not the nuclear holocaust we envisioned nor the conflict of superpowers we were taught to expect. it just turns out to be the Mouse that Roared, little countries and their imagined or real tyrants against the Big Country technology, whether in warfare or economic survival struggles.

You are watching it right now, the big reality show. I hope I'm wrong but even if it doesn't get any worse than this, this is enough.

Jesus was the honeymoon

Its not what you accomplish, its how you accomplish it.

Ambitious feminists housewives taking control of school boards and community organizations, ambitious feminist liberals becoming lawyers, taking over the unnecessary and unneeded social conventions.

Who do you think will become the true leaders?

It looks as if dt wont be president, his armor is tarnished, after all he never had a plan nor degree to think his way through. Even the blue collar follower has forsaken him.

In a real democracy, freedom is expression. Thats all it can be.

There cant be a freedom for those who want to oppress/suppression anothers expression. 

Expression we can accept as work, space, belief, creative, love, what to learn, how to learn, living

Once that is accepted then it becomes even more complicated because humans are dual natured. Ideas of Ownership, control of property, defense of ones individual space and work, defense of ones ideas and beliefs ( another form of expression) are all common measurements societies spend huge amounts of time attempring to resolve. Resolution institutions are formulated and layer upon layer of established rules, regulations, standards are set to control what essentially becomes out of control. Entities are established who determine who can own, who can defend, 

Who has certain rights, who doesn't deserve rights.

The society becomes wound and bound by its own overabundance of solutions without really ever coming to resolve anything.

This is where authority comes in. At first, whatever god entity was around was the only real authority and the way that god authority spoke and to whom it spoke to communicate became the authority.

It was only in the societies where that god or gods became as human like, and thusly, as weak or strong as the humans they spoke for or against did it become even more complicated. Strength of authority became dependent on who could back up their gods wishes over another gods ( or even the same god) wishes, militias, militaries, armies and there you have it, the authoritarian human state, where gods disappear into the fold of human power derived from actually a belief that something undefined (and it must always remain undefined) controls men's actions over other men. Ironically, contrary to Old Testament and ancient civilization tales, the gods who at first supposedly would/couldphysically take control of power struggles, by the time we reach modern times, all it takes is a superior army and the invocation of the supreme power, which doesn't have to move a muscle, so to speak.

And then along came jesus and the squashing of peace. Although christianity spread around the world, it was the priests led by the armies that spread it by crushing any human social structure developed in the last several thousand years before it.

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War and unintentional consequences

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War and unintentional (irony) genocides by inconsequential unhumanitarian, contradictorian idealist monsters of the antediluvian anti- futurist societies

The anti- futurist, ai war is being demonstrated and sampled in gaza, the ultimate experiment in, not only the epitome of militaristic adventurism, but a challenge to the world at large for a true humanitarian response. 

The world political structure is failing us. The defense of genocide is nearly unanimous.

It is only the mass of young people and humanitarian organizations which have risen to the occasion. Its not a mistake that these true humanitarians have no political power whatsoever.

AI is non discriminatroy, inefficient while being a sherman march to the sea.

Children's trust asks, "Does government have the responsibility for protecting the generation that has no rights from the mishaps, prejudices, and zealotry of the older generation." It seems it would be possible. If the supreme court has decided that states and the federal government have a responsibility to protect the unborn, it seems this protection should extend to protections for all those who are left unprotected from government repercussions, threats to the welfare of the population who have no libertarian rights. Surely, the living should have similar privileges to life as the unborn.

The cause of the climate crisis is not the fossil fuel industry, nor the the politicians that are corrupted, bribed, and greedy who support the industry. The users, the addicted public. The answer isnt in alternative energy, isnt in more batteries, more metal resources ripped from the earth, the answer is in users, us. We are the masters of the politicians, we are the masters of our own addictions, we are the masters of it all. Our so called needs, almost completely generated by social, corporate profit,.Why do we always wait, expect them to act and not ourselves. You dont have to live in a cave to be an anti-corporate directed climate catastrophe.

Everything today points to real challenges to the american way of life, from the moment we are born, we are moved from innocence to ignorance, from being social to individual, from awareness to others to self-centered, from child to hostage, held in fear from losing your job, your family, your place, your school, your future, if you stand up.

Innocence, the fodder of tyrants. Protect the unborn, murder the children, although neither are yours to decide. You want the government to punish and cry too much government for your crimes. Don't wait for them to fix it, they won't. Don't think they'll fix it, they won't. 

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The new form of racism is diversity in the wrong place

The new form of racism is diversity in the wrong places.

The powers that be believe no one has ever seen a black, brown, gay person in real life, in our neighborhoods, in the grocery store so we are supposed to be amazed to know from commercials that everybody, regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, feminism, all believe in the power of a wide range of pharmaceutical products, car manufacturers, and many other consumer desires. Tv programs and movies are another example of presenting a wide range of diverse but monolithic archetypes or stereotypes representing supposed typical americans, but if i thought that was all the hard working people who live on this land amounted to, i guess, i would feel defeated too.
Politicians are another group growing diverse with all, black, white, brown and sex, representing the same two party system that has existed and persisted and supported all the racist, sexist, supremacy policies throughout the decades.
(Sometimes its so hard for me to believe that anyone could believe that all legitimate ideas could be housed in two rigid conformist philosophies, and often, its hard to differentiate between the two, except in the demeanor, facial expressions, and thoughtless verbiage that comes from each one.)
Are we really all so content, becoming content, staving off death, loving our cars and jobs, going on wonderful vacations, and bettering our economic conditions, able to forget the misery in the rest of the world? The misery that our government creates so matter of factly. Puppets like Blinken, Netanyahu, Biden, Putin, all of them, the strings of authoritarian mindsets.
Can we please stop dressing people up, manufacturing the same ideas through the undifferent and indifferent public conformity we're bombarded with 24/7?
Dont forget somewhere out there, tucked away in small, isolated enclaves are black lives matter, the working class, jazz, country, and billions more living in the free world of their real mind, thats always been there and will always be there, raw, invisible, seeing through it all, and pissed off about it.


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Joe Biden Has Been Using the F Word by Kraig Schwartz

 

With the political rise of Donald Trump there has been much discussion about fascism, authoritarianism and right-wing politics.  In recent days Joe Biden has joined the discussion. The president has described MAGA (Make America Great Again) Republicans as semi-fascists. I’m not sure what he means, but he clearly believes MAGA Republicans are a threat to our democracy. However, in an attempt to push back against Biden’s language, Republicans have been firing back at the president for his use of the term, suggesting that the president is despicable.

 

I’m not sure exactly what a semi-fascist is.  But, fascist movements, as we can learn from studying the 1920s, 30s and 40s are anti-democratic social and political movements that arise in times of deep economic, social and political crisis; they are usually led by a charismatic leader, a man who promises the people a resolution to national problems in broad sweeping terms, almost mystical in the leaders accounting. Fascist movements cloak themselves in nationalism and reject democracy and use bands of shock troops to enforce their will, such as the Proud Boys.   Moreover, fascists embrace authoritarian solutions to resolve political and social problems facing the nation.   This authoritarianism is required because the fascists never have had clear majority support.

 

The two main fascist political parties in the 1940s were the Fascists in Italy led by Mussolini, and the Nazis in Germany, led by Adolph Hitler.  But the practices of fascism was considerably different in Italy than it was in Germany.  If fascism emerges, as many suggest, in the U.S., it will be different than it was in Italy or Germany.

 

American fascism may not launch mass executions of the Jews or other ethnic minorities.  But it will, for sure destroy democracy as we have known it.  The current rights of people embraced by the state and the responsibilities of the state towards the people will be pushed aside.   Fascists will restrict voting rights, limit the specific freedoms of the people, repress unions, deny free speech, and many more things that we take for granted.  Moreover, a fascist state in America will use violence to achieve and maintain state power.

 So, who is a fascist these days?  Trump may be a fascist, Ron De Santis may be a fascist?   But its not the individuals that we should measure.  It is the overall movement we should evaluate.   Do MAGA Republican embrace violence? Do MAGA Republicans attempt to  use the state to restrict democracy and freedom?

 The answer to these questions will unfold in the months ahead.  The answers will reveal where this country is going and whether it is fascist.  If the answers are in the affirmative keep you seat belts on  

 Kraig Schwartz is a retired teacher of political science and history, having spent 30 years teaching in the community colleges of Seattle