The Wolf is Inside

Fascism...

A charged  word or descriptor.  And a very misunderstood word.  And a politically charged word that has negative connotations.

I have a habit of identifying some right wing conservatives as fascists.  And boy, does it piss them off.

But I am not speaking flippantly.  As a MA in Government I had to sit through plenty of political philosophy oriented classes; some of the most difficult that I had to take.

And fascism was identified, defined, discussed, used as a template, explained as a negative and a positive term; etc.  

Fascism can become the sickness of authoritarianism. Totalitarianism can result from a fascist regime, as the authoritarian aspects take over all government, resulting in a dictator.  This does not always happen, usually fascist movements result in minority parties, who often take up conservative Christian goals, like anti-abortion or anti-birth control, but remain in the democratic (not party) Parliament as an irritation, but not having enough votes to govern. For example, there is a fascist party right now in Italy with about 3% share.  

But the urge to morph into a one person rule is hard to exist regardless of how small the movement.  

A good example is the dictator Franco in Spain before WWII.  His was a conservative Christian fascist movement, that moved into a dictatorship around militaristic means to an authoritarian end.

The enemy?  Socialistic Communism.  And the Civil War that ensued was a preview for the world of the fascist led WWII.

Now what does this have to do with America today?

Political theorists and observers are picking up fascist tendencies in the right wing conservative movement, organized around President Trump (whose political behavior and methods (if he has any) are fascist.  His followers, many from the Christian Right, are reacting to the liberalization of society led by the LGBT and progressive movements that put civil rights and social justice as societal goals.

And there has been change to be sure.  And that change very much threatens the fascist mindset.

This conflict of ideas manifests itself in a major political tactic that Trump used to get elected.  Even though California had been lost probably forever to the Republican Party due to the anti-immigrant politics of Pete Wilson in the 1990s, Trump surprised everyone by adopting a “WALL” as a solution to what he said was a rampant immigration problem.  

There is no such problem in any widespread way in America now.  There was in the 1990s, but that has abated.  But Trump resurrected the issue in a highly successful political way and got elected using it.

Europe has fallen to its allure as well, swinging right, spawning the Brexit movement, and threatening the European Union.  In Europe’s case there IS a refugee/immigration problem, as Africa reels from global climate change effects causing mass migration, and the war in Syria and Iraq pushed people to flee the violence.  And the fascist movements in Europe (which is chilling considering Europe’s last infatuation with this form of extremism) have gained a lot of political advantage by using racism and xenophobia in predictable ways.

Fear is the friend of fascism.  People are spooked easily when there is a perceived external threat.  And, having thousands of war refugees trying to get into your county is definitely worrisome to say the least.  And fascists use that, through “dog whistles” of racism to motivate hate of outsiders and build a political base.  

Always, look for anti-Semitic dog whistles, it is the backbone of classic fascism.

And it works.  And it is easy, because there is a template that has worked before in the years 1929 to 1945.   Spain, Germany, France and Japan all swung to the right during those years of world depression and finally global conflict.  Authoritarianism also manifest itself in Russia, through the Communist fascism of Stalin.  America and England, although remaining liberal democracies, also followed strong authoritarian leaders in Roosevelt and Churchill.  

It was not a good time for Democratic countries.  The Depression was blamed on “international bankers who were Jews”.  This was nonsense of course, but again, find a scapegoat is classic fascist methodology.  

Today, in America and Europe the same tactics are being used for political advantage.  In the United States the “greatest generation” is mostly dead, leaving their children the “baby boomers” in charge.  We, I am a baby boomer, do not have the first hand experience with fascism that drove our parents to basically have to kill the movement by killing a lot of people.

Fascism ended with atomic bombs being used in Japan to shock the fascist regime into quitting.  It took that much to get them to quit.  

Which brings us the the really distressing part.  America is more than flirting with fascism right now.  Trump is a classic fascist; authoritarian, using right wing Christian principles (anti-Gay, anti-birth control, definitely pro state sponsored Christianity) doctrine to gain power.  

It reminds one of parliamentary right wing Christian Parties in Europe, who use authoritarianism  to deny people their rights.  These groups are anti-liberal as well, and do not sponsor or support democratic decision making.  

They have taken over the U.S. Congress, making it impossible to deal with any real issues for the last eight, now going on nine years, in opposition to an African American President.

Adolph Hitler foresaw this in America.  He famously derided America’s opposition to his racism by pointing out that America mistreated Native Americans and African Americans throughout its history.  In effect, he called for authoritarian solutions in America to our problems and of course planned a military “solution” that included killing African Americans, Jews and practically everyone.

Which gets us to the worst forms of fascism; that history has shown can be stopped with as I so tragically say, “With a bullet in the head”.

Why so violent you say?  Isn’t that the same thing the fascist are preaching?

Unfortunately for mankind, when Germany and Japan were going through the last stages of certain defeat; a remarkable thing happened.  First at Okinawa then in Berlin, fascists  killed themselves and their children rather than surrender.  Japanese fascist leaders would not quit, even when Germany surrendered after Hitler and most of his close advisors killed themselves and their families.  The Japanese authoritarians even armed their citizens with pitchforks to attack the American invaders and fighting to the death.  The bullet to the head in Japan’s case were two nuclear bombs that wiped out two entire cities.  

Finally, after those two “bullets to the head” the death grip of Japanese fascism was broken.

In the wake of that horror, of 55,000,000 people killed, the United States entered a period of about 10 years with anti-fascist educational films, of which I watched several in the 7th and 8th grade.  

Xenophobia and racism were exposed in those films as defining and explaining totalitarianism to a group of middle schoolers in 1959.  And we listened because the teachers who were showing us the film and teaching the lesson, were all veterans who had killed fascists or watched their buddies killed by fascists.

And there was no mincing words, fascism was evil, it was Un-American, it was wrong, and we had to be constantly on the alert, otherwise it could happen again, and it could happen in America.

Actually, it already was happening and had been happening for a century at least in the south, with the fascist Jim Crowe regimes that discriminated against Jews, Blacks, Browns and even Methodists!  In short, the south already had fascism in the Bible Belt, using once again conservative Christianity to discriminate against minority groups and hold tight to political control by white supremacists of the region.  It took a President being assassinated and the leadership of a former white supremacist to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that finally began a peaceful transition from fascism in the south.

But white supremacist fascism did not die easily...it resurrected itself, as fascism is want to do, in the Trump Birther movement, that actually was a springboard to renew the deep racism in America into  a backlash that got Trump elected.

And America took a violent turn to fascist government.  It happened so fast because as we are finding out, it was aided and abetted by Russian fascist (Putin is a classic corporate fascist) movement that is using technology in an open war on liberal democracies.  The 2016 election was decided by fascist interference in the election.

So, after all that warning we had back in the 1960s, fascism is taking over our country right in front of our eyes.  Trump is a classic fascist; rules as an authoritarian, male dominated, and stereotypes minorities and immigrants to “build his base” of power.

As a totalitarian he has failed to staff government bureaucracies and focused all leadership on himself and a small group of followers; classic fascist totalitarian political behavior.

Corporate supporters have bankrolled Trump’s accession; the Koch Brothers who are classic fascists being one obvious example of billionaires supporting authoritarian leaders.

And of course, the Christian Right is involved in this to the hilt; seeking to roll back the LGBT gains of the Obama Administration, seeking overturning Roe v Wade, seeking an end to government sponsored birth control.  

All off these are classic fascist goals that culminate in finding a scapegoat, and external threat; the Muslin and racially “inferior” immigrant refugees of Africa, Mexico and the Middle East.

Hitler predicted that America would be fertile ground for fascism.  He actually developed his racist program against the Jews based on some of the same laws and injustices that Jim Crowe southerners had used for a 100 years to scapegoat the African Americans.  He studied the genocide of Native Americans from studying the reservation system of the West, removing the victims from view; then killing them; typical of the concentration camp system...

Hitler knew America had deep fascist potential, it just needed  the right circumstances.

Roosevelt knew this also.  But to his credit, he resisted calls to become a dictator; several commentators begged him to take over the government, but his belief in the value of liberal democracy to the American Dream was too strong.

The American First movement, who admired what Hitler was doing, led by Lindberg, was a fascist admiring bunch, who preached supporting Germany by keeping America out of the war.  They advocated anti-Semitic goals and were anti-democracy, authoritarian and admired the totalitarian “miracle” that the Nazi regime represented in the late 30s...

It is not by accident that Trump has adopted the essence of America First into “Make America Great Again”...

Remember, there was a depression that made it easy to recruit to the fascist cause.  Fascism grows when times are hard; it offers a simple solution to complex problems.  It offers militaristic solutions to problems, offering to destroy enemies, send immigrants home, and as Trump put it, eliminate the problem with fire...when referring to North Korea.  

The use of such authoritarian language is vintage fascism.

So the wolf is no longer knocking on the door, the danger of a fascist take over of our government is no longer an outside threat, the wolf is inside with us already.

The Reckoning.