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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Don't Obey, Resist

-
  Don't Obey   It’s the people who obey the orders who scare me Not the ones who give them, those you can ignore. It’s the obedient, whose conscience is devoid of reasoning. For when consent is based on authority alone Freedom and true democracy cannot reign, REAL Democracy is merely giving temporary consent, each time, Not relegating power, forever
Read more

Stop Standing Around

-
Stop Standing Around Here we are. We, the american people get to play the german people, get to dress up our consciousness for genocide denial. Are there even words strong enough, we've spent our collective hubris already. Some 13 or so saudi terrorists crashed planes into the towers, the pentagon, a field in pennsylvania and the people of afghanistan paid the price, the people of iraq were thrown in for good measure and last week america threw in with the twisted dictatorial netanyahu. America is Revenge. Saudi Arabia never saw a bomb, a plane, tank, had its water shut off, its food supply, its white flowing robe empire stripped clean. This week we supported and encouraged the wrong nation to do what it has wanted since 1948. The arabs knew it in 1967 and 1973, that the zionists have eyed the entire region. The Zionist are not the Taliban nor Hamas, though they are not any more exemplary. Their treatment of women is just as foul, their egalitarianism still bound by prejudices form
Read more

Conversation and Change #4 by Kraig Scwartz History of World Social Forum

-
                              World Social Forum   After the Cold War ended neoliberal capitalism , no longer fettered by the Soviet Union, expanded to all parts of the world.   Whether it be farmland in Ethiopia, or the fisheries of our great ocenas, the world increasingly came under the control of unbridled “free market” capitalism and the corporations that serve and benefit from those markets.   Under the sway of neoliberalism, governments deregulated their economies, cut back or eliminated social spending,   pushed aside labor unions and promoted “free trade.” Perhaps the major economic hallmark of this post Cold War era was the expansion of world trade through the WTO, NAFTA and other regional trade organizations.  The yearly World Economic Forum held at Davos, Switzerland embraced the  world-wide neoliberal capitalist order.  Yet,  strong resistance to this push for the commodification of the world emerged in various parts of the world, most notably by the indigenous  Zapatis
Read more