Off topic: Another warning about our republic, this time from across an ocean. A problem, as I see it, is that many people on this site will not bother to read this article and/or think about it or anything else that challenges what they have chosen to believe, which mirrors the problem in American society today, because it’s too uncomfortable.
The Republicans sometimes throw the word “socialist” at the Democrats, and the Democrats sometimes throw the word “fascist” at the Republicans. Maybe it’s just political manipulation of the peasantry (you and me). Either governing model, taken to the extreme will ultimately destroy this republic and the democratic principles in which so many of us and our ancestors have taken such pride. There have, of course, always been members of our society that have taken either to an extreme. We are at this moment in time, on a path that reflects previously traveled paths by fascist leaders. Income inequality, villainizing groups as the cause of fearsome economic trends and events, violence, sowed mistrust in the processes that are designed to prevent the rise of kings, emperors, and dictators - all are present in our society today. Numerous articles have been written in recent years drawing the roadmaps followed by Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Erdogan, the religious rulers in Iran, Putin, Mussolini, and others in history that seized power. Here is another such article published by UK-based The Independent. British statesman Winston Churchill wrote, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
“The G7 meeting focused attention on many challenges facing the world, but it did not address the most dangerous threat of them all, which is the transformation of the Republican Party in the US into a fascist movement.
When Donald Trump was in the White House there was much debate about whether or not he could be called a fascist in the full sense of the word, and not merely as a political insult. His presidency showed many of the characteristics of a fascist dictatorship, except the crucial one of automatic re-election.
But Trump or Trump-like leaders may not have to face this democratic impediment in future. It was only this year that the final building blocks have been put in place by Republicans as they replicate the structure of fascist movements in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s.
Two strategies, though never entirely absent from Republican behaviour in the past, have become far more central to their approach. One is a greater willingness to use or tolerate violence against their opponents, something that became notorious during the invasion of the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters on 6 January.
The other change among Republicans is much less commented on, but is more sinister and significant. This is the systematic Republican takeover of the electoral machinery that oversees elections and makes sure that they are fair. Minor officials in charge of them have suddenly become vital to the future of American democracy. Remember that it was only the refusal of these functionaries to cave in to Trump’s threats and blandishments that stopped him stealing the presidential election last November.
Many of them will be unable to perform the same duty in future elections. The Republican Party across the country is replacing or intimidating them so they are giving up their jobs or are being forced from their posts. In Pennsylvania, a state which played a crucial role in Trump’s defeat, a third of county election officials have changed as have numerous others in swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin. Their places are frequently being taken by conspiracy theory zealots who will have the power to nullify election results that are not to their liking. A survey by the Brennan Center for Justice shows that one in three local election officials say that they are being subjected to harassment and other pressures.
Speeding up this exodus are Republican state legislatures that have passed laws mandating heavy fines – $10,000 in Iowa, $25,000 in Florida – for election supervisors who make minor technical mistakes. Republican officials who refused to say that Trump won the election are being removed by their party. The Republicans should be able to do in 2022 and 2024 what they failed to do in 2020, which is to nullify election results at will so the true outcome of a poll can be ignored. Put simply, the will of the people will no longer count for anything.
Authoritarian regimes across the world have found that it is much easier and more certain to announce the election result they would like than to go to all the trouble of suppressing votes and gerrymandering constituencies. Once control of the electoral machinery is obtained then democracy poses no threat to those in power. Fascist leaders may use democratic processes to obtain office, but once there, their instinct is to pull up the ladder and let nobody else climb up it.
Nullification of elections is only the latest step in the Republican Party’s strange voyage towards becoming a genuine fascist party. Other steps have a much longer history, notably the moment half a century ago when President Nixon adopted his “Southern Strategy” whereby the Republicans capitalised on the Civil Rights acts to make a political takeover of the American South. The old slave states became the strongholds of the Republican Party which had once freed the slaves and defeated the Confederacy.
It is worth listing the chief characteristics of fascist movements in order to assess how far they are now shared by the Republicans. Exploitation of ethnic, religious and cultural hatreds is probably the most universal feature of fascism. Others include a demagogic leader with a cult of personality who makes messianic but vague promises to deliver a golden future; appeals to law-and-order but a practical contempt for legality; the use, manipulation and ultimate marginalisation of democratic procedures; a willingness to use physical force; demonising the educated elite – and the media in particular; shady relations with plutocrats seeking profit from regime change.
One by one these boxes have been ticked by the Republicans until the list is complete. The Tea Party movement was an important staging post on the road to Trumpism. Trump himself possesses all the classic features of a fascist leader, though he was somewhat hemmed in by the institutional and political divisions of power. Yet these impediments will be less in future as local legislatures, courts, electoral machinery and Congress itself are colonised by Trumpian Republicans. This erosion of democracy has a precedent, given that Al Gore in 2000 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 were denied the presidency though each won a majority of the popular vote, but it is becoming all pervasive.
American fascism differs from its European, Middle Eastern and Latin American variants because of the history of America, with its legacy of slavery, and the Civil War still remaining as a great divider. Slavery was abolished, the Confederacy lost the war, but in many respects the civil war never ended.
The civil rights legislation of the 1960s provoked a white counteroffensive that still goes on. Opposition to racial equality has never ceased. The key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which declared that changes in state election laws must have federal approval, was invalidated by Republican appointed judges on the Supreme Court in 2013. “Our country has changed,” said chief Justice John G Roberts in a majority opinion, which declared that racial minorities no longer faced barriers to voting in states with a history of discrimination. The absurdity of this was immediately demonstrated as Texas introduced a previously blocked voter ID law.
Voter suppression has ballooned ever since, but never more than this year. Some 14 Republican controlled states have passed 24 laws criminalising, politicising and interfering in elections to their own advantage.
What explains the descent of the Republican Party into fascism? Racial division explains much. The division of American culture along the same geographical lines as the civil war explains more. Add to this the frightening dislocation imposed on white working- and middle-class Americans by technological change and globalisation. Powerful forces are let loose similar to those that once propelled the rise of European fascism and is now doing the same in America.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/republican-party-donald-trump-voter-suppression-b1868426.html
Hope you have a meaningful Juneteenth,
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Smoke & mirrors from the left
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It’s pretty disingenuous that those who stood by and cheered as the mango Mussolini had babies torn from their mother’s arms (and not even kept track of) at the southern border, are now all bent out of shape because our new VP hasn’t visited the border according to THEIR schedule! It’s not like she’s out playing golf or throwing paper towels to people who have lost everything!!!
Carina: I beg to differ with your conclusion that ‘African Americans’ now have two holidays. That is incorrect. ‘All Americans’ now have two holidays that celebrate one of our founder’s most brilliant insights, that all people are born equal and with inalienable rights. It is sad that this has taken so long to have been realized at all, and our country’s inability to fully live up to this ideal yet today. These holidays celebrate a prophetic leader who’s teachings lit the path to attaining this ideal, and the other celebrates a significant milestone toward attaining this ideal - despite being largely ignored in ‘white’ classrooms in the past. Both of these are celebrations of American ideals in action and a reminder of our country’s failures to realize these ideals earlier or even fully to this day.
Carina: The fact that you can declare that blacks only get two holidays, is a perfect example of the divisiveness of the trumper! What happened to you????
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Slavery is rampant at the southern border. 80 plus days and no visit to the border to see the human trafficking going on daily in the thousands. These poor immigrants will now have to work likely the rest of their lives to pay off their smugglers and the cartels. It’s great we are recognizing our past to make things right, but our leadership needs to demonstrate they care by showing up at the border at the very least and addressing the slavery that’s occurring now. They can still make it right and hope they do. The symbolism of this would be meaningful, in addition to Juneteenth becoming a holiday.
Happy Juneteenth!!! If you missed the interview with Chris Coumo & Opal Lee, here you go: https://mobile.twitter.com/CuomoPrimeTime/status/1405710665046806529 Ms. Lee is a determined, knowledgeable activist…who happens to see her mission realized at age 94! She is an inspiration to all. Much respect Ms. Lee!
Interesting that we have a new national holiday celebrating the end of slavery but conservative-regressive governors are lining up to sign bills silencing critical race theory, to prevent teachers from talking about this new holiday with their students. Merika. God love er.
Off topic: Another warning about our republic, this time from across an ocean. A problem, as I see it, is that many people on this site will not bother to read this article and/or think about it or anything else that challenges what they have chosen to believe, which mirrors the problem in American society today, because it’s too uncomfortable. The Republicans sometimes throw the word “socialist” at the Democrats, and the Democrats sometimes throw the word “fascist” at the Republicans. Maybe it’s just political manipulation of the peasantry (you and me). Either governing model, taken to the extreme will ultimately destroy this republic and the democratic principles in which so many of us and our ancestors have taken such pride. There have, of course, always been members of our society that have taken either to an extreme. We are at this moment in time, on a path that reflects previously traveled paths by fascist leaders. Income inequality, villainizing groups as the cause of fearsome economic trends and events, violence, sowed mistrust in the processes that are designed to prevent the rise of kings, emperors, and dictators - all are present in our society today. Numerous articles have been written in recent years drawing the roadmaps followed by Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Erdogan, the religious rulers in Iran, Putin, Mussolini, and others in history that seized power. Here is another such article published by UK-based The Independent. British statesman Winston Churchill wrote, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” “The G7 meeting focused attention on many challenges facing the world, but it did not address the most dangerous threat of them all, which is the transformation of the Republican Party in the US into a fascist movement. When Donald Trump was in the White House there was much debate about whether or not he could be called a fascist in the full sense of the word, and not merely as a political insult. His presidency showed many of the characteristics of a fascist dictatorship, except the crucial one of automatic re-election. But Trump or Trump-like leaders may not have to face this democratic impediment in future. It was only this year that the final building blocks have been put in place by Republicans as they replicate the structure of fascist movements in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. Two strategies, though never entirely absent from Republican behaviour in the past, have become far more central to their approach. One is a greater willingness to use or tolerate violence against their opponents, something that became notorious during the invasion of the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters on 6 January. The other change among Republicans is much less commented on, but is more sinister and significant. This is the systematic Republican takeover of the electoral machinery that oversees elections and makes sure that they are fair. Minor officials in charge of them have suddenly become vital to the future of American democracy. Remember that it was only the refusal of these functionaries to cave in to Trump’s threats and blandishments that stopped him stealing the presidential election last November. Many of them will be unable to perform the same duty in future elections. The Republican Party across the country is replacing or intimidating them so they are giving up their jobs or are being forced from their posts. In Pennsylvania, a state which played a crucial role in Trump’s defeat, a third of county election officials have changed as have numerous others in swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin. Their places are frequently being taken by conspiracy theory zealots who will have the power to nullify election results that are not to their liking. A survey by the Brennan Center for Justice shows that one in three local election officials say that they are being subjected to harassment and other pressures. Speeding up this exodus are Republican state legislatures that have passed laws mandating heavy fines – $10,000 in Iowa, $25,000 in Florida – for election supervisors who make minor technical mistakes. Republican officials who refused to say that Trump won the election are being removed by their party. The Republicans should be able to do in 2022 and 2024 what they failed to do in 2020, which is to nullify election results at will so the true outcome of a poll can be ignored. Put simply, the will of the people will no longer count for anything. Authoritarian regimes across the world have found that it is much easier and more certain to announce the election result they would like than to go to all the trouble of suppressing votes and gerrymandering constituencies. Once control of the electoral machinery is obtained then democracy poses no threat to those in power. Fascist leaders may use democratic processes to obtain office, but once there, their instinct is to pull up the ladder and let nobody else climb up it. Nullification of elections is only the latest step in the Republican Party’s strange voyage towards becoming a genuine fascist party. Other steps have a much longer history, notably the moment half a century ago when President Nixon adopted his “Southern Strategy” whereby the Republicans capitalised on the Civil Rights acts to make a political takeover of the American South. The old slave states became the strongholds of the Republican Party which had once freed the slaves and defeated the Confederacy. It is worth listing the chief characteristics of fascist movements in order to assess how far they are now shared by the Republicans. Exploitation of ethnic, religious and cultural hatreds is probably the most universal feature of fascism. Others include a demagogic leader with a cult of personality who makes messianic but vague promises to deliver a golden future; appeals to law-and-order but a practical contempt for legality; the use, manipulation and ultimate marginalisation of democratic procedures; a willingness to use physical force; demonising the educated elite – and the media in particular; shady relations with plutocrats seeking profit from regime change. One by one these boxes have been ticked by the Republicans until the list is complete. The Tea Party movement was an important staging post on the road to Trumpism. Trump himself possesses all the classic features of a fascist leader, though he was somewhat hemmed in by the institutional and political divisions of power. Yet these impediments will be less in future as local legislatures, courts, electoral machinery and Congress itself are colonised by Trumpian Republicans. This erosion of democracy has a precedent, given that Al Gore in 2000 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 were denied the presidency though each won a majority of the popular vote, but it is becoming all pervasive. American fascism differs from its European, Middle Eastern and Latin American variants because of the history of America, with its legacy of slavery, and the Civil War still remaining as a great divider. Slavery was abolished, the Confederacy lost the war, but in many respects the civil war never ended. The civil rights legislation of the 1960s provoked a white counteroffensive that still goes on. Opposition to racial equality has never ceased. The key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which declared that changes in state election laws must have federal approval, was invalidated by Republican appointed judges on the Supreme Court in 2013. “Our country has changed,” said chief Justice John G Roberts in a majority opinion, which declared that racial minorities no longer faced barriers to voting in states with a history of discrimination. The absurdity of this was immediately demonstrated as Texas introduced a previously blocked voter ID law. Voter suppression has ballooned ever since, but never more than this year. Some 14 Republican controlled states have passed 24 laws criminalising, politicising and interfering in elections to their own advantage. What explains the descent of the Republican Party into fascism? Racial division explains much. The division of American culture along the same geographical lines as the civil war explains more. Add to this the frightening dislocation imposed on white working- and middle-class Americans by technological change and globalisation. Powerful forces are let loose similar to those that once propelled the rise of European fascism and is now doing the same in America.” https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/republican-party-donald-trump-voter-suppression-b1868426.html
Dave CRT is not about slavery or history. CRT is a theory where whites need to identify as the oppressors and people of color need to identify as the oppressed. Children will be taught to identify with their skin color rather than be taught what MLK preached that children will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
It’s a start We need to increase education
Sharon, Thank you for an eloquent, well stated post. 👏👏👏
As usual, Texas would be last to recognize human rights, inequity and the exploitation of others. How many people of color are being exploited, denied access and have economic slavery even today?
It’s a symbolic victory at best, one that does nothing to promote actual equity or justice, but it’s still a small step in the right direction. I hope to see all citizens of the US on equal footing with each other in my time, but I doubt we can stem the tide of fascism and absurdity that is gripping the zeitgeist.
It interesting that others say that the African-American or blacks should feel good about their accomplishments? The problem I have they and others they should have never been enslaved and force to build the building, bridges and the infrastructure of America, we are not the only country, but at least we are willing to recognize the human rights, the wrongs and try to change, but it is slow because people don’t want to face the truth. An accomplishment they should’ve never endured! What you do today may come back to Haunt you or family and the future. People that knowingly choose to be on the wrong side of rights and humanity can not hide and should be called out! Juneteenth is the independent day for blacks and people of color, but it has been replace with economic slavery.
That’s great but what we want to see is a voting bill, a no lynching bill, and an infrastructure bill. Get on it.
Continue to liberate people of color: cancel their student loan debt. All of it!
It sounds like more pandering for votes from the crooked team of Sleepy Joe and his Hoe. It would be great to celebrate the end of slavery if it had actually ended. However, Lyndon B. Johnson made sure that slavery continued, just under a new name. All of those wonderful “social programs” have done nothing good for the black community. They did hasten the demise of the family unit, created a vicious cycle of poverty, and made the recipients slaves to the federal government—all to buy a vote.