Past as Prologue
Trump revels in adoring crowds, and is terminally addicted to holding rallies where he rambles for hours, insulting everyone from former presidents to Hollywood stars to poor people just trying to live without violence in their lives. Whenever any of his staff (this week Scott Pruitt) gets more press coverage from him, you can bet he’ll wing his way out to some remote Red State town and hold a tightly controlled rally where he is the star attraction to make outrageous statements and lie in a continuous stream to bring the attention of the press back on him. The tactic is as predictable as tomorrow’s sunrise.
But it’s worse than Trump just feeding his ego. The mantras that Trump chants from the stage are corrosive; hateful; untrue; misogynist; racist; divisive; insulting to millions of Americans. He displays the worst possible behavior of any major political figure in US history, and he gets away with it. The audience, herded up tightly around the stage to make it look more crowded than it actually is, roars approval to every word of propaganda uttered by His Orangeness. Truth is I can’t even watch anymore, but the few Trumpists I know (and still talk to) love it and repeat the falsehood that he just “says it like it is,” or “says what needs to be said.” The effect of Trump’s babbling is that he pushes reason and common decency further off the margins of a civilized society.
The problem, though, is that non-Trumpists (especially mainstream Democratic leaders) refuse to confront Trump’s falsehoods head-on. They worry that they might lose votes from people who wouldn’t vote for them ever, even if their lives depended on it. Combine the Democrats’ passivity with the GOP’s invertebrates in Congress, Trump dominates our national conversation virtually unchallenged. Trump’s behavior (even staged like one of his cheesy reality television shows) is that of a tyrant; he listens to no one; there is no right and wrong, only Trumpisms; truth doesn’t matter.
No one wants to say it, so I will. Trump’s rise signals the US teetering on the edge of totalitarianism and fascism. Comparisons to Hitler’s and Mussolini’s rise to power in the 1930s are not inaccurate. With the complicity of evangelical Christians and malleable social conservatives, fascism is taking hold of our society. Our government is now actually engaged in secret prisons holding separated families, violating international laws and common decency. The government has started a de-naturalization program to revoke US citizenship and deport legal immigrants who have lived in the US for decades. The US military is now actually discharging immigrants from its ranks who enlisted with the promise of citizenship. Scholars and academics are persecuted and insulted. White supremacy is growing at a rate not seen in decades.
The question is, can fascism take hold here in the US? The answer is, you’re Goddam right it can because it is happening right now. Do we have an example of this ever happening in the US before? Again, the answer is yes. In the late 1930’s while the darkness of fascism was descending over Europe, the same thing was taking hold here. In fact, it was growing rapidly, and I’ll show you actual incontrovertible evidence of it. On February 20, 1939, the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi organization established in the US, held a massive rally in Madison Square Garden in New York City. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, together with the American Jewish Committee and American Civil Liberties Committee, went along with the rally based on free speech and free assembly rights. The result was chilling and even included the beating of a Jewish protestor on the stage. The only event that stopped this movement in the US was the war in Europe. Here is a short video of the rally produced from historic footage by Field of Vision. Watch it. Then tell me that it’s not ominously similar to what we are witnessing today.
Actually, Madeline Albright has been saying it. Her book, Facism: A Warning, was published in April. I started reading it, it is scary. Daytime reading, not before bed.
1Such truth in your words. And it scares me to death. I am old (73) and won’t be around all that much longer, but I am sickened about the world that I will be leaving for my grandchildren.
One of the chief offenders is and has been the press. They have been maligned by this orange cancer, but they put him where he is just as completely as his devoted cult. It has been said over and over, but still is true. They covered everything he did during the campaign. They gave him the complete spotlight. Since the election, they have been making excuses for his blatant insanity – making it seem normal. It is time our press begin holding his feet to the fire. It is time to call out his lies. But, alas, they won’t do it probably fearing his rant of “fake news.” Those of us with two working brain cells know the mainstream press is telling the truth WHEN they report on his crazy nonsense, but I guess they are still afraid of the lunatic cult.
We are not headed in a good direction. I am sorely afraid for our country and what we HAD. The future looks more and more bleak with every day this creature sits in our highest office.
2To disturbing to watch. Couldn’t finish. I wake every morning thinking of hell we’re in for. I’m angry,hurt, sorry , but not complicit. Resist!
3As Yogi Bera once said, “It’s deja vu all over again.” Ain’t nothing new under the sun about what’s happening. History students know.
4Ever since the 2nd year of Jamestown every conflict this country has been involved in has been at the behest of the corporate class right up to today. This involves slavery, genocide, murder, assassinations, broken words, lyin’, cheating and stealing. And these are just some of the good points.
Eg.; Some are familiar with Maj Gen Smedley Butler, 2x MOH recipient, enlisted man, 120 gunfire situations from Spanish Am thru China incursions of the ’20s, and his booklet, “War Is A Racket”.
Fewer may be familiar with his being asked by the corp. class after his book came out to lead a coup d’etat against Roosevelt leading 1/2 mil vets on the White House because only he could command that kind of respect by these vets.
Basically, the 1%ers of that day were behind it. See, “The Plot To Seize The White House” by Jules Archer, Hawthorne Books, NY.
He was able to warn Roosevelt of the plot which then folded. But for him, this plot could have succeeded.
Change some of the names and the clothing and it’s SOS all over again.
@Van heldorf:
And don’t forget citizens who were “disappeared”, interned in camps and on reservations.
I hope that all members of the military services and the alphabet soup agencies will honor their code of ethical conduct for the sake of this country. They may be our only hope and defense some day.
5Side note- As a child I watched the Brown Shirts (German-American Bund)) gather down the street from where I lived They would march over to Prospect Park, where there was an Arch to march through.
6When they had their rally at MSG, LaGuardia had every Jew on the NYPD there to “protect” them.
Thanks, van heldorf, for reminding us of Smedley Butler, a great American who has disappeared from the school books. I hate to think what might have happened had they approached MacArthur instead. Butler was no fan of FDR — he ran for the Senate as a Republican in 1932 — but he believed in the Constitution. Closest we have today is Jim Mattis, who stood up for transgender troops but seems to be caving on non-citizens who want to serve this country in spite of everything. Maybe I’ll send him a copy of Archer’s book.
7I could not watch. What is most disturbing is not that trump is a racist , a bigot and all those other horrible things. What upsets me most is that there are thousands of others who think that is ok, these people should be ashamed of themselves. I cannot associate with anyone who still supports him. They are not good Americans heck, not even examples of good humans! I count myself as one of Not proud to be an American since Nov. 2016. I need the Democrats to start looking for someone to defeat trump in 2020, so far there seems to be no strong candidate. I worry what will happen .
8Free speech is a wonderful thing. And the worst among us take advantage of it every chance they get.
9They take advantage of the very thing that the rest of us know and abide by.
Respect.
My opinion is absof**kinglutely right. Otherwise I wouldn’t have it. The difference between me and so many people on the right is that I know that their opinions are just as important to them as mine are to me. And I don’t try to force mine on them.
Out of respect.
We’ve talked a lot about empathy being considered a weakness by these scumbags. But just as important is their disdain for anyone who doesn’t share their lack of respect. To them, the willingness to force their worldview on someone else is the ultimate sign of strength. And anyone else is weak. A snowflake. And therefore deserving of any kind of sewage that’s dumped on them. Because snowflakes choose the weakness of not being willing to defend themselves. So then they deserve more sewage.
Our respect is noble. But it’s allowed the right to define everything we stand for as weakness in the minds of enough people to elect the weaselheaded f**knugget-in-chief.
But that’s just my opinion. And I’m just as full of sh*t as anybody else.
Let’s see– a rightwing president, a lickspittle Congress who lets him break any law or provision of the Constitution, a Supreme Court that he’s about to have in his pocket. And he’s constantly dehumanizing those “other” people, claiming that they’re pouring into the country, taking your jobs, raping your women. And he has a substantial percentage of the country loyal to him alone, not to a party or the Constitution or our founding principles, and he urges those people to commit violence on his enemies. And he’s about to turn the clock back to pre-1973 for women who want to control their own reproduction.
Why no, I’m not worried at all. Are you worried?
There are some Republicans who are worried as hell because they see that their party has become the Trump party and don’t know how to get it back. I don’t think they’re worried enough.
10Donate to the ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, Common Cause and any other group fighting this nightmare. Give to your Democratic congressional and Senate reps. We need their expertise in standing up to injustice.
11El Jefe I praise your fortitude in being able to speak with Trump supporters, I can’t. Maybe it’s my more elegant tinfoil hat but at 73 I have little patience with them. It’s enough to read what’s online. The torrent of shit is pouring out from our government on all fronts, I don’t choose to hear it from people I used to respect.
12I, too, could not watch this. It is far too disturbing! I’m not closing my eyes to the world around me and am fighting back as best I can. However it seems that our voices wanting our country to follow its own laws and constitution seem to be drowned out the trump government and its followers.
13Hey, Jefe. I know well about the Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden. I also know out the outcome within communities. Nazis were badly and brazenly going about neighborhoods scouting out the real Germans, Americans of German parentage or even grand-parentage, and doing everything they could to get them to join the Bund. One of them hit on my maternal grandmother and they were absolutely gobsmacked with her highly inflammatory response to their con. They never showed up in our neighborhood again. Apparently others around the city slammed their doors in the faces of of these swindlers, because thats all they really were. Their spiel was that the money donated would go over seas to the fatherland to help the Nazi effort over there. It was so obvious that no money would ever leave their crooked hands. The fatherland could just go pound sand. Then the war swung into gear and those “American” Nazis were reputed to have left the country to join the German army. What we’ve got now is home-bred and home-bound. We can’t get rid of them that easily.
14maggie, about those home grown wizards, one of the many reasons we donate to the SPLC and read Hatewatch. There was a time the KKK and other vile groups were shrinking, as well as not being heavily armed with assault weapons. That was the better time to have finished them off, but snacilbupeR in Congress reined in LE, particularly the FBI and IRS to advance the cause($) of the gun manufacturers and protect their snacilbupeR voter base. We’ve lost major ground for which it will take years to regain. Gerrymandering, voter suppression and wingnuts with guns: just a few of the things snacilbupeR are willing to do to remain in power.
8% – we need a “mere” 8% voting turnout advantage to possibly break even in actual election wins. “2018 Vote With An 18% Margin!” Rock the vote like its never been rocked.
15A little history of the Bund in CT shows how some Americans fought against the fascists.
http://www.ctfilmfest.com/bethel/node/13616
16So … Is the U.S. playing the role of Germany in this reboot, or Poland?
Whatever else this is, it is a global initiative.
17