CommentsGUEST WORDS--As the Presidential election campaign ends, the smears and accusations have not let up. The Clinton forces accuse Donald Trump of fascist tendencies because of his dog whistles to white supremacists and support from what is now called the Alt-Right, an amalgam of racists and bigots. And, the Trump forces accuse Hillary Clinton of corruption based on her long history of collusion between private business interests and government.
Unfortunately, both sets of accusations have a grain of truth, and in my view, under the right circumstances either presidency could react to a wide range of economic, political, and military crises with fascistic responses.
I realize this prediction will strike many supporters of Hillary Clinton as far-fetched because they only see one component of fascism: extreme bigotry, and have therefore incorrectly concluded that a Clinton presidency would end the fascist threat from Donald Trump.
But, in fact, fascism has many components, as I have previously written in City Watch, in particular foreign wars, authoritarian rule, mass surveillance, and police and (sometimes) vigilante political repression. As I hope to demonstrate through many links to supportive documents, these are all frequent historical components of U.S. foreign policy and domestic policy, regardless of the party in power at the White House, Congress, or even local government.
We do not yet know who the next President of the United States will be, nor what policies and programs the next administration will pursue. But, we do know the next administration will face crises large and small, and we also know that the toolbox that the administration will reach into to deal with these crises is filled with fascist implements.
One set of crises would be economic, and a look at recent booms and busts indicates that the Great Recession that began 2007 is hardly unique. Many more sharp economic downturns are on their way, and the only question is when. Likewise, military conflicts are widespread and increasing in the Middle East and Africa, as well as between the U.S. and China and the U.S. and Russia. Just like economic crises, the only unknowns are when, where, and how deadly.
So what is in the tool box?
Internationally, the United States spends over $1 trillion per year on military and security, which supports, among many categories, approximately 1000 foreign military installations. Our government also possesses an arsenal of 7000 nuclear weapons, for which it intends to spend $1 trillion to modernize. At the same time according to the U.S. State Department, the U.S. military conducts unclassified training operations in 137 foreign countries.
Plus, the U.S. is actively involved in two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, which are now approaching 15 years, with little chance of ending in the foreseeable future, regardless of who is elected President. Their total cost is so far estimated to be $5 trillion, a truly staggering sum. In addition, the U.S. is currently engaged in drone warfare in at least six countries: Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, and Libya, with prospects for expanded drone warfare in more, not fewer, countries.
If we look back, though, to the entire post-WW II era, the crisis-response toolbox has much more to offer, according to author William Blum. There is a long, sordid, and totally bi-partisan history of the U.S. government supporting regimes that are variously characterized as authoritarian, totalitarian, and fascist police states. This partial list includes 22 countries at present, as well as 67 countries in the past.
According to Blum, the United States government also has ample experience with a vast array of fascist practices. Since 1945 our government has:
- Attempted to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments, most of which were democratically-elected.
- Dropped bombs on the people of more than 30 countries.
- Attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders.
- Attempted to suppress a populist or nationalist movement in 20 countries.
- Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries.
- Attempting 60 coups of foreign governments.
- Since 1980, intervened in the affairs of fourteen Muslim countries: Iran, Libya, Lebanon, Kuwait, Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Kosovo, Yemen, Pakistan, and now Syria.
The Domestic Tool Box
In the past century, the U.S. has had many domestic mass movements, including unionization movements from the 1890s through the 1930s, the anti-Vietnam war movement, Civil Rights movement, Ban the Bomb movement, student movement, anti-Iraq War movement, and women’s movement. In the past few years, new mass movements include Occupy Wall Street, which had over 1000 encampments throughout the entire country. There is also the Black Lives Matters movement, and related grass roots groups opposing police violence.
The list of mass movements also include many that have a climate change and ecological focus, such Bill McKibben’s 350.com and the movement to stop the Dakota Pipeline in North Dakota. While we don’t know which new mass movements will emerge over the next four years, we do know the history of government responses to such movements. Occasionally they are co-opted through legislation, like the Civil Rights Acts of 1965 and 1968 in response to the Civil Rights movement and the ghetto rebellions of the 1960s. Many times, though, the mass movements are the victims of police surveillance, sabotage, and direct police repression, such as Occupy and the Dakota Pipeline.
Furthermore, the United Sates has a long history of repressive legislation, and many of these laws have distinct fascist overtones. They include the Espionage Act and Sabotage Act from President Woodrow Wilson to the first and second Patriot Acts after 9/11. Along the way, these laws have been complemented by anti-communist legislation, most originating with the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations, including the Smith Action, McCarran Act, Subversive Activities Control Act, Internal Security Act, and Hubert Humphrey’s Anti-Communist Control Act of 1954.
Other notable government programs to disrupt domestic political movements include Cointelpro, which began under FDR, and Operation Chaos, both of which were widely used against the Civil Rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s and early 1970s. President Lyndon Johnson initiated Operation Chaos in 1967, and the program ended with a New York Times expose in 1974.
The formation of SWAT teams has continued to grow in the United States from their initial formation by the LAPD in the 1960s to the present, when nearly every U.S. police department has established a SWAT team. The U.S. government has heavily militarized these SWAT teams, and local SWAT teams deploy at least 80,000 times per year. In recent years these local military functions have been boosted by anti-terrorist spying and surveillance sections added to local police departments, all linked to 78 regional fusion centers.
In addition, the Department of Defense has and will set up an elaborate drone-spying network in the United States, as shown on the RPA Dod Ops Activities map below. Beyond the direct use by the military, local police and related agencies will also have access to these drones, including Stingrays to monitor cell phone conversations. Presumably, they will be used to augment the complete monitoring of all domestic and international telecommunications in the United States by the National Security Agency and other government intelligence offices, as exposed by Edward Snowden and other whistle blowers.
In applying the above history to the Presidential election, the following implications should be carefully considered:
First, the Hillary Clinton supporters ignore the historic role of mass movements, as opposed to voting in presidential elections, to block racist and fascist movements, such as the rise of the KKK during the Woodrow Wilson administration, and then again in recent decades. In both cases, anti-racist and anti-KKK movements lead to the demise of this domestic terrorist organization, even thought DW Griffith was able to spark a short-term revival of the KKK through the premier of his pro-Klan movie, Birth of a Nation, at the White house during the Wilson administration. Later, from the 1970s to date, there have been hundreds of grass roots confrontations to stop KKK and neo-Nazi rallies all throughout the United States.
Second, the Hillary Clinton campaign has vastly overestimated the anti-fascist role of the Democratic Party. A quick look at the many fascistic programs supported by Democratic administrations’ domestic and foreign policies should finally put this belief to bed. After all, the Democrats are the party of the still active Espionage and Sabotage Actions, Cointelpro (FDR and Johnson), Operation Chaos (Johnson), Anti-Communist Witch Hunts (Truman), Korean War (Truman), Bay of Pigs (Kennedy), Vietnam and Laos Wars (Kennedy, Johnson), Cold War (Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton), "Peacetime" conscription (FDR, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson), mass incarceration and welfare "reform" (Clinton), Bombing of Yugoslavia (Clinton), Escalation in Afghanistan and Libya (Obama), drone missile attacks (Obama), mass deportations (Obama), support of Saudi Arabia (FDR, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Obama), support of the Shah (Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter), and support of Israeli settlements (Carter, Clinton, Obama).
Third, the Clinton Campaign has also exaggerated the fascist menace of the Republican candidate, Donald Trump. Unlike real fascists, he does not have support of the country’s business class or most of the press, does not have a mass movement of organized street thugs, does not call for aggressive wars, and does not call for subservience to the state. While all this could change, especially in response of to a sudden crisis, the same prediction applies to a Hillary Clinton administration.
Fourth, both presidential campaigns have deployed slogans that can be used to build public support for a wide range of harsh government response to economic, political, and military crises. “Make America Great Again” echoes Mussolini fascist call to Italians to restore the glory of the Roman Empire, while “Better Together” parallels the Third Reich’s call for all Germans to unite through aggressive pan-Germanism.
By the time some CityWatch readers check out this article, they will know who the next U.S. president is. If and when the crises and fascistic responses that have appeared in my crystal ball eventually emerge, I trust these readers will not only remember what they read here. The real response will be their support or participation in the many anti-fascist movements that will emerge in response to U.S. wars, repressive policing, spying and surveillance, and patriotic bluster.
(Victor Rothman lives in Los Angeles. He can be reached at [email protected].) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
Post-Election Fascist Scenarios for the United States
