CommentsMY TURN--I am thankful for a public education system that devoted a lot of time in the study of fascist regimes.
We had a war on this topic, and there were many that fought and died in an attempt to protect the free countries from this type of hideous government control.
However, when the people of any country turn a blind eye to the symptoms of fascism, and instead, support the very well-known characteristics that can bring about this kind of regime, no freedom is safe. The conservatives of the United States have spent many years in making plans to realign voting so that only their group can win. They know they are the minority and the only way they can win, is to cheat. When you add the cult-followers that have been rallied to the fray of someone as insane as Trump along with voter interference by a hostile foreign nation, you have a recipe for the fall of the U.S. and the entrance of Amerikkka.
The term fascist has been bantered about to such a degree that the horror of the condition has almost been reduced to a whimper. Over the last two years it has become quite apparent that few in the country even know very much about fascism, dictatorships, or even what happened during our most recent history in World War II. It only took two generations for the people to forget about their own family members that were on the battle fronts, the murder and slaughter of millions in the concentration camps, and the devastation of countries that took many years to overcome.
We have had freedom of the press in the U.S. and since that can be a source to undermine the propaganda, the next step is to remove the credibility of the media. The screams of “fake news” began early in the Trump campaign and his supporters yelled with glee as violence was encouraged against all reporters (except Fox). Hitler’s followers screamed “Lugenpresse” (lying press), and within a short amount of time he had all members of the press arrested and thrown in concentration camps and all but government approved media shut down.
With the help of Fox, the GOP and the conservatives have created a brainwashed situation where their followers believe that anyone that isn’t a white Christian, is the enemy. The typical routine is to select one specific group or culture, and in Trump’s case, he chose the Mexicans. Hitler chose the Jews. With continued misinformation and lies, all of the wrongs that the supporters experience are caused by the selected enemy. Strength must be reinforced by ridding the country of this group, and the message is repeated over and over again on the government approved media source (Fox). Any truths that are reported that go against the cult brainwashing message is labeled as fake and as the followers blindly continue to listen to only the approved message, the next group to attack is selected.
We Have Seen this Before
No other administration in the history of the United States has embraced all of the aspects of a fascist regime; except for now. The founders of the U.S. did not design the basis of the government with the assumption that one party would have all of the ruling power. Instead, there is a state of checks and balances that keep one side from only pushing their agenda. This is the same type of action that has occurred with the rise of dictatorships around the world, and in each case, they have overturned all protections of the people. The world is looking on absolutely aghast that so many so-called “Christians” would align themselves with an agenda of hate, racism, bigotry, and sexism. Our once proud country has become the brunt of jokes as they can’t believe an idiot such as Trump, who speaks in word salad, and creates hate rallies to bolster his own sick and twisted ego, would be called “leader.”
The same type of behavior has been seen in every one of the fascist regimes, and only those that have critical thinking and take their news from a variety of credible sources, understand the true meaning of what is occurring. Every single piece of legislation that the Republicans and Trump are pushing has been geared to destroy the average American, the environment, and our relationship with our allies, while creating profit for themselves and their wealthy benefactors.
If you look back to pre-WW II Germany, you would see the same actions and lack of reactions. A man that screamed and yelled, making promises, blaming people that didn’t match their idea of human-perfection, whipping people into a frenzy of anger and hate while they aligned with those leaders that could assist them in taking over all of Europe. The people of Germany that didn’t agree, did little or nothing, and many of them ended up being led to the concentration camps and slaughtered.
Illegal immigrants have now been put in the position of “the enemy” and each and every negative accusation made about them by Trump has been debunked and proven to be lies. Members of I.C.E. are now the U.S. “Brown Shirts”, rounding up families, separating the children and putting kids in cages. All the while, the American population sits back, plays with their phones, texts their friends…and says nothing.
Trump and his cronies have crossed over every possible “line” that exists in our basic moral compass, basing everything that he says and does on the fact that his supporters will believe him and Fox will report it. He holds hate-fest rallies in the same way that Hitler and Mussolini did, to continue to keep his rabid supports angry. Each rally blames an old list of their enemies, along with the new ones.
Hyper-nationalism is one of the signs of fascism. Suddenly, everyone is waving flags and creating their own personal lists of what is and is not allowed in the country for people to be considered “patriots.” They ignore the fact that protest is part of our history and has made political, ideological, and personal changes to the country; these morons now want to outlaw protesting and Trump has created lies to say that they are not protests but are instead “riots.” Another comment that he makes without proof. The conservatives are so hell-bent on their new found religion of “patriotism” that they believe police officers should be able to do whatever they want, including beating and killing people of color, and to any action of protest against it is “Un-American.” There is no difference between this idiocy and that which occurs in every single fascist regime.
Fox Was Designed to Appeal to Racists
Part of the long-term goal of those that want to change our country to one of “white only”, has been the institution of sources such as Fox. President Reagan started the ball rolling when he overturned the “Fairness Doctrine” so that any channel or source could be called “news” and report anything that they wanted; true or not. I cover this extensively in my article: How Fox Brainwashed Conservative America
The article shows the history, how the channel was created to appeal to conservatives and their limited agenda, the psychology of “fear” that they use, and the explanation of why this channel has become a cult. While Fox viewers will proudly tout that Fox has the highest viewership, they omit the fact that the 26% of viewers represent those that ONLY watch Fox, whereas the rest of us get our news from a variety of sources. Were we to only watch one channel it would be at the 74% rating.
Additionally, Politifact rated all channels for accuracy and found Fox to be on the bottom of the barrel, telling only an average of 18% truth.
Fox was never designed to be a news reporting source, it was designed to be propaganda. The same thing occurred in Pre-WW II Germany when Hitler and the Brown Shirts created “government approved” media.
Americans Stood Up to them in the 2018 Midterms
Much to the chagrin of the white racists, our country has been founded on and has succeeded due to diversity. Republicans have long known that they are outnumbered by the sheer volume of Independents and Democrats. Repubs have devoted many years in their attempt to “cheat” by gerrymandering and instituting State policies that amount to nothing less than voter suppression, specifically in neighborhoods known for their Democrat votes. There has been a battle to overturn many of these illegitimate situations, and it seems that “we the people” realized the uphill struggle and were willing to turn out in huge numbers on November 6, 2018, often waiting hours to vote.
It appears that the racist fascist regime has been sent a message by the American people as the Midterms resulted in an incredible number of women, people of color, people of varying religions and cultures, and LGBTQ were elected. We took back the House and now that there is some balance of power, Democrats are going to pursue all of the illegal activities that the White House, trump, and his cabinet have been doing and this time, the Republicans won’t be able to protect them or turn a blind eye.
In a CBSNews article entitled: Election 2018: Night of firsts with historic wins for Muslims, Native Americans, women and LGBT candidates
“Election Night 2018 turned out to be a night of firsts — with groundbreaking victories for Native American, Muslim, black, gay and female candidates.
The midterms seemed poised to shake things up even before results came in: A record number of women were on the ballot, and there were races across the country that looked likely to diversify the faces in Congress and statehouses. In the end, these are the winners who ended up making history:
- Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the first Muslim congresswomen
- Jared Polis, the first openly gay male governor
- Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland, the first Native American congresswomen
- Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee’s first female senator
- Janet Mills, Maine’s first female governor
- Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts’ first black member of Congress
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman in Congress
- Abby Finkenauer, Iowa’s first congresswoman
- The most women ever elected to the House”
….and these are just some of the victories
If the last two years have been nothing else, it has been a wakeup call to the country. We have lost every semblance of respect from almost every country around the globe as they watched the ugliest behavior from Americans to be revealed. White supremacy, racism, bigotry, sexism, and hate have oozed out from under the rocks to show their slimy sources. We were once held to higher standards and now the dirty underbelly is exposed, showing people in the highest offices as they stir the pot of hate, become involved in illegal activities, and use the White House and administration for greedy profit mongering.
The control of the country by one political party who have long held an agenda of undermining any and all actions to benefit the people and instead, line the pockets of the corporations, has resulted in a disgusting, low-level, bar brawl.
Many of us have been ashamed of what America has become and of the Americans that not only supported the actions, but those that proclaim to be so-called “Christians” that made excuses for it.
We have a lot of work to do to clean up this mess and we may never regain our previous standing of respect from those around the globe.
(S. Novi is a journalist who worked in the media and continues to seek out truth and integrity. A liberal and one who is suspicious of cults and empty promises. Her posts originate at Medium.com. She is a contributor to CityWatch.)
