The US Army's World War II warning comes back to haunt us

[Tennesseer]

The US Army's World War II warning comes back to haunt us

The fascist tide is rising in America and around the world. Many Americans are drowning in it.

Donald Trump leads President Biden in the early 2024 polls. The Republican fascists are poised to impeach Biden for non-existent “high crimes” as a way of distracting the American people and delegitimating any future attempts to hold a president accountable for their real crimes against democracy and the rule of law. As shown by public opinion polls and other measures, there is a growing sense and almost palpable feeling of dread and despair, that something is fundamentally broken in American society and culture. Moreover, the country is on the precipice of a repeat of 2016 when the professional smart people and pundits in the news media and political class said it would be impossible for Trump to become president because of “the character” of the American people and “the institutions” and “the system” – and then it happened, and these same people were on the TV news that night, slack-jawed and shocked at how very wrong there were.

Unfortunately, the news media and other elites did not learn from their many mistakes in 2016, which they continued throughout Trump’s presidency. Except now, matters are even more dire and serious as Trump has announced his plans to be a dictator and that he has been chosen by “god” and “Jesus” to be the next “president.”

For those of us who have been sounding the alarm throughout the Trumpocene about the rising fascist tide and national emergency, this is all very exhausting. We have not been listened to. We have encountered great resistance from those whom we have been trying to help, yet we persist. In so many ways it feels like we the alarm-sounders and other pro-democracy voices are lifeguards who are trying to save a drowning person. Such moments are very dangerous for the lifeguard because the drowning person, irrational and possessed by panic, may doom them both.

There is less than one year left to stop the Trumpists and other neofascists and that may be enough time – but only if we use that time now and smartly to organize and counterattack with a clear strategy for victory in the long term. Pro-democracy Americans must also refuse the temptation, born out of desperation for some type of win in these dark times, to confuse limited tactical victories on the state and local level with strategic victories on the national level (defeating Trump and then rolling back the Republican Party and “conservative” movement and the related institutions and donors that have been working for decades to end multiracial pluralistic democracy). Both types of victories will be necessary, but we cannot confuse the two with being the same or somehow equivalent.

Rest of article here: The US Army's World War II warning comes back to haunt us

[Tiny]

And just in case there's any question about what fascism is (and what qualities it has): 

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism

a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control


Here is a wiki:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism
Look for Umberto Eco's list

Laurence W. Britt in 2003 made this list:
"Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism"
"Disdain for the importance of human rights"
"Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause"
"The supremacy of the military/avid militarism"
"Rampant sexism"
"A controlled mass media"
"Obsession with national security"
"Religion and ruling elite tied together"
"Power of corporations protected"
"Power of labor suppressed or eliminated"
"Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts"
"Obsession with crime and punishment"
"Rampant cronyism and corruption"
"Fraudulent elections"

[azucena]

Once again, Tenn, thanks for bringing such an insightful article to my attn.

Wow, tiny. Reading your list is like check, check, checkity, check about everything that is wrong with Trump.

[tallguy]

That is the same list I have referenced on occasion.  Today's Republican Party is about 50-50 on two of those.  They are full-on fascist on the other twelve.  And yes, they are definitely still working on the final two.

[djAdvocate]

we lost WW2.

we were fighting fascism, remember?