Tag: Fascism

I read somewhere that fascist violence doesn’t begin with uniformed military turning their guns on the people.  Instead, it begins with violence by civilians against their neighbors, on behalf of the government.  Back in 2017 I thought we might get past the first Trump term before we saw fascist violence on behalf of the Trump regime, and I was wrong.

Case in point, a pro-Trump pro-law-enforcement vigilante has murdered two people in Wisconsin.  And right wing media are rallying to support the murderer.

In my last post I mentioned that President Trump has threatened to send federal troops against civilian protesters.  He has now carried out that threat.  From Daily Kos:

…Trump and his Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf have not only deployed unmarked forces, they’re also snatching people off the streets without cause and effectively interrogating them. Take Mark Pettibone, a 29-year-old, who was kidnapped by these secret Gestapo-like forces while he was walking home from a peaceful protest in the wee hours Wednesday morning. Though he had done nothing wrong, men in green military fatigues jumped out of an unmarked van, descended on him, apprehended him, drove him to a federal courthouse, then eventually read him his Miranda rights and asked if he would waive those rights to answer some questions. When he said he wouldn’t, they let him go. No explanation. No identification.

These unidentified federal police also shot a peaceful protester in the head.

I have to say I’m surprised.  I didn’t think actual military force against civilian dissenters would occur until after Trump got reelected.  Apparently I was too optimistic.

It’s easy to claim to love democracy when your own side is winning. When your party is losing, though, then you tend to show your true colors. Since the election of 2018, we’ve had plenty of opportunities to see what Republicans think of democracy when it really counts, and the results aren’t pretty.

Republicans rammed through a long list of laws in Wisconsin aimed at preventing the incoming Democratic governor from doing what the voters elected him to do. They’ve done something similar in Michigan. In North Carolina, there may be a new election because of blatant Republican voter fraud. Their contempt for democracy could not be more clear.

Paul Krugman has more than once pointed out how similar our Republicans are to the authoritarian regimes taking hold in Europe:

The fact is that the G.O.P., as currently constituted, is willing to do whatever it takes to seize and hold power. And as long as that remains true, and Republicans remain politically competitive, we will be one election away from losing democracy in America.

Voter-approved state laws are also under attack.  Missouri’s constitutional amendment to prevent gerrymandering, Florida’s restoration of voting rights to ex-convicts, and a medical marijuana measure in Utah are all being “slow walked” by Republicans or outright replaced by legislation not approved by voters.

One partial solution Democrats should pursue, is to change state constitutions so that there can be no monkey business during the lame duck session, because there is no lame duck session. Let the term of every legislator end on election day. The same should be done at the federal level.

Let’s talk about another member in good standing of the Republican Party, Montana Rep. Greg Gianforte.  He’s a convicted violent criminal.

In May 2017, the day before a congressional special election in Montana, Republican Greg Gianforte, physically assaulted a reporter…. The Guardian‘s Ben Jacobs pressed Gianforte with a substantive question about health care policy, and the GOP candidate responded by attacking the journalist, throwing him to the ground, and breaking his glasses.

Gianforte and his campaign lied to the public about the unprovoked violence — they issued a public statement accusing Jacobs of instigating the physical altercation, despite an audio recording that proved otherwise — and we later learned that the Montanan lied to the police, too.

Gianforte nevertheless won his election, and after the votes were counted, he pleaded guilty to assault.

Donald Trump, who you may vaguely recall having expressed support for law and order, is campaigning now for the convict’s reelection.  And the pitch is not “you should forgive him for assaulting a member of the press,” rather, Trump praised the assault, and Republicans at the rally roared their approval.

This is not a problem with “tone.”  It is actual literal incitement to violence being committed by the leader of the Republican Party.  Not for the first time.  And he is not alone among Republican leaders in approving of violence against the press.  And it comes during a week when Trump has been literally helping the Saudi government cover up the murder of a journalist who worked for the Washington Post.

Control of the mass media (by intimidation, among other means) is a defining characteristic of fascism.  We should turn out for the coming election, because we literally may not get another chance to vote.