^ fascism in America : the white volk shouts heil

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David Brooks, writing in today’s New York Times, correctly notes that societies have only two governance choices : politics, or dictatorship, and that our Founders chose politics.

Today, for the first time in America, a significant bloc of voters are choosing dictatorship.

The coming of dictatorship is an evil that any society should reject unless the alternative is anarchy. I will get to that later. First, let us look at what kind of dictatorship is offered by the man Trump:

His would be a fascist tyranny, not a Leninist one. The Leninists saw society ruled by class warfare economics. Fascists see society racially. In Lenin’s Soviet Union, you could come from any tribe or nationality whatever, so long as you adhered rigidly to the party line. In fascist nations, nationality was the party line. So it is with the man Trump. His dictatorship is only for Aryans. Everyone else is the enemy.

As America is by definition a potpourri of all nations,Trump’s fascism is as anti-American as any message can be. Yet that is what gives it its power, because the man Trump’s followers, most of them, reject everything about the actual America. They reject its melting pot, its tolerances, its politics, its Constitution and all that is in it. That is how it is with fascist movements, which draw their power from fear, insecurity, and powerlessness.

Fascists see power as their birthright, a thing taken from them by “the other,” who are thus the enemy to be destroyed.

However, there is one other major difference between Leninism and fascists. Leninists are true beli3evers. They are principled. Fascism is as corrupt as it is violent. There is no escape from a Lenin9st rule except exile. In fascist nations you can buy your way. So it is with trump,  whose career is a study in corruption and favor buying.

Leninism rejects religion. That sort of dictatorship can’t gain any traction in America, where the “good people” love their religion. Fascism often likes religion, too (though not always), and in America, plenty of faith-goers embrace the fascism of the man Trump, even though such religion as he voices is clearly nothing but a veneer for the real message, a racial one.

Fascism in Germany gained traction because

(1) the Democratic government at Weimar was imposed by the powers that had defeated it in World War I. Similarly, our own fascists saw the election of Barack Obama as the imposition, by enemies, of a Black Presidency upon a defeated white nation.

(2) every move toward economic recovery overseen by the Weimar democracy had to be approved by the still occupying enemy. Similarly, our fascists see our nation ‘s economy as governed by international money and trade forces who own our national debt and push our “illegitimate” Black President around.

(3) even though Germany’s working class enjoyed the most advanced protections, by way of unemployment insurance, health insurance, and the right to organize unions, of any labor force in the world, somehow that did not matter to German workers as much as the desire to surrender it all in exchange for the electric psychological jolt of power to the volk.

After all, soporifics have always been a refuge for powerless workers — an instant surge of ecstatic dominance over everything. One cannot ever discount the significance, to fascism, of the urge to self intoxicate. Similarly, American fascists are willing — as one viral social media meme puts it — “surrender my safety net to the Republican radicals because of Benghazi, that’s important to me.”

(4) Weimar democracy was seen by fascists as the result of a “stab in the back.” To America’s fascists, the Benghazi events are “stab in the back.”

(5) In Weimar Germany, enormous numbers of armed, volkisch militia stomped through cities, beat up Jews, held noisy torchlight parades, intimidated tourists, burned books. America’s fascists haven’t quite developed that level of organization — yet; Germany’s militias had only recently been soldiers at the front –but with millions of guns everywhere and vigilante encouragement from NRA-bullied state governments, storm trooper parades of Trump shouters are likely soon.

(6) powerful business bosses openly abetted Weimar fascists as a counterpoise to the socialist legislation advancing through the Reichstag. These bosses cared nothing fort democracy and openly opposed progressive legislation. Sound familiar here ? I think so.

(7) finally, in its last years, the Weiamr parliament was gridlocked by rejectionist parties right and left, so that nothing could be done at all; the chancellor chosen in 1930, Heinrich Bruning, had to rule by emergency decree. Those last Weimar parliaments won every concession Germany’s enemies could offer. Did it bolster Weimar’s legitimacy in the eyes of the voters ? Just the opposite. Similarly, here in America, our fascists, rejecting the legitimacy of the Black President,a nd seeing gridlock in Congress — almost all of which the insist on — decry every advance and advantage won by the President’s executive decrees, which are seen as benefiting the white race’s “freeloader” or “illegal” enemies.

There is nothing new or imaginative about Trump fascism. It is same old, same old, as fascism always is. It is curious, however, to watch our fascists proclaim ting fealty to a Constitution whose every provision they reject. Others have called it ‘anti patriotism,” and I agree. When the fascists say “Constitution,” the arguments they adduce in support are those of the people who, in the 1787 ratification conventions, rejected the Constitution. Like the anti-Constitution party in 1787, our fascists do not want a strong Federal government. There is, however, one difference : the anti party in 1787 saw a strong Federal government as  an instrument of financial tyranny. Our fascists see it as an instrument of racial (and immigrant) tyranny against the white, native volk.

I meentioned above that anarchy is also a possible state of affairs; and that fascism may, in some cases, be preferable to it. I’m not sure I’m right about that. The history of societies in anarchy suggests that islands of stability eventually coalesce and, given enough opportunity, grow rationally. Fascism cannot grow. Its dishonesty and corruption do it in, leaving it defenceless against enemies.. The same is true of Leninism. It has a very hard crust  ut nothing within except fear and despair.

As suggested by the meme I quoted above, Trump fascists have no idea at all of how our economy operates, or the vital role played in it by our Federal government — the Federal Reserve, the power of our national debt — and know only that they do not understand how it guides economic transformation when allowed by Congress to do so. Because most American voters of all persuasions hardly know how our economy works, Trump fascism cannot be economic. This is also why Leninism cannot arise here, although Bernie Sanders supporters are advancing a still mostly political version of its class agenda.

It is sad to see volkisch, Aryan fascism come, from the very, very cold, where it has always lain, into the mainstream, of our nation’s suffering public life. It is disheartening to see Trump people envision better times arising from their movement., I see nothing good atg all in it, nothing but disappointment, disaster, destruction. And it will not soon go away even if, as I truly believe, Trump is soundly defeated in November. Keep in mind that the Civil War still lives. 37 percent of Trump'[s people wish the South had won the Civil Wart. 20 percent think the slaves should not have been freed.

If that many people can harbor Secesh, slavery sentiment 160 years after the Civil War crushed them, I doubt that defeat of Trump[ in an election will stop his supporters from marching onward. Elections defeat but do not change minds. The 1896 election, for example, was won by a northern, business Republican over a Southern, racist, economically democratic Bible thumper. The margin was three points — 51 to 48 — and the shape of that election was almost identical to the shape of this year’s, with the party labels reversed. It is amazing to think how, in a nation as dynamic as ours, constantly re-peopled by immigrants from everywhere, that an elect.ion 120 years ago could be almost exactly replayed now : but it is so. Assimilation is THAT powerful.

Our fascism, too, will likely gain support from the assimilated descendants of immigrants. Look at who our fascists are right now if you don’t believe me.

—- Mike Freedberg / Here and Sphere