It looks, Michael Harris writes, that Americans are poised to begin a forced march toward fascism:
The way most pollsters and pundits see it, the Republicans are poised to evict the Democrats from the House of Representatives in the looming midterm elections. It may even turn into a blowout. The GOP stands a better than even chance of winning back the Senate as well. With Americans gasping at gas prices and their skinny wallets, President Joe Biden is about as popular as chewing tobacco.
It is hard to ignore the theatre of the absurd in the current situation. Emotion, and a puerile sense of economics, is ruling the roost south of the border. How could a party that denies the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s presidency, a patently and demonstrably false belief, that has been debunked for two years now in court after court and the bona fide media, win power?
How could a party that supports a twice-impeached ex-president who attempted a coup to retain power and now faces a $250-million fraud suit brought by New York’s attorney general, gain the public trust?
Americans left "normal" behind long ago:
Make no mistake about it, this is no normal election year. There are nightly spectacles on the television news of armed vigilantes who call themselves “observers” setting up camp about 22 metres away from polling drop boxes. Their ostensible purpose is to detect signs of cheating in the early voting and to document it. They are the MAGA militia. They take pictures of voters, follow them back to their cars and take down their license plates. That is not observing. That is the old “we know who you are, and we know what you did” intimidation thing.
Such tactics seem to be working. According to a recent Reuters and Ipsos poll, two out of five U.S. voters are worried about intimidation at polling stations, and even acts of violence if the GOP doesn’t win.
In these post-truth times, it is not just facts that don’t matter. Neither does character. Richard Nixon appealed to an American Silent Majority, and preacher Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority launched the Christian right into U.S. politics. Now America is in the grips of the Immoral Majority, based on a lie so big it would have impressed Joseph Goebbels. Donald Trump has simply super-sized the whopper.
Consider the case of Herschel Walker:
The important thing is not Walker’s lies and hypocrisy. The issue to many Georgia Republicans is Walker’s loyalty to Trump, and his key role in winning back the Senate for the GOP. Fitness for office means nothing. Winning office is the be all and end all. It means control of the system. You know things are upside down when a Liz Cheney is shown the door, and a Herschel Walker gets the GOP establishment’s bear hug.
People get nervous at comparisons with Hitler. But look at the facts:
Hitler banned a free press, and Trump has characterized the media as the “true enemy of the people.”
Hitler had his Brownshirts and Trump has his Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
Hitler’s Big Lie was that Germany didn’t lose the First World War and was instead stabbed in the back by a cabal that included corrupt politicians. Trump’s Big Lie is that he didn’t actually lose the 2020 election, but that it was stolen from him by corrupt Democrats.
Hitler’s refrain was “one people, one realm, one leader.” Trump’s version as expressed at the 2016 Republican convention was “I am your voice. I alone can fix it. I will restore law and order.”
If you can't -- or won't -- learn from history, you're going to repeat it.
Image: The University of Chicago Press
18 comments:
These days, it is very hard to find any basis for hope, Owen. The Americans seem intent on a path of destruction that seems irreversible if predictions about mid-term results come to fruition. And we shouldn't feel smug her in Canada, since the elephant exerts so much influence here.
Owen, I will not pretend to be a great scholar or for that matter consumed with our southern neighbors current cluster fk but one cannot help but be concerned with where the country just south of us is headed ...... this I said some years ago in expressing my concerns as to where Trump was leading our neighbors, all I can now say is the parallels are obvious...
https://democracyunderfire.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-scary-parallel.html
These days, Lorne, the Americans are toxic. It's best to put as much distance between them and us as possible -- something that's not easy to do.
MoS saw this coming, Rural. He has clear eyes set on the future.
Maybe this is what America needs, Owen. A reckoning. It's the "house divided" problem. You might have thought that having had such a bloody experience of that in the Civil War, the very idea would be anatema but apparently not. Maybe they need to once again work that toxin out of their system.
They say that the prospect of hanging concentrates the mind, Mound.
Some Americans relish the thought of fascism.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/579160-stunning-survey-gives-grim-view-of-flourishing-anti-democratic-opinions/
TB
Thanks for the link, TB. Very depressing.
".People get nervous at comparisons with Hitler."
Its not Godwin's Law if one is quoting the 'legit' media?
;-)
Godwin's law, short for Godwin's law (or rule) of Nazi analogies,[1] is an Internet adage asserting that as an online discussion grows longer (regardless of topic or scope), the probability of a comparison to Nazis or Adolf Hitler approaches 1.[2]
Agreed, PoV. But there are factual parallels.
Again, we have all seen the downward drift of the USA.
Perhaps we should discuss just how to protect ourselves , Canada, from them?
For it is true that the USA exports the worst of it's deficiencies.
TB
Precisely, TB. The Trump flags in Ottawa last February should remind us of that.
What is going on in the U.S.A, politically these days is scary and we in Canada ought to be concerned. Any great conflict will have an impact in Canada, even if its just Americans fleeing into Canada. When you have a fascist state on your border it will sooner than later spill over. I'd refer you back to Hitler and his Nazis and how they came to power and then moved into other countries.
Some Americans may welcome "facism" but Most have never lived through it. A form of facism has always been a fact of life for the majority of people of colour. Whites, not so much. However with some one like a MAGA/trumpster in offices around the country, that will change. It will be ugly and violent. If it spills over into Canada, lets hope there is a plan B
We have to look no further than the attack on Pelosi's husband and the reaction of some Republicans, they didn't condemn the violence, they laughed at it.
The attack on Pelosi's husband should tell Americans what lies ahead if they elect Republicans, e.a.f.
You all might like to take a closer look at Alberta. One doesn't have to hope American Facism won't happen here, it is here already. Anyong
Your new premier seems to fit that bill, Anyong.
Yes, Alberta. It really is a mess. On the upside Notley is leading in the polls right now. The advantage Canada has is the federal government can prevent some of the things which could go sideways in Alberta. Canada also has a more progressive Supreme Court. When Harper passed 9 pieces of federal legistlation, which he was told violated the consitution, he was taken to court by a variety of individuals, and they all won and Harper lost. Laws were unconstitutional. We have more checks and balances and a more balanced federal government. Of course if the Conservative Party took over the federal government a lot of bets would be off.
Smith thinks the time has come for her brand of politics and it does resonate with some rural voters, but that will last only as long as it doesn't impact their finances and standard of living. We used to refer to Alberta as "texas north". The name still suites them
Alberta is the Canadian version of the American urban-rural divide, e.a.f.
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