Reading this article "Vermin" on CounterPunch this morning reminded me of something I've been thinking a fair bit on lately. The article is about how Trump plans on imposing a fascist dictatorship and how his use of the word "vermin" exposes his dangerous nazi core, thereby reinforcing the danger of his authoritarian rhetoric.
I'm not going to pretend that the threat of Trump isn't real. He openly flouts his racism and encourages his followers to do the same. Since the 1960's the Republican party had been reduced to "dog-whistle" rhetoric, where the racist appeal supposedly could only be heard by those already attuned to it. Or they tried to pretend that THEY were the anti-racist party because Democrats believed that Black people all took the "short bus" to school and needed special programs like "Affirmative Action" to compete against White people. It is simply a fact that open, undisguised racism can produce a more openly violently racist society.
Nor am I going to pretend that Trump is only bluffing with his threats of persecution and imprisonment for his enemies. I think he has every intention of using all the powers he will have, as well as those he can steal, to go after his enemies and empower his movement.
I don't deny the fears of his Democratic opponents, or anyone else's fears about him for that matter. What I want to point out though is that it's a testimony to the weakness of individual rights and protections in the United States that any politician can pose such a danger to them. The fact of the matter though is that this fragility of human rights has had both long-standing in the USA (and Canada for that matter) and, as well, what limited protections for human rights that did exist have been gradually eroded in a bipartisan effort since 2001.
I want to get back to the hypocrisy of the Democrats in a minute. But before I forget I want to state that this hyperventilating fear of the doom of Democracy in the USA is a long-standing feature of their national conservative population (as it is with self-proclaimed conservatives everywhere). The USA is the greatest country that has ever existed and its political system is the envy of the world and its Constitution was written by "an assembly of demigods." But it is also incredibly fragile to total collapse from perverted political movements like socialism and communism. If right-wingers aren't free to insult and abuse Muslims it will usher in Sharia Law to rule over the land from the new Caliphate in Washington DC. If the Catholic Kennedy won the presidency, Republicans feared the USA's capital would move to Rome. If racist cops aren't allowed to murder Black people it will mean anarchy. And I was going to say something about their racist response to immigration but the shit-headdery was too vast for me to do it justice. Let me just say that the right-wing mind, obsessed with threats, always fearful, sincerely believes that their whole way of life is forever at risk of total destruction.
Leftists such as myself have a different perspective. We see the world as it is. At least we see it more accurately than the hyper-ventilating, reactionary conservatives do. Respecting the human rights of Muslims will not mean the submission of US-American justice to Sharia Law. Latino immigrants are not conducting a "Reconquista" of the US Southwest. There were no FEMA camps. However, the gradual chipping away of constitutional protections, conducted in broad daylight by both Republican and Democratic politicians will eventually lead to a state of total corporate control. A society where oligarchs and their enforcers have all the rights and privileges and ordinary people have none.
You see, contrary to the right-wing projection of angry, power-mad leftists who will use any methods to steal and keep power, people like me are used to our political parties not winning elections. In the USA, when actual leftists aren't supporting alternative parties that are structurally incapable (thanks to a system designed by the Republicans and the Democrats) of winning power, they try to influence the Democratic Party from the inside, and they tend to fail miserably at this. Our protests are often attacked by the police. In the mainstream media, our views are derided and ignored much more so than the [often stupid] opinions of right-wingers. My main point being that leftists tend to have resigned themselves to a state of powerlessness while trying to preserve what official protections there are for the continued right to express our views and live our lives. We are not hysterically shrieking that the end of everything is near with the next electoral victory of the right-wing. But we HAVE pointed out the dangers of the surveillance state. Of unaccountable, violent police. Of allowing our governments to employ torture. Of official policies of targetting various ethnic groups for legal harassment. Of allowing for indefinite detentions, "preventative detentions" and "trials" outside of any accepted legal traditions.
It is the Left, the actual left as opposed to the delusional assertions of right-wing partisans that neoliberals like the Clintons and Obama are leftists, that cares most for the protections that exist for ordinary people from the powerful. And it is the Left that has soberly documented and warned of the consequences of the bipartisan erosion of these protections. And it has traditionally been the right-wingers (fear-based as their thinking is) that has been quivering with terror every election cyle, and commiserating with each other about immigrant hordes, and well-hung negro predators, and totalitarian eco-terrorists, and Jewish mind-control waves through the TV screens to turn them gay, on a daily basis. And that is why they feel justified to support police brutality. And the brutalization of human beings trying to enter through their southern border. And the brutalization of Muslims. And the legalization of torturing or assassinating terror suspects. And [their own] attacks on the integrity of the electoral process. [While unashamedly displaying their titanic hypocrisy by condemning the imaginary theft of the 2020 election.]
(You see, conservatives feel this need to assault, cheat, steal, pervert, because THEY'RE the ones always under attack. They're the ones fighting for good. Left-wingers who oppose imperialist wars who vote for Jill Stein don't really care about their issues. That's why they can't be bothered to tamper with voting machines who organize a coup or do anything illegal to gain power. It is Conservatives who back one of the two main parties and who have lots of power who feel they must do anything and everything to be on the winning side. Because they're the ones holding back the rule of Satan over the Earth.)
And now it is the Democratic partisans wailing about the monster Trump. About how Trump is simultaneously Vladimir Putin's butt-boy and how he will also be a fascist dictator.
In this instance, they're not far wrong. About the fascism I mean. There was never any collusion between Trump and Putin. But Trump does have contempt for laws. He has started to think of himself as a great man of history. His fans are (as stated above) congenitally disposed to hate anything, such as laws or other people's rights, that they think might get in the way of their protecting themselves. I think they're slightly exaggerating about Trump's ability to actually achieve his aims in the face of the resistance from other oligarchs.
But any genuine dangers that Democratic Party leaders and followers are facing are just as much their fault as they are anyone else's. For instance, the police forces across the USA are out of control. They could very easily be used as the local enforcers of a fascist state. And I'm willing to bet that there are more hard-core Trump supporters among them than there are Democratic Party supporters. And (thanks to bipartisan policies and favoritism) the police are well-armed with surplus military equipment, military training, and a thoroughly racist mentality. Trump has often announced intentions to go after his enemies. This shouldn't be surprising though. He spent almost his entire administration hobbled by the "Russiagate" witch-hunt.
How can the Democratic Party leaders who participated in this travesty, where the FBI lied about a US-American citizen to a FISA Court, in order to spy on his associates in a political campaign, in order to sabotage that campaign, because they didn't like that candidate's foreign-policy views; where a partisan media breathlessly reported on the Steele Dossier, which was a slurry of lies produced under contract as opposition research, and based on the statements of current and former officials of foreign governments; ... there were so many invasions of privacy, so many fraudulent documents, so much collusion, so many lies in "Russiagate" that the Democratic Party can only blame itself for whatever assaults they're going to face with a Trump victory.
They could have gone after Trump for his actual crimes. It's easier to find evidence for and to successfully prosecute actual crimes rather than fabricated ones. But so many of them are guilty of fraud and financial shenanigans and crimes against humanity and peace that they couldn't be sure their efforts wouldn't boomerang on them. Besides, as I said above, Trump-Putin collusion allegations serve the Military-Industrial-Complex 's need to keep Russia as an enemy in order to sell more weapons.
But there's something else these liberal fuck-faces could have done: Stop serving the oligarchic greed-heads who are fleecing the US-American public in every aspect of their lives on a daily basis. Oligarchs and their corporations are under-paying workers. They are shipping jobs overseas. They are over-charging for pharmaceuticals. They are gouging on health insurance. They are manipulating markets and poisoning communities and stealing and perpetuating homelessness and despair. Harsh economic times make people become "conservative" in that they become suspicious and fearful. When times are tough, your empathy shrivels. You worry about losing what little you still have. You begrudge others for wanting stuff that you think will come from you.
Republicans thrive in such a climate. Because their appeal has long been based on misdirecting socially conservative whites to hate people of colour and their godless Democratic Party gay-eco-terrorist masters. And Trump has thrown away their dog-whistle and says that out-loud. The Democratic Party has to rhetorically support public services for people and programs to counteract the discrimination of a racist society to appeal to their base. The fact that they really don't do that is immaterial to the ignoramus racists.
The Democratic Party could have embraced the cross-party popularity of Bernie Sanders and started to do things to HELP ordinary US-Americans. But being servants of oligarchy and often oligarchs themselves, they decided not to.
They could have NOT contributed to the lawless police-state that the USA is turning into. Instead, they assisted in the process. They will reap as they have sown and so many ordinary people in the USA and around the world will suffer for it.
[EDITED TO ADD: Why is it so difficult to get something like universal health care through the USA's political system but supposedly a fascist dictatorship is only an election away? How can a political system that people have such a low opinion of still sustain itself?]
2 comments:
Interesting post Thwap I happened to click on the link to Psychology today and felt the analogy to brain make up between Libs and Cons to be alined with my 70 year old beliefs. Where I live temporarily in Rural America much like rural Canada, minus the guns, i have often observed that the rural are less educated than the cities. And always more right than left. The same can be said of the 905, 705 area codes in Ontario to a degree. Add to that the undying Christian zealots in the country including the Speaker of the House(congress) it is a recipe for disaster. Israel being no exception. Truly a world gone mad.
Hi zoombats,
I wrote a little about my speculations on the differences between rural and urban political views <a href="https://thwapschoolyard.blogspot.com/2021/05/flight-or-fight.html>here</a>:
"People from small towns and rural communities tend to conservatism because everyone knows everyone else and people regulate their own behaviour to avoid ostracism. In big cities, people can "sin" in relative anonymity. As well, minorities ... such as homosexuals ... can find kindred spirits and form communities. Everyone is exposed to a greater variety of human behaviour; cultures, religions, sexual practices, artistic expression, etc. and often develop a greater acceptance of difference. Certain sectors of the economy are conducive to fostering attitudes we characterize as "conservative." The oil industry is an extractive, capital-intensive, polluting industry that involves some degree of risk, ... especially early on, ... but which can produce enormous profits for a small group of people. It tends to produce an insanely wealthy owner class who see themselves as the epitome of the capitalist dream. They buckle at the idea of having to care about the environment and they have the liquid cash to bribe politicians to refrain from imposing regulations on them. By definition their business operates in rural areas, where their relatively small workforces, already predisposed to conservative social values, are paid highly enough to identify with their employers and to see any attempts to tax either the industry itself or the high incomes it pays, as offensive. This produces the political cultures we see in Alberta and Texas.)"
Whatever the case is, it's clear that right-wing parties like to exploit anger to serve power and prejudice and centrist liberal parties seem indifferent to, or in denial of, how their service to power creates this anger and xenophobia.
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