The 14
Signs of Fascism
This is part two of a series of posts: If you have not read the previous one I recommend starting there:
http://thefriendlyseeker.blogspot.com/2016/11/transformation-trumps-or-our-own.html
Why you might ask when the news is already depressing enough about the incoming presidents plans for us would I focus on the even more depressing idea that this represents a turn towards fascism? Because I do not feel we can adequately respond to it till we truly understand 1) the dynamics of fascism and 2) that this did not happen overnight but has been part of a 16 year slide into fascism. There is an opportunity in this crisis but it is one we can only grasp if we understand the nature of the crisis.
As mentioned in my past blog post, scholar, Dr. Lawrence Britt
has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini
(Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American
regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each. In reflecting upon them I realize that the US slide into fascism started during the Bush Administration with the 9/11 event, but has also continued during the Obama administration. The neo-liberal policies of both the Clinton Administration and the Obama administration have allowed the consolidation of wealth by the 1% while the real income of the working class and most of the middle class has declined. The very real fear that most of the population has about their declining economic status is why the population was responsive to Trumps rallying cry of fear, hate and his claim to be the available hero to save us. (Just as German's poor after WWI responded to Hitler's claim that he would make Germany great again and improve its economy.) It is essential at this moment in US history that we confront the reality of the threat of fascism if we are to stand up to it.
Below in red is the summery of Britt's 14 points. In black following each point is my commentary on where I see the US at this time in relationship to this.
1. Exuberant
nationalism
Fascist regimes tend
to make constant use of patriotic images, slogans and symbols - National flags
are seen everywhere in public display. Territorial aggression is explained to
be mere destiny -- an unbidden greatness thrust upon the nation by history.
It is this burden of
unique responsibility that now raises the fascist state above all previous
constraint, no longer bound by international obligations, treaties or law.
When President Obama was first running for office he did not wear a flag pin on his lapel. He was so roundly criticized as "unAmerican" for this that he began to do so. Both US torture, US holding of people on Guantanamo without a way to get off, and US use of drones have all been the breaking of international laws and have been justified as part of the unique responsibility the US has policeman of the world and therefore necessary.
2.
Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Fascist regimes foster an artificial climate of fear by intentionally
amplifying stress and anxiety. Citizens naturally feel a strong need for
security and are easily persuaded to ignore abuses in the name of safety. The
few still willing to question are met with bullying and smear campaigns of
intimidation.
Because of fear of enemies and the need for
security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights
can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people
tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary
executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
Legislative bodies,
if still in existence at all, are cowed into rubber-stamp submission with
occasional ceremonial opposition. The judiciary tends to become activist in
support of state views. The public often looks away, or even enthusiastically
approves as rights are stripped away.
The concept of the
individual inevitably yields ground, exchanged for the promised safety of the
all-powerful state.
In my mind the key turning point in the US towards this slippery slope was the US response to 9/11 as modeled by George W. The Patriot Act was a surrender of many of our civil rights, justified by the need to keep us safe from the treat of terrorism. For a number of years till that part was repealed it actually said the libraries could turn over lists of what books we read to security agencies! We all willingly agreed to be patted down and our stuff gone through by the TSA to keep us "safe" from terrorists. Without this specter of the dangerous enemy Americans would have considered all of those things to be incredible and unacceptable intrusions into privacy. This slippery slope was such that by the time it was discovered during the Obama administration that the FBI and NSA had been getting all our phone records, texts, and emails from our providers for decades, Americans responded for the most part with a yawn. I cannot tell you how many people I heard saying "I'm not doing anything wrong, so what is there to be concerned about." Perhaps with a benign government there is nothing to worry about, but if you imagine living in Nazi Germany and the Nazi's being able to read all your texts or emails I think you quickly understand what a basis for controlling a population that is.
This sentence above is very interesting: "the people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc." For most of our countries history the US has seen ourselves as a moral example - calling out other countries for torture, etc. But under the W administration, as we know, torture was justified by his inhouse lawyers, and while it was controversial when it came to light - it was also debated. The administration and many others defending the torture as again justified by the need to conquer terrorists. While the Obama administration condemned it, Obama then started using armed drones to assassinate specific terrorist targets, including one US citizen who had gone over to the other side, but certainly had no trial. These drones often missed their targets and killed civilians and yet Americans for the most part turned their heads away again feeling the need to be safe against the external enemy. And when Bin Laden was assassinated (rather than captured which he could have been) most American's simply cheered. All of these events unfolding over a decade slowly wore down our sense of the importance of due process.
The above also mentions the court becoming activist for the state. As we know Bush was able to make enough appointments to the Supreme Court to give it an activist conservative bent. Then during the Obama years the Republicans blocked his court appointments at all levels, with the final insult being the refusual to allow him his constitutional right to appoint a Supreme Court justice to the opening that had come in his term which would have tilted the court to the left. While Democrats and pundits howled about this, they mainly talked about it terms of the political battle. Little did I hear words like "subverting the constitution" or disenfranchising the voters who voted for Obama so that he would make that appointment.
3. Enemies
Identified
This national cause
is identified as unity against enemies - The people are rallied around a
unifying patriotism directed against some common threat: communists, liberals,
a racial, ethnic or religious minority, intellectuals, homosexuals, terrorists,
etc.
The state's message
is sometimes couched in an easily recognized religious theme. Amazingly, this
language is used even when the full context of the teaching shows the meaning
to be diametrically opposed. Any dissent is "siding with the enemy",
and therefore treasonous.
During the campaign Trump laid out for us the list of targets: Muslims of any kind, illegal immigrants, Mexicans, handicapped people, women...and despite his verbiage the LBGQ community, Jews, and people of color all know he is coming for them as has become increasingly clear with his Alt right cabinet picks. The focus on "terrorists" by both Bush and Obama since 2001 has this country well trained to unify against a common enemy. It is quite scary to many of us that Trump keeps enemy lists - because always in history when leaders kept such lists those on them were in danger. The above talks about the religion of the majority being manipulated. The US majority religion is Christianity which Republican presidents have been wrapping themselves in and using phrases like "the moral majority" for quite a while. While there is no evidence that Trump is infact a practicing Christian he none the less has associated himself with the Christian Right as a power base, and they have been remarkably willing to over look at least a dozen behaviors that they would have condemned a Democrat to hell for, out of their desire to also be partnered with a power base. Do not forget that the Christian churches were silent against Hitler, and thus used by him.
4. Obsession
with National security
Obsession with
secrecy and national security - The workings of government become increasingly
hidden. Questioning of authority is discouraged at all levels of society. From
office talk at the water cooler up through the entire apparatus of rule,
guarded speech and secrecy become ends in themselves.
Troubling questions
are muted and entire areas of scrutiny are placed out of bounds by simply
invoking "national security".
Well as already indicated the whole TSA business has been an obsession with national security. We all know from the numerous things we have accidentally carried on planes that the screenings in fact do not catch all the forbidden items, nor is that even possible. (Even without them someone could still over power a pilot). But it is a ritual of security that creates a false sense of security at the same time that it teaches us to submit. Since then we have started having to be searched to go into public buildings as well. The Obama administration while campaigning on promises of transparency has been consistently rated as the least transparent Presidency so far. The leaked Hillary emails reveal much secret behind the scenes efforts to undermine Sanders and mask certain positions she had taken. Trump has already kicked the press out of his plane, so more secrecy coming.
5. Military
Glorified
Supremacy of the
military - The military establishment receives a disproportionate share of
government resources, even as pressing domestic needs are neglected. Individual
soldiers and military culture are glamorized and made constantly visible.
This provides both
an object for public glorification, as well as sharp warning to possibly
restless citizens that the power of the state stands close at hand, ready to
use its great potential for violence.
Right now the US military, past (debt), present and future consumes 57% of the US discretionary budget (meaning not including self funded entitlement programs). This is down from 62% when Obama took office. If it has not been this way for decades, we would recognize this is insanity. Eisenhower warned of every missile built being a theft from the hungry; but forward we march. Trump has announced plans to build "new nuclear weapons" (why? The old ones can destroy the earth many times over) and to expand the Navy (why? The military is not even asking for that seeing that as old technology). While all this goes on we have much higher levels of homelessness, infant mortality, or hunger than many other nations.
We have now for years been giving our "used" military equipment to the nation's police departments, so suddenly we have the police driving armored vehicles and sound grenades etc down the street when facing non-violent protesters. At Occupy, at Black Lives Matter rallies, and at Standing Rock we see the heavily militarized police in their Darth Vader like outfits treating the crowds with intense aggression and tear gasing and macing them in the face when they are posing no safety threat. The fact that the company building the DAPL pipeline has offered to pay the police overtime for the DAPL protests makes very very clear who the police are there to serve.
The outright murder of Black and brown people by the police with no repercussions certainly has sent a clear message that the police are here to control the citizenry not to protect them.
6. Corporations
Shielded
Corporate power is
protected - Typically, a segment of the business elite plays a major role in
bringing fascists to national leadership, often from an unsavory obscurity.
This marriage of big money and raw violence is often considered by historians
to be the hallmark and backbone of fascism.
So the passage by the stacked and activist Supreme Court of Citizens United was so alarming to even establishment politicians that Obama called them out sitting right in front of him at his first State of the Union Speech. He knew and Hillary Clinton, the plaintiff against them, knew that the rise of Super Pac's and dark money would finish the job of corporations buying and owning politicians. We have seen record numbers of Super Pac donations as we have watched our Congress more and more serve corporate interests. Citizen's United conferred the rights of humans onto Corporations. The Corporations then sought in TPP to extend these same Corporate rights internationally. An amazing coalitions of labor, environmental and human rights activists acted to stop this. Trump drove the final nail in the coffin. When he understands what it really was, he will probably try to revive it. NAFTA, passed by Bill Clinton, began the process of giving corporations the ability to sue on behalf of their profits over the laws of nations. As for the sentence above:" the business elite brings fascists to national leadership, often from an unsavory obscurity." I would say that is the definition of making a reality tv star the president.
7. Corruption
Unchecked
Rampant cronyism and
corruption - Fascist states maintain power through this relatively small group
of associates, mutually appointing each other to interlocking and rotating
positions in government, business and the military.
With this degree of
control, they make full use of both official secrecy and the ready threat of
state violence to insulate themselves from any meaningful criticism. They are
not accountable and are shielded from scrutiny in a way unthinkable in a democratic
society.
Government service and lobbying has been rotating for decades. But as we watch Trump pick his cabinet, where past support, especially financial support is more important than competence, the cronyism is clear. The fact that Chris Christie was just implicated in corruption as Govenor of NJ and may well be prosecuted is no disqualifier. Trump has also shown himself on the campaign trail to be completely incapable of receiving criticism and remaining calm, but simply adds his critics to his enemy list and responds with counter attacks.
8. Media
Controlled
Mass media -
Sometimes the media are controlled directly by clumsy government functionaries.
At other times, sympathetic corporate media insiders shape the themes
indirectly, and therefore more skillfully. Image regularly wins out over content as
the "news" is presented breathlessly and with flashy stage effects.
A practiced formula
of tenacious repetition brings even the most absurd lie into acceptance over
time. By design, the very language itself and the coloration employed will push
alternate views "out of the mainstream".
The terms of any
remaining debate are narrowly defined to the state's advantage, making it easy
to marginalize a truly differing perspective. Censorship and
"self-censorship", especially in wartime, is common.
This is a particularly disturbing area. The reductions of regulations against monopolies has allowed for the increased consolidation of media to where news, radio and tv are no longer separate sources, but rather all are owned by just 5 companies in America (with a further merger of Time/Warner with ATT threatened at the moment.) The pressure to not lose advertising revenue has for decades reigned reporters in, and the push for news to be "entertaining" and not depressing to keep the ratings up, has also slowly muzzled good reporting. The Internets threat to newspapers has reduced the number of people actually paid to do investigative reporting. People feel happy to receive their news from the internet allowing many to receive information that is not factually based, biased at best, outright propaganda at worst. The fact that search engines now search with bias...ie learning what sources and biases the person is already drawn to and showing results from those and not the other side means increasingly the polarized US does not even share same news sources. The death of net neutrality under the incoming Trump administration will seal off one of the few sources of open assess to uncensored information.
With the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war we saw prohibitions against showing the coffins coming back because the right had learned the lesson of the Vietnam war, that showing the horror of the war made people against it. The "embedded reporters" brought many jokes about "being in bed with", because it indeed meant that what was shown to us of our US wars was controlled by the US govt and the military.
When 400,000 people marched in NYC against climate in 2015 and it was not reported by mainstream media, I knew we were in trouble. But when recently 5 people I know turned the emergency turn off valves on all 5 pipelines carrying oil into the US from the Tar Sands, and not one major media outlet covered it, I knew that we had lost free press in the US. To control what people even are aware is happening, is indeed a very serious way of controlling the population.
It was breath taking to watch during the Trump campaign that no matter what lie he spun out, the media rarely called him on it. Even the ones he was called on, he simply kept repeating till they became part of the public thinking, regardless of the lack of factual basis. Fact checkers be damned.
9. Religion and
Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use
the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion.
Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when
the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed
to the government's
policies or actions.
As already mentioned Christianity being the most common religion in the US, Trump has wrapped it as a cloak around himself and the Fundamentalist right have forgiven him all his sins. The Right for a long time has been using things like abortion, evolution, climate change and Gay rights as wedge issues even though there is more than one way to read the Bible in relationship to these issues. They have used them to turn out voters and increasingly these issues became litmus tests for Republican politicians. They risked not being funded by their own party if they did not toe the party orthodoxy.
10. Rampant
Sexism
Rampant sexism -
Governments of fascist states tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated.
Traditional gender roles are made even more rigid and exaggerated. Virulent
homophobia is commonly built into broad policy.
This is a piece that was not present in the Obama administration. He often nominated woman, and woman of color to powerful positions. He ratified DOMA. Part of the uproar of the campaign season was Trumps blatant sexism, his sexualizing of woman, the revelations of his affairs and his unwanted sexual advances on women, and his crude language regarding women. He also blatantly disrespected his female candidate with coded and not so coded sexist commentary (suggesting she did not have the stamina for the job and calling her a horrible woman -not a horrible person- but a horrible woman.) It is no surprise that he is picking a male dominated cabinet. It is worth noting that while we have been able to elect the first African American President we have not been able to elect the first woman President and that this is because White Males voted heavily for Trump.
But the Republican party has been waging a well publicized "war on women" for a decade now- aggressively going after woman's reproductive rights. When finding they could not have the votes for a constitutional amendment on abortion, nor pass national bills on it, they found ways through state houses they controlled to pass more and more restrictions on abortion till they could shut abortion clinics down by strangulation. So of course Roe Vs Wade is on the table again with this new administration. The Republican controlled Congress has been unwilling for a decade to pass higher minimum wage laws, sick leave laws or maternity leave (all disproportionately effecting women). So this piece, the rise of sexism, is one of the signs of fascism really kicking in, in a country that has valued equality.
11. Intellectual
Bullying
Disdain for
intellectuals - Fascist society tends to create an environment of extreme
hostility to critical thought in general, and to academics in particular.
Ideologically driven
"science" is elevated and lavishly funded, while any expression not
in line with the state view is at first ignored, then challenged, then
ridiculed and finally stamped out. Free
expression in the arts is attacked.
It is not uncommon
for academics to be pressured to attack the work of their insufficiently
patriotic peers. Writings are censored; teachers are fired and arrested. Free
artistic expression in new works is openly attacked, and existing works deemed
unpatriotic are often publicly destroyed.
We have gone from when Newt Gingrich would make an add about global warming with Nancy Pelosi to Newt moving with the rest of the Republican party to the party line of "climate denial". During the Bush administration government agencies were directed not to use the term global warming in government documents (a form of censorship). The Koch brothers have funded a lot of "pseudo science" that is basically the available "science against the reality of climate". The media in its effort to always present both sides has greatly confused the public about this 3% of scientists who do not agree that climate change is man made. But mostly the talking point for Republicans is "Well I'm not a scientist, but climate naturally goes up and down" which is again to misrepresent and deny science.
In one of the more chilling examples of fascism arrival in the arts, a 24 year old artist Illima Gore, as a political statement created a nude portrait of Trump that showed him a pot bellied and with a small penis, she first receive hundreds of threats of violence, then death threats and finally a man jumped out of a car and shouted "Trump 2016" and punched her in the eye leaving an intense bruise.
12. Labor Power is suppressed Because the organized power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed. As these business-government-military interests meld, the significant threat of organized labor is clearly recognized. Labor unions and their support organizations are either co-opted successfully or ruthlessly suppressed and eliminated as soon as possible.
So we have watched the rise of the influence of the Koch brothers use of their money to fund climate denialism and right-wing candidates. We watched them partner with Scott Walker in WI to break unions, etc. As ALEC won more and more statehouses they attacked unions in an even more effective way than they had during their attempts to union bust during the Reagan years. Unions have been on the defensive. Rather than fighting for progressive change they have spent much of the last decade just trying to survive, fighting endless attempts to cut benefits and wages as the 1% consolidated its power grab during the crash of 2008.
ALEC masterfully framed union defense of public servant pensions as "Privilege that few of us have" in order to turn public opinion against supporting union retirement benefits. Unions have become increasingly timid about striking for fear of more union busting.
13. Obsession with crime and
punishment -
Fascist society is often willing to overlook
police abuses and forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. Long jail
sentences for clearly political offenses, torture and then assassination are at
first uncomfortably tolerated, and then start to pile up to become the norm.
Often a national
police force is given virtually unlimited power to snoop through the civilian
population. Networks of surveillance and informers are employed, both for
actual intelligence gathering and also as a means to keep neighbors and
co-workers isolated and mistrustful of each other.
As already mentioned we have accepted torture and illegal imprisonment by our military against the "enemy:"and a militarized US police force putting down protests, and killing black and brown people in the streets. It took a Black Lives Matters movement to even make most White Americans aware of police violence that had been going on forever. We have willingly submitted to invasion of our physical space in airports and to the reading of our cyber communications by various branches of the government.
For the most part the public has turned their back on the long and harsh imprisonment of Chelsea Manning who blew the whistle on military lies, and we have also not paid much attention to the price that Edward Snowden has paid for revealing to us the government surveillance of us.
14. Elections
Stolen
Fraudulent elections
- In the disordered time as fascists are rising to power, the electoral arena
becomes increasingly confusing, corrupted, and manipulated.
There is rising
public cynicism and distrust over what are widely believed to be phony
elections manipulated by moneyed influence, obvious media bias, smear
campaigns, ballot tampering, judicial interference, intimidation, or outright
assassination of potential opposition. Fascists in power have been known to use
this disorder as the rationale to delay elections indefinitely.
Stolen elections...where to begin? So we start with the election stolen by Gore who won the popular vote and the electoral college vote came down to a tied Florida and hanging chads. As the Indigo Girls sing "and we let the Supreme Court appoint a President". Which given how many begins of fascism started during the George W administration is indeed extremely significant. Then we have the gutting of the Voting Rights Act (something that Black people had won through blood and arrests in the '60's) by the Republican dominated Supreme Court two years ago. This was quickly followed by many Republican states passing voting suppression acts while saying they were correcting "voter fraud" that had never been actually found. When the NC Supreme court voted to strike down their new voter law it found that they had very intentionally and strategically targeted Black communities. The removal of over 800 polling places nationally (from predominately low income neighborhoods creating 3 hour lines) is another form of voter suppression placing the most burdensome conditions for voting on those with the least free time.
Moneyed influence: I have already talked about the effect of Citizen's United and Super Pac money on the buying and owning of politicians. And I have talked about the Koch brothers' money influencing national policies through ALEC and phoney science studies.
"obvious media bias" - the NYT has reported Donald Trump got $2 million dollar worth of free media coverage allowing him to spend way less than other presidential candidates on advertising. At the same time the media for the first half of the primaries ignored Sanders, then gave him negative coverage and then eventually covered him as a "surprise" challenge to Hillary.
"Smear campaigns" - the public became so weary of this presidential campaign because there was so little content and so much mud slinging.
"ballot tampering, intimidation and judicial interference" I have already mentioned these. Thank God we have not yet had assassination of candidates, although it did chill my heart when Trump threatened repeatedly that his opponents should use their gun rights against Hillary and in a national debate threatened to lock her up after he was elected. I could be wrong but I think that is what dictators normally do, is lock up their opponents.
If you have not already read this article by Greg Pallast on how the election was stolen I strongly recommend it. It does explain how ALL the polls could have been so wrong. http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/40246-focus-the-election-was-stolen-heres-how
Also this additional article is now pointing to actual computer hacking of computer voting machines in swing states: http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/20/1602092/-HRC-Campaign-Please-challenge-the-vote-in-4-States-as-the-data-says-you-won-NC-PA-WI-FL
So with all this crap here where is the pony?
There is an opportunity in all this crisis. If Clinton has been elected (or not had the election stolen from her) we would have continue with the same 2 steps forward one step back, slow and not enough progress on climate and social justice that we experienced under the Obama administration. It is easy for liberals to feel comfortable under neo-liberalism, to be distracted with other aspects of life and assume or believe that things are basically going "ok". So while some progress on climate happened under Obama, not nearly enough. The sense of progress allows us to be the frog slowly boiling as the heat goes up without the awareness to jump out. Trump is so clearly an assault on every issue that liberals care about that it is now clear in a way it would not otherwise have been that we are a nation in crisis.
As I think more about the rise of hatred and
racism that Trump is bringing, and Naomi Klein’s previous words that we will not
defeat climate change until we change the oppressive capitalistic nature of our
society…I see that under Trump, unlike under Hillary, the only way forward is complete transformation. I think as people of
faith the message Love your Neighbor is present in some form in every
faith. I think it is a message, not
directly about climate, but one we will be needing to hold up because not
loving our neighbors has allowed the climate crisis to fester and get worse.
Action steps:
* We must speak up, call fascism out and resist when any of these 14 aspects of fascism intensify.
* We must particularly ask attention be put on the issue of election fraud to find out if it is true or not.
*As he begins to violate the constitution we must call for his impeachment.
*We must not forget that the majority of voters did vote against Trump, and those are the number that can stand up to him.
* Whether it is a remaking of the Democratic party as suggested by the Sanders campaign, or the formation of a new third party based upon labor, environmentalists, people of color, and GLBQT we must realize the numbers that voted for Bernie are out there and will only grow under Trump!
*We must also be helping people understand how to construct non-violent campaigns for change. Americans tend to see change as coming through Congress. We must release that idea focus on the kind of change that the bus boycotts and the salt marches brought, the kind of change that if fueled by people acting together for justice. Quakers have a lot of experience with this and we need to be sharing these ideas widely!
