Click here for an article at The Atlantic (I hope it's not behind their paywall for you) by David Corn entitled "It Can Happen Here," subtitled "A new project tracking creeping authoritarianism." Corn's opening paragraph:
In 1935, Sinclair Lewis published the novel It Can’t Happen Here, which told the story of fascism triumphing in the United States. The book was a reaction to the rise of Hitler and Mussolini in Europe and the spread of demagogic populism in the United States by Huey Long, the strongman governor of Louisiana, and Father Charles Coughlin, the wildly popular antisemitic radio preacher. In Lewis’ alternative universe, a politician named Buzz Windrip, who champions “traditional” values and who promises to restore America to greatness, defeats FDR in the presidential election of 1936 and then through a self-coup seizes dictatorial powers. He establishes a paramilitary force to do his bidding, curtails the rights of women and minorities, and locks up dissidents and political foes in concentration camps. Eventually, his reign leads to civil war. It’s a grim tale.
He goes on:
Looking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (a.k.a. CPAC), recentl held outside Washington, DC, last week, one can wonder if it is indeed time to once again crack open the Lewis novel. At a panel led by Steve Bannon, the convicted (for contempt of Congress) and indicted (for money laundering) top strategist of the MAGA right, Jack Posobiec, a prominent conspiracy theorist of the alt-right declared, “Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely. We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it and replace it with this right here.” He apparently was referring to the Trumpian vanguard present in the room, and Bannon interjected, “Amen.” Posobiec, an early promoter of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory that led to a dangerous shooting at a Washington, DC, restaurant, added, “All glory is not to government. All glory to God.”
Were they joking? It didn’t sound like it. Other speakers at CPAC demonized those outside the MAGA realm. Gov. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.), who’s angling to be Trump’s veep pick, proclaimed, “There are two kinds of people in this country right now. There are people who love America, and there are those who hate America.” Stephen Moore, a Trump adviser, asserted that “one of the most evil left-wing organizations in America is the AARP.” For his part, Trump, at CPAC, brayed that the United States will fall apart if President Joe Biden is reelected. He painted quite the picture. Medicare, Social Security, and health care will “collapse,” along with public education and the economy. The US will be “starved of energy.” Hamas would run wild in American streets. Guns will be confiscated, and the suburbs will be “destroyed.” The stock market will implode. America will be obliterated in a world war.
Trump and his minions were engaged in an orgy of despisal akin to the 'Two Minutes of Hate' Orwell imagined in 1984. And Trump was hardly breaking new ground at CPAC. Months ago, he used the fascistic term 'vermin' to lambaste his political foes, and more recently he complained that migrants were “poisoning the blood” of the United States.
It happened in Germany, land of the finest in science, art, music, architecture, and philosophy, the most cultured nation in Europe. It can and will happen in the United States, unless Trump is dealt a thorough and humiliating defeat next November.
0 comments:
Post a Comment