Germany at the dawn of Nazism, the USA today. Similarities? Differences? Many today ask such questions, for valid reasons.
[image_caption]Joachim J. Savelsberg[/image_caption]
Followers and enablers
Another similarity between Germany of the inter-war years and the United States today is about those who enable leaders with authoritarian leanings. Hitler attracted followers from among those who felt national humiliation after the defeat in World War I. Many had not gotten firm ground under their feet after returning from the trench warfare. After the Great Depression, he attracted scores with his protectionist economic policies. Many saw economic benefits, conveniently overlooking the dark side of the Nazis’ program.
In today’s America, millions are on the losing side of an increasingly globalized economy and IT revolution, deprived of lines of work that had been a source of pride since the industrial revolution. They too feel humiliated and insecure, let down by political (and ridiculed by cultural) elites. Others see 401(k) benefits in a stock market that roars in delight at Trump’s deregulation program, no matter the long-term cost. Yet others do not dare to speak up against the new leader because they depend on his political base.
Many differences — yet dangers are real
There are differences between Germany in the 1930s and the USA today, of course. Trump has not declared as his goal the extermination of an entire people. His ideology is not as clear-cut as Hitler’s, and he does not have the same discipline to stick to a set of core principles. Further, German democracy of the 1920s was young and fragile, in contrast to America’s firmly settled democratic institutions today.
Yet the dangers are real. Timothy Snyder, Yale historian of European totalitarianism spelled them out in his short book “About Tyranny.” Closer to home, almost a century ago, Sinclair Lewis anticipated the risks of fascism in his ironically entitled “It Can’t Happen Here.”
I was born in Germany in 1951, barely six years after the horrors of Nazism, World War II and the Holocaust. I saw the scars of that history. I immigrated to the United States and moved to Minnesota thirty-one years ago. My American wife and I raised our daughters in St. Paul. I learned to appreciate America’s diversity, the academic institutions in which I work, and the thousands of students I taught at the University of Minnesota. Today, I am concerned.
Joachim J. Savelsberg is a professor of sociology and law and the Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Chair at the University of Minnesota. His recent books address issues of genocide and collective memory.
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The concern seems well-justified, and the parallels real.
I agree.
The Nazis didn’t have television networks, encrypted Facebook and WhatsApp groups for conspiratorial planning of violent actions and coast to coast talk radio outlets to preach the hate.
The sophistication of today’s rumor mills and whispering campaigns, using big data tools and privately-owned weaponry is far beyond what Hitler had at his disposal.
Today’s racial and religious persecution is openly hostile in ways that were once quiet, “polite” forms of discrimination. Genocide, I fear, is in the hearts of more than a few Americans of Right-wing orientation.
Michigan, Idaho, Wisconsin and Illinois all recent examples of an infatuation with guerilla warfare against the “government” and liberal democracy itself. The pivot from demonizing Muslims to Mexicans to actual elected officials has been relentless. The arming of the movement has been a fait accompli, achieved by NRA politics, court manipulation and the selling of the 2nd amendment. And they did it all with their followers’ own money.
The professor is right to see the parallels with Nazi Germany. Some of the parallels here, though, are even more sinister than the historic roots. Groupthink among the “true believers” is on parade in the 2020 American right.
I fear for my grandchildren. I fear for a loss of science and objective truth,
I think the biggest mistake Americans have made thus far in dismissing the Fascist threat is that they expected an American Fascist to LOOK like Hitler or Mussolini, despite Sinclair Lewis’s warning that an American Fascist would look more like an Evangelical Christian than a military general.
Here’s what surprises me: Think back to the 2015-2015 remember all of the historians and poly-sci guys who ASSURED us that was no Fascist? How could so many academics and professional observers be so blind to something that was soooo obvious?
And related or perhaps associated with that myopia, look at the more generally expressed reluctance to recognize Fascism and call it by name? A while back one of Minnpost’s own (Eric Black) described his “liberal” college days during he Nixon years but expressed a reluctance to use the “F” word… OK, but why? Why are we so reluctant to recognize and name Fascism? We have no trouble historically recognizing and naming Communism, or Socialism, or Anarchism, and more recently “ANTIFA”, but for reason some how right wing extremism and Fascism have no name we can speak out loud, why? What does this does tell us about our own institutions, and mentalities, and “bias”?
Why would liberals be afraid to recognize and name Fascism when they see it? Why would they prefer to NOT see it?
Of my answer to THAT question is that liberals aren’t always “liberal”, and that our “moderate/centrists” in addition to confining their mentalities to a narrow scope of possibilities, are actually conservative by nature rather than equal parts liberal and conservative. “Moderate/Centrists” are predisposed to recognizing and reacting to threats from the “left” rather than the “right” simply because they live to the right of the “center”. This is why they’re more comfortable reaching out to McCain than AOC, and why they see AOC or Omar as a greater threat than Tom Emmer. But I digress.
It’s still more than a little weird that American culture has sought to minimize and obscure a threat that nearly destroyed civilization and killed over 60 million people just a few decades ago. Why are we reluctant to recognize that threat when we should be hyper vigilant and sensitive to it?
I’ve seen some fascist tendencies in every Republican administration since Reagan’s, but instead of putting an outright Mussolini or Hitler in the top spot, each set of right wing strategists has put forward a doofus who is somehow appealing to low-information voters to act as the front man for their machinations. The real powers behind the throne have been right-wing ideologues who are economic libertarians and foreign policy militarists.
Would George W. Bush have come up with the invasion of Iraq and the corruption that ensued without Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Eliot Abrams, and other signatories of the Project for a New American Century? Would Trump have any ideology except greed and self-centeredness if it weren’t for Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon, two men with definite fascist tendencies?
Agreed Ms. Sandness. In fact I have been saying for years now that Oliver North was our prototypical Storm Trooper. And truth be told, if you go back and look at Nixon’s designs for a “Law and Order” regime, that’s guy was Fascist at heart.
My question is: “Now might things have been different had American liberals and Democrats recognized this Fascism instead of denying it?” What is this impulse to remain blind to Fascism all about?
The Democratic leadership is in their own bubble. Not the bubble that we anti-Trump voters are said to be in (because we refuse to agree with the ignorant and/or greedy and/or bigoted pro-Trump voters in small towns who are endlessly featured in The New York Times and Washington Post), but a bubble of talking mostly to other politicians and to corporate donors.
It was rumored that that Democratic leaders met with Wall Street types who told them, “Not Bernie Sanders and not Elizabeth Warren.”
Big money has so polluted politics that the Democrats have forgotten that all the money in the world does them no good unless they receive votes. The Hillary Clinton debacle should have taught them that lesson, as Ms. Clinton reveled in contributions from Wall Street and assumed that she would coast back into the White House.
If the Democrats on the national level are beholden to the super-rich–perhaps a different set of super-rich than the Republicans are beholden to, although some individuals and PACs play both sides of the aisle–then they’ll be fine promoting sexual and reproductive freedom, racial equality, and gun control, none of which are going to threaten the average rich guy, but when it comes to economic and foreign policy issues, the upper 0.1% can see their financial interests endangered, so they balk at contributing any money.
The Democratic leadership seems extraordinarily susceptible to Republican accusations of “not being bipartisan” or “being too far left.” I think they’re looking over their shoulders to see what the corporate contributors approve of.
If the Democrats, God forbid, lose this one, I hope the truly left-of-center types in the House and Senate mount an internal revolution and declare “No more Mr. Nice Guy.”
I agree with you. The parallels i find most glaring are trumps repetitious lies and goebbels theories about the big lie. Keep repeating over and over insist and your position and power make it real.Real enough to become gospel for your supporters. With hitler the lies were mainly about the jews, with trump they were whatever suited him in that moment.
Democrats howl about Trump not saying he’d accept the results of the election when they were the ones that didn’t accept the results of the 2016 election, and they howl about Trump lying, yet they themselves have perfected the art of lying decades ago, Democrats attempt to squash all other viewpoints, the list goes on, … should we fear the Liberal/Nazi parallelism?
Opposition to a President is nothing even remotely like “not accepting the results of an election.”
Unless you want to say that Republicans spent eight years “refusing to accept” President Obama’s election and re-election.
There is absolutely NO COMPARISON bn DEMs (negatively called ‘liberals’ by the Far R) calling ‘foul’ when REPs ignore, break or change the rules, laws, policies, precedents at will in outrageous attempts to grab/garner illegitimate perceived ‘wins’. The R politicians have spent the past 40+ years teaching their constituents hatred. They spent the Koch Bros, Mercers and other rich folks $$$$ taking over state legislations (ALEC) and university curriculums and more the better to control the narrative and Americans minds. They have been on a carefully constructed path to complete power, authority & control. They have supported evil, manipulative, vindictive Trump cuz he’s helped their agenda. Now they feel they have reached the Apex and they are giddy.
Except: the many millions who have already voted aren’t falling into lockstep! Oh sure the 30-some % base remains faithful to this takeover. But they aren’t large enough to secure it in infamy. So voter suppression efforts, PO sabotage, a hostile takeover of the Supreme Court, umpteen Trump lawsuits against individual states and more are underway…all in an blatant attempt to steal the election. Meanwhile blacks & browns are disenfranchised & killed, children & parents are in filthy cages, executive orders are further destroying our federal govn….and all you can think to do is whine about the ‘liberals’-?! The problem is both the picture (above) and the childish taught knee jerk reaction of folks like you. America has never been in such a despicable & deplorable situation. The Civil War is prob the closest comparison. Healthy people, facing unhealthy situations, stand up and wrest back control. Those complicit simply whine louder & continue to blame others. The voter lines and #s are long. I pray this means a strong majority are wresting back control.
The Democrats didn’t accept the result of the election? That itself is a bald-faced lie. Clinton conceded the next day and urged her supporters to accept the results. There is no comparison whatsoever between what Trump has said and what the Democrats said 4 years ago. You claim is just patently false.
No she kicked and screamed russia collusion. Made a fake dossier cost the tax payers millions of dollars for a lie .I think she was bitter. I can tell you first hand we dodge a bullet by her not getting in office.
Dude, every American should “howl” if a sitting president refuses to accept election results. Second, no one has denied that Trump is the the president, or that he won the election although some have pointed out that he lost the popular vote. Three, no matter who else lies, doesn’t change the fact that Trumps is liar and a dishonest and untrustworthy president is a problem for all Americans, not just Democrats or liberals. Finally, liberals invented the idea of free speech and built it into our constitution. Trump’s (and his supporters) problem isn’t that they’re not allowed to speak, their problem is that whenever they speak they lie and/or say dumb stuff about everything from COVID to morality.
Snyder’s book is _On Tyranny_, not About Tyranny.
What fascism ? This article is the pure hyperbole. Donald Trump is a nasty man with racist utterances among a whole list of other horribles. That doesn’t make America moving towards fascism. Let me address the authors points
– delegitimize core democratic institutions. Yes Trump runs his mouth against the courts and everyone else in his way. So do Democratic Presidents. Obama never criticized the Supreme Court ? Bill Clinton never criticized the FBI ? I could go on.
– In today’s America, millions are on the losing side of an increasingly globalized economy and IT revolution, deprived of lines of work … – Earth to Democrats, this is the exact reason why formerly rock Blue states like Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michi, Ohio and Pennsylvania have suddenly become competitive. Many working Americans are bitter that for all their spiel the Clinton and Obama administrations did nothing, absolutely nothing to stem the loss of manufacturing. And furthermore they did nothing and in fact increased the visa scams like H1B. While you may have a guaranteed job with tenure, millions of Americans where the victims of these scams. But you still want to say Trump was facist. Is that why all these former Democrats are voting for him ? Get real.
– Comparison between Germany and America – Sure lets compare. If i were a Palestinian/Mulsim immigrant in either country, in comparing TODAYS Germany and TODAYS America where do i have more guaranteed freedom of speech to criticize apartheid in Israel. Why Mr Savelsburg don’t you address that ?
Did Trump pass any speech laws in the “facist” America you claim. Wait a minute that would be Amy Klobuchar and a bunch of Democrats who signed on to patently unconstitutional BDS laws to attempt to suppress my free speech and religious rights. Just imagine if that were Trump. But then why the silence from Democrats
Which of the two countries per capita has done more to establish/fund that apartheid in Israel. But that’s ok with todays Germany cause its so unfacist ? Based on recent events, is it even legal to criticize Israel in Germany ? But Trump is fascist ? Really ?
This piece is about as bad an article that has ever been posted on Minnpost. Although there are a very few number of extremists, our political parties and our country are far from the Nazi regime as they come. There are pundits on both sides that say that once you invoke comparisons to Hitler and the atrocities the Nazis did in an argument, you instantly lost the argument.
This piece starts a large amount by Trump’s assault on the media. The Media Research Center just released their study that over 90% of news coverage of Trump was negative since he won the GOP nomination. Add to it that a large majority on Biden was positive since he announced his candidacy. Can you imagine if you were attacked almost all the time? How would you react? Any normal person would conclude there is something rigged. Add to it that nearly everyone in the news and journalism business are card carrying Democrats. Trump has every right to make his case.
In Nazi Germany, everyone in the press and their propaganda machine as part of the Nazi party. How is that even close to similar to what we have in America now?
And it’s clear that this ‘professor’ knows nothing about economics. Under Obama/Biden, we had the slowest recovery growth in our history where household incomes grew less than 1%. That nearly tripled under Trump, who undid many international trade pacts that undermined America’s manufacturing and intellectual property. When Obama left office, he said the US will never see a lower unemployment rate ever (while having record amounts of people on welfare). Trump proved that wrong with a record number of people actively with a job and record low minority unemployment.
People can dislike Trump all they want. But let’s be real here. This writer needs to get out of the cushy chair he has because he doesn’t see the real world. It’s a free world and we have our First Amendment rights. But I would think Minnpost to be better than post something like this.
Actually, this piece is pretty good and it is your comment that loses the argument.
The Media Research Center is an unabashedly pro-Trump outfit. You lost all credibility when you cited that to complain about Trump’s media treatment. But putting aside your worthless source, the media treatment a president receives shouldn’t necessarily be equal, but reflect their performance. And Trump has been a terrible president.
Its also not the professor who doesn’t understand economics. Its Trump and his apologists. You can cherry pick all the stats you want about the robust economy Trump inherited, but that doesn’t change the fact that that Trump’s incompetent handling of the pandemic has seriously damaged the economy. And the pandemic’s impact isn’t some asterisk you can put aside. Trump was faced with a crisis and failed miserably.
As I like to point out, this shouldn’t be a surprise. Trump has failed all his life. He’s a trust fund kid who knows nothing about running a business and has squandered his massive inheritance on one failed business after another.
Being a terrible president, doesn’t make him a facist.
States like New York, Minnesota etc are run by Democrats. Are they not responsible for handling the pandemic in their states ? Also why are cases rising in Europe ? There is no answer to this pandemic as long as there is no vaccine. Trump is an idiot for walking around without a mask, but lets not pretend that Biden has some magic formula to solve the crisis.
If he squandered his massive inheritance, how’s he still a billionaire. Just wondering.
Actually, as the recent NYT reporting on Trumpolini’s long embargoed tax returns make clear, he’s not remotely a billionaire, and probably never was. In addition, he’s personally on the hook for those hundreds of millions in loans, and we don’t know who has this financial leverage over him.
A very poorly educated ignoramus, utterly unqualified for the highest office in the nation-just like Adolph H!
It seems we all have the ability to submit a commentary piece like this to MINNPOST.
I regret that in the past 4 years few on the right have taken the opportunity to defend Trump and compliment him on his policies.
Makes for great debate in the comments section!
Ink is free here and I suspect most commentaries short of slander find their way to these pages.
When Trump comes out of the shoot crazily defending the biggest inauguration crowd ever when clearly it was not, did set the tone. And that tone was quickly reinforced by Kellyanne Conway telling us there are facts and there are alternative facts. Lie and obfuscate 65% of the time, 2X the rate of any previous President, and insult and denigrate any member of the press who reports it will tend to create some negative coverage. Trump’s problems are of his own doing. Thank you Dr. Savelsberg for exercising your First Amendment rights to express your opinion.
I lived for a while under a right-wing military dictatorship, a Fascist holdover from Europe’s World War II days, and when I first began hearing Donald Trump’s campaign statements, “debate” performances and rabble-rousing rallies in 2016 I was appalled at the parallels with Hitler, Mussolini, and Francisco Franco (the holdover I spent time living under). Trump is an ignorant, lazy and intellectually deficient demagogue, but he is a demagogue, with the con man’s ability to sway a crowd who would rather not think, but feel. A crowd thrilled to live out its resentments as Trump prances in front of them in performance of anger and hatred.
This article accurately reflects the fears of many of America’s top and most profound political thinkers today: Trump in the presidency is quickly throwing our country’s values, traditions, and norms out the window, to satisfy his childish ego and deep need to be The Winner. Those who don’t recognize the danger he represents are simply ignorant of what fascism is, and how rapidly it can demolish a democracy as complacent and uninformed as ours.
Sorry, I see Trump as a blow hard and an idiot. Simple question which i know you won’t answer. In which country, America or Germany can i criticize/protest against Israeli apartheid and not get into trouble with the law ? “Facist” America or “Modern” Germany ?
I hate to say it Raj but I think your own drift into periphery of antisemitism is distorting your perception.
You seem to be hung up on comparing Germany and Hitler and Nazis to Trump and contemporary America (i.e. the US). Many of us have repeatedly pointed out, as does the author of this article, that this isn’t how you recognize Fascism in the US or the Fascist nature of Donald Trump and the Republican Party. But how do we explain your myopia?
Essentially it comes down to antisemitism because the biggest difference between Trump’s Fascism and Hitler’s Fascism is that Trump’s Fascism, while racists and anti Semitic, isn’t organized around launching a Jewish Holocaust, your conclusion: No Holocaust, no Fascism. In fact Trump is actually pro-Israel in the sense that he supports the right wing regime currently in power in Israel. Your own inability to recognize a Fascist who “supports” a Jewish State my be a product of an anti Semitic assumption that all Fascists would be hostile to a Jewish State. Trump can’t be a true Fascist because he “supports” Israel and by extension Jews. Your denial of Trump’s Fascism revolves around your denial of his anti Semitism, or at least the confusion that his support for Israel provokes.
Meanwhile, anyone who thinks Trump has been no worse or better than neoliberals for Palestinians in the last 4 years has simply not been paying attention. Obama and many Democrats (even those like Klobuchar) had drifted into a consensus that a Two State solution is the only viable resolution to the conflict. Trump has openly and defiantly rejected that, recognized Jerusalem as the Capital, and promoted embraced a One State solution that relegates the Palestinian territories to reservations akin to those we’ve established for Native Americans. If you don’t recognize these facts, then you sir don’t get to pretend to be the Palestinian champion in the room.
Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition and strong regimentation of society and of the economy which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe.
Do tell Paul, what rights of yours have been suppressed in America ? Tell me whats happening next Tuesday ? A forced march ? What happens on MSNBC every night ? A transcript handed out by the Govt. Don’t tell me what an authoritarian state is.
“comparing Germany and Hitler and Nazis to Trump and contemporary America ” – Where in my statement below, which grammatically is in the present tense, did i compare Germany and Hitler to contemporary America ? Do tell ?
“” In which country, America or Germany can i criticize/protest against Israeli apartheid and not get into trouble with the law ? “Facist” America or “Modern” Germany ?””
““comparing Germany and Hitler and Nazis to Trump and contemporary America ” – Where in my statement below, which grammatically is in the present tense, did i compare Germany and Hitler to contemporary America ? Do tell ?”
My apologies Raj, I stand corrected.
However, my error doesn’t substantively refute my observation. The definition of “Fascism” your pointing to IS based on 20’s and 30’s era European Fascism (i.e. Hitler and Germany and Mussolini and Italy), so yes, you ARE making that comparison albeit implicitly rather than explicitly.
No one is claiming we currently have a Fascist government or that we’re living in a Fascist society. The observation is that Trump and a substantial number of his supporters are Fascist who will take control of the country if we let them, and that would be a bad thing. We don’t want to BECOME a Fascist nation ruled by a Fascist government. You clearly don’t recognize that danger and threat, which brings us back to my earlier comment, essentially you’re defending a Fascist against claims that he’s a Fascist and I think that denial revolves around your anti-Israeli (and possibly ant Semitic) inability to reconcile a Fascism with support for Israel. Whatever.
Trump’s impulses to abolish free speech and promote white supremacy combined with his overt and obvious nationalism, xenophobia, disregard for the law, hostility towards democracy and constitutional limits on his authority… not to mention his open support for Nazis (some of whom are good people) clearly establishes his Fascist instincts and designs. He runs his foreign policy like a Mob boss.
His problem thus far is that he’s been foiled by still functioning constitutional limits and democratic institutions, but clearly if he thought it could get away with it he’d suspend the constitution, cancel the elections indefinitely, rule by edict, outlaw opposition, and stay in office indefinitely. If you want to wait until after all that has happened, and your being chased down in the street ( I suspect you don’t fit the white Aryan profile) to recognize Fascism in America, that’s a suicidal impulse we play with at our own peril.
By the way, Trump isn’t actually a billionaire, he’s always lied and exaggerated his own wealth. He’s not broke but his biggest source of personal revenue was his tv show. He squandered almost all of THAT money buying new golf courses and is now facing $400+ million in debt, with no revenue than can possibly pay it off.
Thank You Paul. I appreciate the fact that you don’t use attack and smears that some on this site specialize in.
Which were the best years for the progressive moment in getting progressives into positions of real power and influence and why did it happen ? Your answer, if you could hazard a guess, will almost certainly include the word Clintons. And therein lies my disdain for Biden and the better world i see without him. If you draw out a Markov Chain of probabilities if Biden (at his age) being elected, it does not look good. Kamala Harris will never get the Dem nomination and so on.
Sometimes loosing is better than winning.
Raj, the Clinton’s were/are New Democrats who orchestrated the major Party shift away from liberal politics, and have been fierce opponents of any progressive agenda or candidate for decades. No progressive I know would list the Clintons among any champions of progressive politics or policy, on the contrary.
Progressive politics didn’t get on the map or the table in the US until Sanders ran (against HRC) in 2016. Other progressives would be Keith Ellison, Omar, AOC, etc. etc. All recent arrivals. Prior to 2016, I’d say the biggest break progressives got was Welstone.
Even Nazi Germany didn’t become a fascist state with the flip of a switch. Semantics don’t change the direction we’re heading, Raj. No one has said we ARE a fascist state. It’s the “yet” that you seem to be ignoring. When we cross the line it will be too late. That’s how this works. Now, take your definition and apply it to Trump. It fits. We have a fascist president (with lots of fascists in power with him). And that’s far further than I’m comfortable letting my country get toward fascism.
Now, take your definition and apply it to Trump. It fits. – I’m really perplexed. Show me ONE law that restricts my rights in this country. If Trumpettes couldn’t do one thing in four years, its hardly a good predictor of the oncoming doom. I don’t think Trump will win anyway, but i fear what comes Four years hence, a more slick version of him (Niki Haley)
It all depends on whose ox is being gored. I find it really strange you guys warn me of creeping fascism but won’t answer a peep about the BDS law signed onto by Amy Klobuchar that IS fascism. What about all those people who lost their jobs, tenure. What about them trying to censor Facebook, Twitter. I support some of the social justice movements, but cannot support them demonizing anyone who opposes. That’s what you are getting these days.
I may not agree with a person but i do not want that persons voice to be silenced at all. Even Russian trolls. I’m not stupid and use that as my filter when reading or listening.
Barack Obama our countries first African American president, was insulted, lectured to, and humiliated by Netanyahu.
““I have never seen a foreign leader speak to the president like that, and certainly not in public, and I’ve never — certainly never seen it happen in the Oval Office,” Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser””
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/netanyahu-resurfaces-clip-of-him-lecturing-obama-amid-re-election-campaign/
Paul, who enabled that humiliation ? Was it the fascist Donald Trump. Or was it the silence and complicity of people you see being praised and lauded on Minnpost. Similarly who are the characters who ganged up with right wing groups against Ilhan Omar ? Republicans only ? Or people who post regularly on Minnpost ? So where is your great defense of liberal values of freedom when it was undermined by the very people who sat quietly and or encouraged such behavior.
Biden is one of those characters. There’s no Democratic leader who more undermined Barack Obama and let Netanyahu off with his racist offensive behavior than Joe Biden. And i must hear lectures on “fascism” from the very crowd that kept quiet and continued to keep quiet ?
https://jewishcurrents.org/joe-bidens-alarming-record-on-israel/
“is requiring that Israel not use its almost $4 billion per year in US taxpayers’ money to, for instance, detain Palestinian children,” – Biden supported funding detaining children. So why the silence from the holier than thous on this site ?
” when the White House contemplated exerting real pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to keep the possibility of a Palestinian state alive, Biden did more than any other cabinet-level official to shield Netanyahu from that pressure. ”
”
Michael Oren’s memoir of his time as Israel’s ambassador in Washington, he quotes Biden as telling him, “We must have no daylight between us”—which contradicted Obama’s position.”
Next time you talk of fascism, ask yourself who enabled that in the White House.
Yes Raj, Trump is a great friend of Omar. And Fascists will no doubt embrace the Palestinian cause with great enthusiasm. Dude, I’m as critical of Democrats as anyone you’ll find, but if you REALLY think that Hillary Clinton is just as hostile and to the Palestinians as Trump, I can’t take you seriously. You’re logic is leading to you embrace your own oppression.
Biden will do NOTHING.
Your right, we can expect Biden will do nothing of substance to reverse Trump’s damage to the Palestinians, or to support a two state solution. But a POTUS that does nothing is preferable to a POTUS that keeps stomping Palestinians don’t you think?
When the Israelis figured out nothing changes, that’s how you landed on the door step of Annexation. However once the Biden crowd determines enough people will sit out everything changes and the Israeli / AIPAC crowd will notice.
AOC and other progressives did not rise due to victory.
Every progressive in the House and Senate won their elections and hold the same election cert than anyone else has. We’ll see what the future holds but for now, that’s a victory.
The encroaching fascism that is engulfing the nation is far worse than this short article can detail, and making counter-appeals to the existence of the First Amendment are rather lame and hardly constitute a refutation. The US Constitution has not been suspended as the German one was in 1933 by Hitler’s “emergency” decrees. So the fact that you can speak out against American fascism, while Hitler’s Germans could not, is hardly the crucial point.
American fascism is currently using the plethora of “conservative” media platforms and social media mind pollution to annihilate reality and accurate reporting and indoctrinate its disciples. As a result, the First Amendment’s vaunted “Marketplace of Ideas” cannot function any longer to ascertain truth, just as it could not function in Nazi Germany (or Stalinist Russia) for different reasons. As the author pointed out, declaring that any negative story about Hitler was “fake news” was the method that the Nazi party had to use until they took control in 1933 and ended German democracy with the Reichstag Fire. The main difference is that American “conservatism” has not engineered our Reichstag Fire (yet). Although one has to admit that our supine Repub Congress pretty much allowed Trump to do whatever he wished from 2017-2019, when the Dems took the House. And Trumpolini has refused any and all oversight by the Dem House, so he is effectively already acting as an American dictator.
Trump has gone much further in controlling law enforcement (his corrupt DOJ run by henchman Barr) and the courts (especially his democratically-illegitimate “conservative” Supreme Court majority) than any other American authoritarian, including Nixon. These anti-democratic developments will now be built upon by the next crop of authoritarian leaders that the Repub party has been nurturing for some time now (assuming that our failed constitution even allows the majority to rid itself of the authoritarian Trump in several days). The biggest thing to recognize is that, like Nazism, the American right has come to realize that it must reject and undercut actual democracy at every turn, because “conservatism” is now a minoritarian movement, one that understands it must work to strengthen every anti-democratic and majoritarian element of the American system of government. And in this project Trump’s supporters are actively enabling him.
whoops: “every anti-democratic and anti-majoritarian element”
I couldn’t have said it better.
That is a very nice compliment coming from a wonderful writer like you, Jon.
It’s now becoming very clear that our Reichstag Fire will be the coming 6-3 decision in Trump v. Biden, ruling that state supreme courts do not have the power to protect the right to vote under state constitutions. That this would have to reverse existing precedent (“balls and strikes!”) in order to exclude millions of legal votes across half a dozen states to install a despised minoritarian strongman for a second term appears not to overmuch concern the coming Barrett majority. Trump is basically openly requesting such a result.
It will make Bush v. Gore look highly principled. The question is what the country will do. Accept it, as the Germans did in 1933? But since Trump’s armed militia supporters wear camo and not brownshirts, and we can have this discussion, that means there’s no fascism to see here!
Folks, look at Turkey’s threats to Europe and Turkey’s support of the Azeri aggression in Nogorno-Karabakh and their military technical cooperation agreements with other Turkic-nations. This is worrisome. Be aware. Silence is Genocide.
For those needing to see violent suppression of political opposition as an element of fascism, please take note that Trump supporters in TX are now running around in armed caravans, attempting to force Biden campaign officials off the road. (Trump tweeted that the FBI is making a huge mistake in investigating such a violent incident on the eve of the election. They should be off combating “Antifa” of course….)
Similarly, Repub judges in MI just overturned a statutory ban on carrying firearms into polling places, despite huge majorities of citizens (sensibly) favoring such a ban. I wonder which side of the political divide wants to carry high powered weaponry into polling places, and why? Oh yes, “personal safety”, no doubt.
It is happening here.
Sorry, a correction. The MI ban was ordered by the Secretary of State, who administers state elections, and whose orders have the force of law.
And those are just a couple examples of the numerous attempts by Trumpites to intimidate voters (so far)….