Liberals are confident democracy can retrieve the nation from the fascist brink. A historically unpopular president will drag his party to calamity in midterm elections, and liberal (in the generic sense: reasonable, diverse, fair-minded) government will resume. Just don't be so sure.
Republicans suppress Democratic voters with targeted chicanery, leading liberals to the false conclusion that all uncounted votes are Democratic. In fact, the deeper you reach into the non-voting electorate, the more you'll find low-information voters, disinformation viewers -- Nixon’s vast, silent majority. Here are the disinherited celebrating our Land of Opportunity. The ignorant looking down their noses at factual knowledge. The racists feeling discriminated against.
Here too are the sports-fan citizens, losers (more or less) who feel a genuine thrill that their team won the Super Bowl or White House. These people are ripe for a fascist appeal to share vicariously in the nation's booming economy and blossoming wars of burgeoning empire! Liberals find themselves in the odd condition of ramming democracy down these people's throats.
The American Experiment is one in liberal government, wherein the people rule and the leaders serve. The inevitable downfall of such an experiment is coded in human DNA. The outsized egos of leaders make them want to rule. And the people can be duped into following such men (also Hillary) because we are decent and project our good faith onto their bad.
Trump voters are not stupid, but hopeful. People identify upward — or Hollywood could not exist. We are all the matinee idol, handsome, cracking wise, shooting straight, bedding babes, and always ALWAYS triumphant. We’re never quite sure how we’re about to turn the table on the villain when all seems lost -- but we're always glad we thought of it!
Hollywood fantasy inculcates fascist ideas of supermen and triumphalism in us. The dramatic necessity of conflict squares with the fascist myth of perpetual struggle (whereas social existence is overwhelmingly cooperative--ideally suited to democracy).
Even the one cinema element apparently liberal -- for purposes of suspense, the hero is always the underdog -- is solved by the fascist penchant for paranoia. The schoolyard bully is pretty sure the dweebs are ganging up on him. Fascism can be identified as overwhelming power in search of a menace. There's a recent Hollywood release of 12 stalwart USA commandos dropped into Afghanistan to fight the Taliban on horsey-back because … because the horses didn't fit in the helicopter gunships clearly backing them up in the lobby poster? No! Because underdogs!
Democracy is temporary, and America's has lapsed. All things noble and sublime -- democracy, physical beauty, romantic love, jokes, Camelot, food, being itself -- are just for the time present. Ice sculpture is most beautiful in the sun’s rays.
M. Warner, Minneapolis Minn.
This letter is in response to Ralph Nader’s piece, 2/15/18 TPP, “Twitter Rock Star Obama’s Silence Must Delight Trump.”
Barack Obama had eight years and he blew it. I hope he doesn’t follow Mr. Nader’s advice. Rock star or not, he can’t win a Twitter war against the vile and deranged monster in the White House. And I think we’ve had quite enough of Mr. Obama for one lifetime. Let’s recall some of his worst betrayals:
When the economy crashed, he found plenty of money for banks and bankers, not the victims of their crimes — millions who were evicted from their homes. Not a word or gesture of support for unions and their supporters in Wisconsin and Ohio trying to preserve collective bargaining. Even foreigners sent pizza! Not a peep of praise when “Occupy Wall Street” spread across the country; instead, abetted by local cops, brutally smashing up their encampments. Selling out health care to Big Pharma, Big Medical and Big Insurance. On the environment: Talking tough after the BP gulf oil spill catastrophe, then quietly lifting the bar on BP drilling; lowering environmental standards for production of uranium for energy plants and weapons, devastating fresh water resources; promoting “fracking” at home and around the world, probably the most dangerous assault on the planet; opening up the Arctic for drilling and other extractions.
And, if one is looking for a single-source cause for the election of Donald Trump, right up there with Vladimir Putin and James Comey, Barack Obama would be a great candidate. Instead of using his enormous popularity, and the feeling of hope and possibility for progressive change when he was elected, Obama constantly tried to appease the rabid right — a fool’s errand, to be sure.
On a personal level, I can’t stand phonies, and Barack Obama is a world-class phony. Those super-long “thoughtful” pauses in his speaking style; droppin’ his “g’s” and using other “street” idioms only when speaking to African-American audiences … just a put-on, folks.
Let’s allow Mr. Obama to retire peacefully, having served to the best of his ability, and use this much different historical moment to see the women of the world move into the positions of power and decision making.
Mark Ivan, Calexico, Calif.
So Ted Rall thinks we are better off with Trump than Clinton (“If Hillary Clinton had won, we’d be even worse,” 2/1/18 TPP). Tell that to all the people that are as American as apple pie he wants to deport. Tell that to victims of AIDS or anyone worried about AIDS. Tell that to the hurricane victims in Puerto Rico. Tell that to anyone seeking an abortion. Ask The Public Poverty Law Center, Naomi Wolf and others, which of the two we are better off with when it comes to protecting freedom in America. Never mind the environment, health care, civil rights, and so on. For Ted Rall to say that we are better off with Trump, makes me seriously wonder just whose side he is really on.
David Raisman, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Mary Sanchez's article, “Yep, He's a Racist All Right. Now What Are We Going to Do About It?” [2/15/18 TPP] rings true. Coming to me quickly — reduce the Republican candidates to a s___hole, small place on the ballots. Lower right corner. Let's have the two parties be Democrats and Green Party, or Green Party and Working Families Party, or Democrats and Working Families Party, or Green Party and Working Families Party. Let's have candidates finding their inner strength now and getting out the news now, that 2020 (and sooner, now, for local elections) will be the time for ballot paper revolution. We don't need to burn down anything. Just rededicate ourselves and our futures to democracy. Breathe in and breathe out.
Lynn Rudmin Chong, Sanbornton, N.H.
Re: “Why Do We Want Them?” by Art Cullen (TPP, Feb. 15).
“Everybody wants to come to the USA,” we often hear, “the greatest country on earth.”
Well … not everybody. Mostly they are people fleeing from wars and other forms of violence who wish this country could offer them refuge and an opportunity to repair their lives. And of course the hungry and desperate want to come here to earn a living.
One thing that well-fed, bloated Americans who were born into privilege (like Donald Trump) will never understand is that prosperous people don’t exile themselves from the country that nurtured them.
Can anyone imagine successful Norwegian physicians, scientists, or well-paid craftsmen eagerly uprooting themselves to come and live here, “the greatest country on earth?”
In any event, those Norwegians who’d like to come to America are not the crème de la crème whom Trump would welcome.
David Quintero, Monrovia, Calif.
Donald Trump’s recently announced 2018 Pentagon budget of $700 billion should alarm all world citizens. The word “militarism” is rarely heard in American public discourse. “Militarism” is not a word you will ever hear discussed let alone mentioned in any corporate news forum.
However the prophetic warnings of Dwight Eisenhower in this, the most famous and important of all presidential farewell speeches, haunts us now like a Dickens ghost. Militarism has absolutely nothing to do with the defense of the country. And it is the antithesis of participatory democracy. Eisenhower’s warning about the unwarranted “influence” of the “military industrial complex” has been largely ignored and minimized. And we the people and the world are now paying the price.
A militaristic culture glorifies and sanctions endless conflict and war. Think of Libya, Iraq, Syria, and our starvation blockade of Yemen. The morality of first strikes, drone attacks and covert assassination are never debated if even mentioned. In a militaristic culture there is no such thing as failure. Every action is heroic and worthy of reverential awe. Questions of legality and international law are trifles that don’t even merit mention.
US militarism has become the toxic and evil conjoined twin of “American Exceptionalism.” These forces have combined to create one of the most dangerous nationalistic mindsets in world history. Sired from our endless adulation and devotion for the military is the emerging strategic notion and belief that nuclear war is viable, winnable, and justifiable. One example is our recent strategic announcement that nuclear first strikes may be used as a reasoned response for a major cyber attack.
Americans need to quickly hone their survival skills and take action and face head on the juggernaut of US militarism. The task and challenge is daunting. Failure to act however will inevitably lead to unimaginable catastrophe if not species extinction.
Jim Sawyer, West Edmonds, Wash.With necessary checks and balances, the wheels of democracy turn slowly and that is generally a good thing. Creeping Fascism, however, demands the triple A’s of accelerated active attention. Having said that, let us remind ourselves of this political movement’s key characteristics, i.e.:
Authoritarianism, demagoguery, elitism and cronyism with favoritism, aggressive militarism, glorification of the state, corruption and disinformation, disdain for human rights, racism, sexism, white (male) supremacy, suppression of labor power, rigid one-party dictatorship, rejection of reason and intelligence, manipulation of elections including gerrymandering and voter suppression, frenzy to eliminate perceived enemies and to seek scapegoats, playing on people’s fears, favoring corporate power, merging fundamentalist/conservative theology with political ideology, and controlling mass media and free speech.
How many of these features are currently manifesting themselves in our society? The greater the number, the greater the threat to democracy.
Fortunately remedies are available such as Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone’s book Active Hope, which as a manual of sorts provides helpful guidance to translating interconnecting experiences of various forms of despair into meaningful and compassionate action.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Richard Laybourn, Bloomington, Minn.
I agree with the president that there should be a military parade in Washington this year, but to celebrate an event that will save our democracy — the resignation of or impeachment of Donald Trump.
Edward L. Koven, Highland Park, Ill.
From The Progressive Populist, March 15, 2018
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