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The Long and Winding Road: Republicanism to Fascism [1]
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Date: 2022-11-25
Fascist 21st Century Republican propaganda photo used by Rep. Marjorie Greene.
The mass psychological strategy (MPS) of the Republicans has long been based on reactionary pandering to the white working class and lower middle class. A distorted and twisted brand of politics that exploits the resentments, biases and mistrust many Americans have long had towards other Americans as well as the political classes. Most voters instinctively know politics often distorts or lies about whose interests it mostly represents and make promises than cannot be kept. And all too many white voters see both politics and the world through a racial window.
A mode already exists for a selective form of fascism known as Jim Crow in the American South which developed some years after the Civil War and was directed against African Americans. Segregation, even after being legally overthrown, still persists in many places to some degree today in all 50 states. When it started to tumble as a matter of law, the Republicans grabbed on to race as their primary recruitment strategy and today are recruiting votes from the very bottom of that barrel.
Fascism is the Only Logical Result of Republican Politics
Teddy would be labeled a “communist” by today’s Republican Party
It’s been more than a hundred years since a Republican president enacted any reform or progressive legislation, back in a time in which there were progressives of different stripes in both parties. Especially in the last 25 — 50 years, we have seen the direction of both parties diverge. The Republicans of today have chosen a fascistic civil-war-like path to attract voters while the Democratic Party had long realized that reform is a preferable way to address the endemic faults of capitalism.
January 6th Congressional invader with Confederate flag.
The issue for the Democrats has always been how much reform and how far left they are willing to go. They gradually evolved after disastrously supporting the Vietnam War into a centrist, middle of the road party. Which actually adopted Republican friendly issues like Bill Clinton’s promises to “end welfare as we know it” and draconian “lock’em up and fill the prisons” anti-crime measures. While the Republicans more and more devolved into the dark side of racial, misogynist, anti-immigrant and anti-gay politics. Today, while relabeled, the party leadership still seems to favor a centrist philosophy, albeit one that includes some support for moderate reform measures and a platform, at least in words, which is basically counter to the ones the Republicans now embrace.
Republican Antisemitism
Another area in which the Republicans score points where they should not be able to, is presenting the Democrats as closely tied to “elitist liberal” and upper-class interests. While the Republicans are open to the same critique x 10, their domination in the media and racial “solidarity” with whites that they have developed helps cover the “gentrification” of both party members in Congress and is often an unrealized political factor in how some whites vote. We also see increased antisemitism sprouting from many right-wing and fascist sources, blaming the misdeeds of the upper classes instead on wealthy Jews (preferably Democratic ones) for their wrath — a classic tactic of the fascists.
Greene campaign ad.
This antisemitism is not just my opinion, it became a certified fact when 193 Republican Congress critters voted to oppose Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s removal from committees instead of censoring her. Although to be honest, it not so much something new with them, it just has escalated and become more obvious.
Cringe Worthy Ads
Greene has made numerous antisemitic remarks, including blaming Israeli intelligence for JFK’s assassination and has maintained that the infamous and deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville (at which the neo-Nazis chanted “Jews will not replace us”) was an “inside job” to “further the agenda of the elites.” She has also appeared frequently with an automatic rifle in campaign literature, if you have any doubts about her political intentions. That particular ad above makes me cringe for a number of reasons, particularly when a Democratic politician goes out of their way to deny they are a socialist without any qualifications, such as adding they believe in a socially responsible government and socially responsible capitalism. Few Democrats currently in office would dare make such a “Bernie Sander’s like comment.” The national media has been reluctant to publicize the virulent antisemitism of the Republican Party, instead preferring individuals easy targets like Net’s basketball star Kyrie Irving.
Increasing Polarization is the Rule
Which way America?
Each party has its vote getting weaknesses and strengths. With both being pushed further and further right or left. The Republicans eventually discovered that “fascism-lite” was not enough anymore and began to switch over to the real thing. A conspicuous weakness of the Democrats is the reluctance to argue for major economic reforms and strong financial regulations, using a scaled down version one could call “reform-lite”. Few formal criticisms of market capitalism are advanced, despite overwhelming evidence of the root problems a profit-based and poorly regulated capitalist system gives rise to.
Wall Street has been immunized from blame for its many economic “sins”.
I would argue that it is no longer, if it ever was, a progressive political position to avoid the many structural and developmental problems triggered by putting such an uncontrollable and out of balance system in charge over our huge economy. An economy under which we have a runaway accumulation of wealth into fewer and fewer hands. Which finally brings me to why the Republicans do so well by playing the class card, as dishonest, biased and fraudulent as their methods and ideology may be. They succeed by blaming the woes and intractable problems we have long faced on the very measures that might mitigate them and simultaneously on the “liberal-elitist” Democratic Party!
Trump and the Republicans immediately accuse their opposition and the Democrats of the corrupt and violent behavior they themselves are promoting. They have done this for years and years, with the Democratic leadership avoiding a direct response in part because they embrace the very same system that precipitates and festers these problems! So, they are naturally reluctant to engage in class-related politics that strike at the heart of capitalism’s most grievous faults. The following 10 are an abbreviated and partial list of major U.S. problems directly created/caused by the inherently imbalanced system of capitalism:
Poverty. After dropping for many years, it has been creeping up while government figures place the cutoff for family poverty levels at an unrealistically low $26,500! Which won’t even pay an average year’s rent in many cities. Inflation, gentrification and COV19 have also greatly increased the real numbers. Militarism. Making war materials is highly profitable and the budget is enormous. Some say over a trillion dollars per year. While much of it goes to imperial adventures over the years. Ghettos. Defined as concentrated and destabilized urban areas of poverty. Conditions in these communities are appalling. And have extremely disproportional populations of African Americans and others not judged to be “white.” Unemployment. Another bogus government figure which does not include many Americans who lack employment. It currently is “officially” at 3.5%. More realistic estimates are closer to 10% and many of jobs counted are insufficient to support a family. Rates are much higher in poor areas. War. No country I can think of in recent times has been involved in more wars, either directly or through proxies. Pollution and Environmental Destruction. Another category we lead the world in. This one threatens not only our well-being but the planet’s. The Prison Industrial Complex. Yet another category we lead the world in, both in spending and prison population. Including estimates for the courts and policing, estimates are as high as 200 million dollars each year. Oligarchy. Capitalism has given birth in the last 20 years to increasing numbers of super rich individuals as well as corporations. Some worth a trillion or more dollars. Fossil Fuel Use and Production. Leading to environmental destabilization and global warming as the planet heats up. With the gas and oil industry the biggest deniers of the danger. Low Minimum Wage Levels. Their existence guarantees poverty wages for millions of American and a permanent class that will live at or below poverty levels.
Yes, Nancy Pelosi and others in leadership have made soft ball criticisms of the current capitalist system but have rarely done anything in the way of enacting or advocating the type of legislation and reforms required to fundamentally change America for the better. And it is that same capitalist system, utilizing the Republican Party as its tool, which is providing the bulk of the financing for the fascist movement.
MAGA Ideologies are Nothing New — Just Repackaged
The American Goebbels’ equivalent.
The various groups and organizations generally referred to as the MAGA movement are largely an evolutionary result of decades of poisonous politics. They are based on the biases and class ignorances of racism, nationalism and militarism which took root long ago among millions of Americans and persist today.
The historic weaknesses of our Constitutional System are on full display and our basic democratic rights are being challenged on every level. Including by warping the law itself and a far-right majority Supreme Court to be used as weapons of Constitutional destruction. The first shots of this civil war have already been fired. The failure to respond and identify the actual sources of many of our nation’s problems is akin to fighting with one hand tied behind one’s back.
FDR Successes
FDR understood how to marginalize the right-wingers.
One thing FDR’s success demonstrated was that positive Federal attention to social reforms and conditions actually helped save America from domestic fascism and save capitalism from itself in the process. While not a socialist and avid capitalist, he was never afraid to make frequent and jarring public criticisms of the capitalist system. This critique of capitalism was a constant theme during Roosevelt’s early years in office. To be balanced on FDR, he did not break the Democratic Party away from the segregationists and enjoyed wide voter support in the South, which he was unwilling to risk. It was not until LBJ helped pass Civil Rights and Voting Rights for blacks in the 60s that the South tumbled into Republican hands. LBJ was ruined by his support for the Vietnam War, but never appreciated, whatever his political motives, for supporting such legislation.
The Consequences of Defeat
If not defeated soundly today, the Putin-collaborating Republicans terrorists 1 will surely destroy America. Half measures will not be enough, ignoring the wealthy interests behind the Republican campaign to bring all-out fascism into power is political suicide. Criticism should be measured and launched in a way that does not pin fascism on all wealthy interests, individual or corporate. But the issue of using one’s wealth to finance the destruction of America should be raised very, very carefully in some fashion and is fair game for criticism if raised cleverly.
The Republican Party has incorporated all that is biased and corrupt about capitalism into its goal of complete oligarchic and corporate dominance. The ultimate origins of this movement from sources inside the capitalist hierarchy should not be allowed to be hidden from sight. The fundamental problems listed above cannot be solved if you fail to identify and target their ultimate source.
1- Putin-backing Republicans meet the criteria for both “traitors” and “terrorists”.
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