I hate to break it to you but Fascism is already here, and in fact has been since back in the 1800s. The question of the moment is whether America will vote it into unchecked power in the form of a second Donald Trump Presidency. However bad you might imagine that would be I can assure you the reality would be worse. Most are familiar with the Sinclair Lewis quote about ‘wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. Today the flag is often a Trump flag like we saw on Jan. 6. And those advocating it wear MAGA hats. And carry Trump Bibles. And instead of crosses a big, fake gold letter T. They like his intentions and many likely want to start taking their own actions against those Trump identifies as the “Enemy Within.”
Of the things (none good) we’ve learned about Donald Trump over these years one that stands out is that he’s a master of projection. If he makes an accusation one can be sure he’s guilty of the made up crap he says about others. It’s just who and how is he is. Hell, it’s a reflex with him. People, including political leaders and the media set aside Maya Angelou’s sage advice: “When people show you who they are, believe them.”
Trump has repeatedly shown us who and what he is. Some people truly like what they see from Trump which is terrifying in and of itself. However it’s not a new thing in the country, something I’ll get to later. But it’s just as concerning that news outlets downplay and/or sanewash Trump, and politicians and business leaders make excuses for him. They have their reasons, all of which are selfish as hell. Yet they’ve been quite willing to risk the future of this country and the free world. For their tax cuts. Or less regulation. Or for power and influence.
The “Enemy Within” Trump is so openly doubling down on is Trump himself AND his enablers. As sure as I’m sitting here writing this, the country I was born and raised in, where I have lived my entire life will be forever ruined if Trump takes the Oath of Office next January. ‘Dictator for a day?’ It will be one looooooog effing day. One that will never end. Project 2025 is set up and ready to go. SCOTUS has already given Trump Carte Blanche to do whatever the hell he wants.
Worse, he actually knows it. He knows that THIS time he can not just fire anyone who stands up to him on the spot. He can have them arrested. Even shot or hung. I for one don’t have any trouble imagining Trump sitting there like some grand Pooh Bah presiding over executions – say across the street on the National Mall. At the renamed Washington Monument with will have ugly fake gold letters spelling out TRUMP on each side.
However as this article from CNN indicates Trump isn’t backing down in his rhetoric. Instead he’s doubling down. Predictions are it’s going to get even worse. He’s been given chances to soften his tone and he swats them away. Even with all that the alarm isn’t truly being sounded by news organizations. What they SHOULD be saying loudly and repeatedly is that Trump is a Fascist who has no intention of being a Dictator for only a day. He intends to be one until his last breath, and even if his own time is short (he’s not exactly a model of fitness after all) he’ll have left behind the means for Vance and others to transform our country and the free world.
I know people are hesitant to look at what happened with Germany in the 1930s but the parallels are too many to ignore. Worse, fascism has long been present in THIS country and there was strong sentiment including large gatherings (as Rachel Maddow has shown us) that were quite Nazi-like in the U.S. during Hitler’s rise to power. When I think about the Klan, I see fascism. White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant “superiority” wrapped up in the Bible and the flag. There’s a reason they’ve called themselves the KNIGHTS of the Ku Klux Klan. They’ve always seen themselves as “Christian” “warriors”, modern version of the Knights of the old Crusades.
If you think I’m nuts you really need to read up on the history. I didn’t need to because I had my P.O.S. grandfather try to indoctrinate me starting as far back as I can remember. Thankfully it didn’t take but I’d be lying if I said some of it didn’t seep in at times growing up. And I know it’s buried deep in there so I keep a lookout for it to this day. Part of why Trump got to where he got is that so many others were imbued with that same evil indoctrination and NOT just in the south. Keep in mind the HUGE Klan marches in our past in northern cities. Trump’s father Fred got himself arrested at one!
My point is that Trump is and always has been stone cold racist. He was raised to believe as a W.A.S.P. he was superior to others and being a child of privilege and wealth he was destined to be an awful excuse for a human being as an adult. That’s bad of course but a lot worse for a politician. Trump isn’t the only politician who believes as he does but he’s the first to have become President. It’s terrifying to think what he’d be like if given another chance. However he’s way the hell past generalizations, and now talking specific groups and even specific people. ANYONE who slights him could find themselves whisked away to prison or worse.
Trump was of average intellect all along but has clearly devolved in recent years. I for one don’t think delusions of grandeur including a belief he’s ‘God’s Gift’ are something he rejects. I don’t for a minute think Trump actually believes in God, but he’s got lots of people who do (or claim to even if they don’t follow Jesus’ actual teachings) telling him he is. That’s good enough. They say power is the ultimate drug and if allowed back in the Oval Office Trump will have more of it than any human being in history.
I will conclude by saying again Trump is showing us who he is with his most pure, direct projection to date. You are either with him or against him. And if you’ve openly opposed him in the past and made things difficult for him, or try to stand up to him now you are his enemy. The “Enemy Within” and in his warped mind that means with unchecked power he’d be free to take whatever action he wants for punishment. THAT should scare the hell out of EVERYONE. And for damned sure news outlets should as I said be raising the alarm at the highest levels they can muster. However they aren’t doing so. So treat voting like our country and the free world depend on it because those are the stakes.
