January Sixth, 2021: A Celebration for Fascism... A Tragedy for Democracy
My perception is:
President Trump's speech was shocking, but not surprising.
The rebellion that followed was both shocking and surprising.
Were you surprised?
Were you shocked?
For four years, Mr Trump constantly lied to the American people. That's a monstrous notion... but true. The cumulative effect of all that lying numbed the American people. Nothing was too outrageous. We were beyond surprise.
Some Americans were pleased to hear Mr Trump's lies. Polling showed his support hovered in the range of 35-40%. His massive score in the 2020 election leads me to suspect that those polls underestimated his support; that people were ashamed to admit that they supported Mr Trump... but once in the secret of the voting booth, they expressed their real feelings.
As we have seen previously , Mr Trump is a fascist. His followers are either fascists themselves, or fascist-fellow-travelers. We saw them in Washington on January Sixth.
Not one of these thousands of self-styled "patriots" lifted a finger to protect the Capitol of the United States of America.
Of course not!
They are fascist -fellow-travelers... and fascism is opposed to democracy .
Again and again, over these four years, Mr Trump and his supporters have shown their intention to destroy democracy in America.
Here on NT, we have a microcosm of the American political scene... and we have seen exactly the same phenomena.
Newstalkers' many fascist-fellow-travelers, obeying their superiors' orders or obeying deep-seated feelings, have assiduously subverted democracy.
Who are they? I may not say. But I'm sure YOU know.
There was a time when fascists clearly stated their goals, including the elimination of democracy. They were overtly favorable to dictatorship. Today's American fascists are open about their racism and xenophobia, but they camouflage their hostility for democracy.
They certainly are loudly proud of their perfect devotion and absolute submission to their Leader. (Does anyone need to be reminded of the translations of "Duce" or "Führer"?) Does anyone have the slightest doubt what Mr Trump's clenched-fist-salute means?
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I'm uncertain of the limits of "fellow-traveling". Is someone, like myself, who speaks against fascism, but doesn't actually do anything... a "fellow-traveler by default"?
I was suprised and shocked by what I saw on January 6th, even more horrified when I watched the more explicit C-SPAN newer video. I could not believe that was happening in America. IMO, every Senator who votes to acquit Trump from his guilt for building up to and inciting what happened is also guilty of an offence against America, undeservig to serve as representative of the people.
Not at all, I have been observing the political right for some time now.