Herman's Toteboard is pleased to feature a guest column, which was submitted in response to yesterday's post. The author is a former student and "avid Toteboard reader."
I think historian Tim Snyder has some of the answers (to the Toteboard's questions), as he has spent his career defining "fascism" – and the fact is that Trump and MAGA are the definition of fascist: emotion and will (of the leader) over reason, fear over fact, and doom over hope. These behaviors shouldn't surprise anyone, when you have a sociopathic fascist who is running for president again in order to stay out of jail, and who is subsequently also losing his mental faculties (if he was ever in complete "possession" of them to begin with).
I think the real question is why millions are willing to follow him down this dark, nihilistic path. Sadly, I think it is because there have always been fascist forces in the American body politic from the very beginning of this experiment, and it seems that we can only hold these underlying currents of darkness at bay for so long (about 250 years!) before they overwhelm the platitudes we tell ourselves about being defenders of democracy, and the dark underbelly becomes manifest. I think the other reality is that humans historically look for scapegoats for all of our perceived problems. I think a lot of these current political and cultural forces are rooted in the fact that white American cannot handle seeing people of color advancing (even becoming president), while they themselves do not live the life of opulence they see as they worship at the altar of social media influencers and reality TV. So, if I can't get what I expect out of life (and that I see that others have), and cannot get the money and power to wield over others that I see as "less than" I, then it must be due to a cabal of immigrants, Jews, etc. Once we eliminate these groups by expelling them from the body politic (or worse), then I will get what is mine. The irony is that those forces that are selling them these fascist notions are also the same people who have passed policies over the last 40+ years that have created financial insecurities, lack of social welfare programs, underfunded educational opportunities, and, ultimately, a level of wealth inequality never seen before in this country. And these same people use their political and cultural power and influence to convince those whose anger has blinded them as to where the problem truly lies. All to say we are in a sad feedback loop of self-fulfilling prophecy, one that takes a generation of struggle or a major war to break (see Chile, Spain, German, Italy).
The question is, will enough people stand up and vote against these fascist forces next week or will we continue the slide down into the abyss? We have to keep hope alive . . . but it is hard when the stakes are so high, and Americans have proven to be so gullible and lack the self-reflection needed to see through our own stories and myths – though I am not sure Americans, as a group, are more gullible than any other group of humans I have observed in the 50 years I have been observing this planet and its inhabitants.
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