Fascism is heading for the USA. As the Guardian reports this morning:
Trump had to be asked twice during the televised town hall event in Iowa to deny that he would abuse power to seek revenge on political opponents if re-elected to the White House.
“Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” Hannity asked Trump in the interview taped in Davenport, Iowa on Tuesday.
“Except for day one,” Trump responded.
It is thought that at least seventy per cent of Republicans favour Trump.
He could be elected, again.
And this is his acknowledged platform, with retribution at its heart.
This is so pertinent:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
It is time for the people of the US to speak out, or it will be too late.
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Ironic really that professed belief in Christian values is so much stronger in the United States than here in the UK yet there are still so many Trump supporters choosing to side with hate not love for their fellow human beings. Indeed refuse to do any homework where they’d discover Trump failed to deliver on MAGA in regard to reining in Chinese imports during his term of office. The American farming lobby made it very clear to Trump he needed to soften his stance because US exports of soya and sweetcorn to China would be hit by Chinese tariff retaliation. With that said the UK has a high proportion of such voters here too as Brexit revealed!
I worked and travelled extensively in the US from the early 1990s until recently. We made many acquaintances and friends and almost everyone we met was welcoming and could not do enough for you. Most of them were well educated had good jobs and were Republican leaning they also had a strong religious ethos. Along comes Trump and we were shocked at their attitudes to the poor, immigrants and anyone on welfare etc. they espoused the Libertarian ideals. They had no time for anyone who found themselves in poverty because of ill health or joblessness it was their fault, did not work hard enough or have adequate insurance.
In the past we had never really discussed religion or politics but could not resist challenging these attitudes especially those that had the strong religious ethic. However, their belief in Trump has grown stronger and they cannot explain to us how that fits with Religious values. Anyway we now have a smaller friendship group and interestingly they tend to come from the Northeastern States.
I am rather depressed about what we have seen and we are not optimistic about the future in the US.
Thanks
Heather Cox Richardson, a history professor at Boston College, who writes a terrific newsletter on Substack, suggests today that the fact that more people watched Rachel Maddow, who had Liz Cheney on, than Trump’s town hall on Fox means that (some) Americans are waking up to the threat of a Trump second term.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-5-2023
I subscribe to her newsletter
I read Trump’s plan to ‘make the Chinese pay to sell to us.’ It seems to be to put tariffs on imports and use the money to fund the state. I couldn’t believe it so re-read and checked with an American friend,
As even poor A level economics students know, the exporter doesn’t pay (except in reduced sales perhaps) the importer pays the tariff and passes that cost onto their customers.
I can believe Trump is so ignorant to believe this (or think his supporters are ).
The worrying thing is that those around him know it is not true but are speaking out. That is what we found in the Soviet Union and in Fascist states.
NOT speaking out
To err is human you know
“I can believe Trump is so ignorant to believe this”
Trump IS that ignorant and so are the majority of his supporters. Trump will do anything he has to do to stay out of jail.
I have friends that are true “Main Street” Republicans (i.e. Bob Dole, Jack Kemp, John McCain type Republicans) who disdain Trump to highest level possible and DeSantis (aka DeSatan) too!
While many worry that what happens in the USA filters over here – via US far right financed initiatives that cosy up to UK politicians – I hold out greater hope, mostly based (misplaced?) on cultural chasms like the British sense of humour, which is nothing at all like the US one, in my limited experience.
The problem in the US is not Trump as much as Biden, losing a winning hand by, for example, not taking enough executive action over the Trump gerrymandering in swing states.
✅The country is already anti-communist, arguable for the wrong reasons (equating it with various dictatorships).
✅The government’s own Prevent terrorism strategy already flags socialism as an idealogy to be concerned about, arguably for the wrong reasons again (equating it with full-on Marxism)
✅Trade Unions have been targeted for years, and are the scurge of the right-wing press.
✅The government is already targeting critical teachers on social media, and anyone who dares to protest, even peacefully, and praying silently.
✅The Gaza-Israeli conflict is causing instability to the whole of the Middle East.
I recommend reading Chomsky’s How the World Works, it also seems to be classic CIA play book. https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-World-Works-Noam-Chomsky/dp/0241145384
I don’t ordinarily comment on this website, but I felt the need to chime in on this one; the US is in a terrifying place right now. A bunch of far-right think tanks recently coalesced and created a 900-page white paper detailing a plan to turn America into a Fascist Theocracy, and are currently recruiting tens of thousands to form a government in waiting. They’ve been exceedingly open about it too.
It makes Joe Biden’s current actions even more frustrating.