I am pleased that Congress is continuing with its plans to impeach Trump.
We knew where Trump was heading. It was always towards totalitarian fascism. Search around early 2017 on Google and you will find plenty of articles predicting this. Zoe Williams, in the Guardian,was just one to say so, based on the work of Hannah Arendt.
Arendt was also right about Trump. All that was required for his messaging to succeed was a mass of indifference to fascist communication.
That communication happened. So too did the radicalisation of sufficient people to lead to his insurrection.
And the time has come for lines in the sand to be drawn; to say enough. Congress is doing that. It's the right thing to do.
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Today with the launch of impeachment proceedings is a day of reckoning for Congress’s politicians. The issue is simple do they want to continue the possibility of a second term for a pyromaniac president who wants to replace the Constitutional Democracy the United States currently operates on for a Hitler style Herrenvolk Democracy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrenvolk_democracy
Most people don’t understand it’s not just the president who needs to be impeached but the 147 Republican Party politicians in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Why should this be? Because they took an oath of office when they arrived at Congress to support the Constitution which effectively means the Constitutional Democracy system the United States operates. The ratification of the Electoral Colleges votes was a form of re-affirming that oath. The 147 Republican Party politicians who refused to reaffirm were doing so on the pretext that the country’s judicial system, which is an essential branch of the country’s Constitutional Democracy, is corrupt. Effectively they were saying the 60 judges or thereabouts from various courts in America including the Supreme Court who’d ruled there was no evidence the 2020 November 3rd election was fraudulent were all liars!
To put their belief in to context, or should I say pretext, in the 2016 November 3rd election where Donald Trump won a majority of the Electoral College votes 41% of those who voted did so before the actual polling day of November (24% of that 41% were absentee postal votes and 13% voted early). In the aftermath of this election did Donald Trump and the Republican Party make a big deal about this election being fraudulent? We know they didn’t. When it comes to the run-up for the 2020 November 3rd election did Republican Party politicians also make a big deal of Trump’s admission that he was trying to undermine the nationalised United States Postal Service (the equivalent of the Royal Mail in the UK) to discourage voting by mail? No they didn’t!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/13/donald-trump-usps-post-office-election-funding
All of this lack of action by Republican Party politicians in Congress I would suggest to you is because of a lack of belief in or an understanding of the merits of the Constitutional Democracy they swore to uphold and in the case of large number of them a racist and fascist desire to subvert it and replace it with the Herrenvolk Democracy I referenced above. This desire by 147 of the party’s politicians is now beginning to unravel in the aftermath of the half-baked Capitol insurgency last Wednesday.
British citizens may feign disbelief or engage in complacency that all of this could happen in country that has supposedly adopted a version of the British Parliamentary system but they should take a good hard look at the instigators of Brexit!
It’s the old story of good people doing nothing and having doubts, while the ‘bad guys’ have no doubts and are active.
In my professional life we ‘lower ranks’ often had ideas or thought things could be done better. The top person changed three times but the deputy stayed. She would always back the official line. We questioned if she always believed what she was saying. She consistently gave the impression she did.
No one died of course but I had a sort of insight into how Fascist states functioned. We obey and that is good. Disagreement is what bad or misguided people do.
A great post Helen and very informative.
All I will add is that the Republicans – like many Neo-liberals – have known (especially since 2008 as time has gradually revealed the awful truth at the heart of this philosophy) that the game is up on North American style, finance sector based capitalism and now they wish to resort to any means to retain a system built for their benefit.
Remember Frederic Bastiat:
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
They previously justified greed, money, deregulation and now they are going to justify brute force, violence, the rule of the gun, mass dis-information and the negation of human rights.
There’s no question of a Trump second term, Helen – not for the next four years anyway – the inauguration of Biden will go ahead next Wednesday
With impeachment now confirmed we are closer to there never being a second term
I’m afraid I don’t know enough of the procedure required to impeach a President. Is it likely to have any chance of success?
It might….it can continue after his having left office
How would you feel if Congress and the President passed a law making it illegal to think in a fascist way? And then a power of Attainder to deal with Mr Trump.
I would think such a law crass
You can’t stop people thinking
You can seek to stop the dissemination of such thought in ways that are harmful to society
‘You can seek to stop the dissemination of such thought in ways that are harmful to society’.
That’s the key.
And the means by which it is has been done looks to be via social media or via the internet using illegal data profiling to reveal certain tendencies by cross-referencing data and then targeting such fascist messages.
Or allowing sites to be set up that enable conspiracy stories become reality for some people.
I don’t think any democracy has kept up with these developments at all. However, anti-democratic forces obviously have made use of them very quickly.
We should be thankful that Trump is an incompetent fascist. A coup has to be much better organised than his shambolic demo to have any chance of success.
Without the backing of the military he was always going to fail and at the same time scupper his chances of another run at the presidency in 2024.
But fascism is only a click away. Fascism is tolerated. In many ways it’s mainstream. For example on immigrants crossing the Channel.
Larger I think our culture may be wired towards fascism. This is a hard one for me as I love violent TV. But the typical hero is a cop who ignores the rules and tortures “bad guys” to get their way. Arguably the Capitol insurgents were simply following in the footsteps of patriots like Dirty Harry, Rambo or Jack Bauer.
People were talking about Trump’s populist positions as potentially fascist in 2016. Here is an article by a professor of history at Georgetown University in the Washington Post, grading Trump from zero to four “Benitos” on the 11 attributes of fascism. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/10/21/how-fascist-is-donald-trump-theres-actually-a-formula-for-that/
At the time, he scored “only” 26 out of a possible 44 “Benitos”, hardly a ringing endorsement but more a cause for concern than a smoking gun. I exepect a reassessment now might increase that score substantially.
The evidence of militia coordination in the invasion of the Capitol, broadcast by ITV last night, was really quite shocking.
I’ll just add this, as it reminds us that the threat of violence (and indeed allegations of voter fraud) has long been an element of Trump’s politics, even before he was selected as the Republican candidate. https://thebulwark.com/trump-always-had-a-whiff-of-fascism/
Roger Stone saying: “in every primary or caucus where Ted Cruz won, we have certified, proven, sworn evidence of massive voter fraud” … “We’re going to have protests, demonstrations. We will disclose the hotels and the room numbers of those delegates who are directly involved in the steal…”
Or later, Trump, talking about the prospect of Hillary Clinton selecting Supreme Court justices: “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. … Although the Second Amendment people–maybe there is, I don’t know.” (that is, an invitation to use firearms)
Nice….
And frauding elections to defeat fascism is better?
There is no evidence of election fraud in. the USA
Stop lying
@ Adi
And you will be providing the evidence to this blog that the 2020 November 3rd election was fraudulent? I think there’s as much chance of you doing that as providing the evidence the moon is made of blue cheese. Grow up!
I must say that I disagree with the sentiment.
This feels like some wild Lord Of The Flies like gleeful madness. Combined with a witch hunt and a public dismemberment – a ripping out of the tongue before a execution at Tyburn or the Roman Circus in front of a frenzied crowd.
I fear that the silencing of the elected potus and the cheering on of his censorship by unelected technocrats, is actually ushering in the fascism that is feared.
As for Trump, he accepted the confirmation of Bidens electoral college win, as he is obliged to.
Don’t believe me? Even Angela Merkel has been moved to comment on this and she cannot be accused of being a Trumpist! Can she?
https://m.dw.com/en/angela-merkel-calls-trump-twitter-ban-problematic/a-56197684
Lets not forget that fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany started with such populist turning of the eye as they came for the communists first, followed by the rest. I ask that people consider such history at this dangerous juncture.
Your last point is precisely why Trump must be impeached – to make clear that they cannot keep going
I don’t have a strong view but given Trump’s craving for publicity and acclamation might it not be better to just ignore him?
The worst outcome would be a failed impeachment where the process damages Biden’s ability to do things in his “honeymoon period”.
The US, ultimately will act for itself; we are mere onlookers. I am more concerned with the rise of hard-right, quasi-fascism presenting it self as the more radical, libertarian ‘Right’ elsewhere in the world; especially in Britain. For those taken aback by the closing days of Trump’s Presidency, we had our warnings; see Jason Stanley, ‘How Fascism Works’ (2018), or his fellow Yale University thinker, Timothy Snyder.
The historical reasons for this alarming turn in history is one thing, in which I am interested; but the matter is urgent. In Britain Thatcherite neoliberalism moved from conventional politics (even Thatcher did not propose leaving the EU or Single Market), slowly and relentlessly to a way of conducting politics that borrows from dangerous precedents. We saw this in Britain first in the ‘Project Fear’ in the 2014 Scottish Indepedence referendum, and continued when the winners – not content with winning – pictured the losers as no longer entitled to engage in the democratic politics of independence, and as being divisive quasi-fascists: a classic fascist pose. We the moved on to the appalling resort to distortion of facts and calculated misinformation over the 2016 Brexit referendum; and that technique of distrotion has gone on to become the mainstram activity of Government.
We require to think about this seriously before we are overwhelmed by a ‘centre ground’ that is already looking far right to me, because we are being moved along on to dangerous ground by appeal to our own blind weakness that we compensate in our own minds by appael to ‘tolerance’; this is not tolerance, this is appeasement. I do not consider myself of the ‘left’, although I see the value of a mixed economy; and I have spent my whole life in the private sector, so I understand its great strengths and unforgivable weaknesses.
A ‘popular’ term that expresses this alarming trend in Britain, and where we now are as we discover just how bad an idea Brexit was; I think I would instinctively describe as ‘Trumbrexism’.
There are lessons from Germany about how they handled the legacy of fascism and Hitler. It did not really get going until some decades after the war but in effect they went through a process of deradicalisation and confronting what had got them there. How ordinary and supposedly educated people ended up supporting or at least colluding with what happened.
Today’s Germany is not perfect and yes they do have AFD but they are pretty unequivocal about the promotion of fascism and anti-Semitism. They do not see it as legitimised as some kind of ‘free speech’. At the moment I am more confident that the European countries will clamp down on the abuse of and by social media, than I am that the Anglo Saxon, US/UK, Murdoch influenced countries will do anything
In terms of Trump, he most certainly did not behave as graciously as Obama did in defeat.
Even though (as Brittany Kaiser and Carole Cadwaladr might advise) Obama and his supporters had every right to call ‘bullshit’ on the 2016 election result, they did not.
And what about Al Gore’s defeat at the hands of the Supreme Court? Gore reluctantly accepted it, and vote counting was stopped. And Bush Jnr was in (wasn’t that fun?).
And right from the inauguration, Trump laid out how things were going to be.
My view is in line with Richard’s in that Trumps conduct concerning the result is unacceptable and he should be impeached on the basis of that conduct. He said ‘Fuck you buddy’ to a democratic process that was probably more purely democratic in nature than the 2016 election and the Gore/Bush Jnr election.
What Trump and his supporters fail to note is that Trump’s own conduct has alienated the other half of the country. They have not only been repulsed by his ideas but by the ‘in your face’ assertion of him and his supporters by using violence.
The way in which progressives were brutally subjugated contrasted with the way in which Trump supporters at capitol hill were dealt with is stark to the point of banality. I think people saw a president who was prepared to rough up those who did not agree with him and they rejected him on that basis.
It was – to certain Americans – like watching what U.S. backed extreme right governments got up to in South America and elsewhere- but this was in their own country. People still remember events like Kent State University – an over reaction writ large on the American progressive psyche.
If you are going to beat up and shoot protestors at least be consistent about it. You either tolerate them all or you don’t. Trump betrayed his bias and his divisive way of ruling and people were turned off.
What I’ve got out of these debates as an Englishman (or a Scot on permanent loan) over the years is a profound realisation that the REAL America is much complex politically than it portrays itself as to the world. It is much more diverse in reality and that gives me lots of hope.
Good luck to Biden I say and all those who rejected who is actually a heavily indebted individual who keeps some really dodgy company.
Sorry, but Obama was not defeated in 2016. He won in 2008 and 2012, and could not stand a third time. Hillary Clinton was the Democratic candidate in 2016, and she was as gracious in defeat as almost universally the presidential candidate from the losing party has been to their successful opponent. Before Trump this time. Obama was gracious in extending the usual courtesy to the president-elect to smooth the transition, as again almost universally every president has been to their suceessor (before Trump binned his transition team). Again, before Trump.
Nothing in Trump’s life became him like the leaving of his office. It is a clear indication of his (lack of) moral character. Sad.
Yes indeed Andrew – you are right – it was Hilary who was defeated – not Obama (although it was the Democratic party itself that was defeated in the way I describe).
Just goes to show me that posting when you have a bad headache is not a good idea!
🙂
As I write, there are some signs that Congressional Republicans are turning against him. OTOH, there are also discussions about expelling him from the Republican Party which could be a sop to avoid impeaching him in the Senate and then when the clamour lessens, no expulsion happens…not hard to imagine the excuses “he’s an old man”, “let bygones be bygones” “heal the nation” etc;
A country which likes to think of itself as a beacon of democracy probably has to impeach for its own good and for the good of democracy.
I was too young to understand the Vietnam War, but not Watergate and forcing the resignation of the most powerful man in the world was a good advert for liberal democracy for someone growing up. If they pass on impeachment, America undermines its standing in the world, more grotty suburb on the prairie than shining city on the hill.
Whilst impeachment will not be easy politically or personally for Republican representatives/senators (in a gun crazy culture) a failure to impeach could lead the average citizen to note the failure of the representative political class and contrast that unfavourably with the steps taken by Facebook, Twitter, the big corporates and the USPGA.
“Ocasio-Cortez also said she did not feel safe when she was brought into a secure room with other lawmakers.
“There were QAnon and white supremacist sympathizers, and frankly white supremacist members of Congress, in that extraction point who I have felt would disclose my location and would create opportunities to allow me to be hurt, kidnapped, et cetera,” Ocasio-Cortez said, without naming the lawmakers she thought could endanger her safety.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/aoc-says-she-feared-her-life-during-capitol-riot-i-n1254042
Now take this seriously and apply it to a possible scenario in the Houses of Parliament!
P.S. For those who don’t know and “for her sins” Ocasio-Cortez is a big supporter of MMT and probably the only political representative in Congress who’s openly prepared to admit she is and say why.
Her sins are fourfold, a woman, 2 of colour 3, left wing-a social democrat in our terms, and intelligent. All challenging to the Republicans
Helen
AOC is awesome. Year’s ahead of everyone except perhaps Bernie where the margin is reduced to months, not years.
I may have mentioned it before, but I’d strongly recommend Anne Applebaum’s recent Twilight of Democracy (and her other writing). She is a Republican writing about the descent of the Republican party into fascistic behaviour, predating Trump, and the links across to the UK/Brexit, Orban’s Hungary and the Law and Justice party in Poland. She emphasises the deep divisiveness that these parties and groups have deliberately fostered, amplified by the media in all its forms.
Im also half way through Obama’s book and he too reflects on that same divisiveness that was already there when he first came into power and how it has become ever more extreme.
My list is already groaning…
Sorry…!
100% agree.
This is a classic case where –
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
(Burke)
If nothing is done here, thenthe behaviour will be normalised making it easier for the next facist.
As for the 147, I think they underline what a terrible state democracy is in and should be a massive warning to everyone not to be complacent.
I have been thinking for some time that the true crisis in politics in both the USA and the UK is that many established parties that are supposedly in opposition actually share the Neo-lib world view and just tamper with it. They just might be ‘all the same’ after all.
This leads in my mind to a loss of faith in politics and politicians and enables the Trumps and Johnson’s (and other ‘entryists’ masquerading as new thinking in established parties or new parties) of this world to get a toe hold just by sounding different no matter how outlandish they sound (which of course throws people of the scent but still sounds new and different, thus offering hope).
The Triumph of Trump – even in defeat – look at the vote – is a testament to a lack of variety and real vision in real politics and democracy.
Committed Marxists of course always believed in revolution – but did they ever foresee that it would come with a distinct Right wing flavour? Maybe we have just witnessed an attempt at one?
The Democrats in the U.S., Labour in the UK, the Left in France etc., – they all have to really up their game lest a bunch of charlatans rule the roost.
People need real and better choices. The cosy but manifestly faulty tacit agreements between political parties that seems to exist about the means to a better society seems to smother genuine innovation and progress.
Hopefully the event on capitol hill will act as a wake up up call for more courage in political opposition in all democracies.? God I hope so.
This CNN news item says it all really:-
“GOP members want to impeach but “fear for their lives,” sources tells CNN”
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/house-trump-impeachment-vote-01-13-21/h_8ecf6f48ec1a823cecafae541f5dc3c5
Trump called the fascists and racists out to play!
I am sure that is why Pence would not play ball
CNBC website 11th January, 2021: Freshman Republican (Michigan) Congressman Peter Meijer (R-MI) is quoted, “‘There will be folks who try to kill us,’ says Republican congressman on going against Trump”; because he and others voted to uphold the Election result. We need to think about that: this is the United States Capitol, today – under siege, both obviously, out there where we can see it, as the 20,000 troops assembling in Washington now demonstrates; but also in a sinister virtual world where democratic representatives face threats to their lives, and to their families back home – in a country which possesses more guns than people.
We cannot afford complacency here in Britain, or conveniently forget that a British MP, Jo Cox was murdered in 2016; shot and stabbed by a right wing extremist.
I agree
And I agree that this is very frightening
It will also dissuade good people from standing
Very clearly Mitch McConnell could influence the impeachment vote in the House of Representatives by publicly declaring Republican Party politicians in both chambers of Congress should vote for impeachment to rid themselves of Trump because it’s very clear he’s a force for evil and will undermine the United States Constitutional Democracy. He should additionally argue they should not be intimidated by either Donald Trump or his supporters in doing what is right. Should McConnell fail to make this declaration then only two conclusions can be drawn – the nation doesn’t need a wimp leader in Congress like him or he supports Trump’s aims and behaviour.
Let’s see……
“McConnell says he has “not made a final decision” on how he will vote on impeachment”
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/house-trump-impeachment-vote-01-13-21/h_e3d6cb363013f39558816946d869cc30
Predictable! My money’s on he’s both a fascist and a wimp!
For a bit of light (?) relief, latest from the Parody Project: The Lawless and the Capitol, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ9x9iAXpWU
Mitch McConnell essentially said today he needed more time to figure out whether the events last Wednesday at the Capitol building was really a riot or just good old American folk wanting to do a self-tour of the building! Furthermore he needed time to figure out if he’d got it wrong that all of the Congress politicians hunkering down in a secure location, many of them afraid of being targeted for a bullet in the head or a noose round their neck, were actually there for selection as Bridge partners!
Apologies for the sarcasm but I think I’ve had it up to here with politicians whether American or British!
Richard
Is Boris Johnson a fascist?
He has sought to limit the role of Parliament
Has taken powers to rule by decree
He denies information
He has scapegoated communities
He has seemingly encouraged cronyism
He is indifferent to the needs of many
He lies
You decide
There is a lot to admire about America when you contrast it with ancient Eng-er-land but their constitution just seems to tie them up in knots sometimes.
The conflation of elements of personal liberty with that of a freedom to hold arms doesn’t seem to work to me!!
Nor does their 5 Amendment. I’ve seen so many bent financiers claiming this right before Senate committees that I am heartily sick of them. Extraordinary rendition for bent bankers anyone? Count me in.
On Radio 4 Today this morning and american historian laid out the case for impeachment and agreed that Trump’s actions constituted elements of fascism.
More importantly, in my view, was the timescale of this. The hearing would not take place until well after Trump leaves office, that could allow Biden his first 100 days without too much media ‘noise’. By the time the Senate ‘vote’ takes place there could be less energy in the support for Trump and that might allow more Republicans to find that Trump is guilty.
Some Republicans in Congress have supported impeachment (7 I think?) so there is some movement.
Lots of ifs buts and maybes – but I am a bit more optimistic of this being carried through.
Finally, it seems that if Trump is found guilty then he loses some post presidential rights – to me that is important.
Trump’s modus operandi?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/14/heidi-stirrup-doj-trump-e-jean-carroll
Makes you wonder how much dirt he may have assembled on Republican Party politicians in Congress to make them bend to his will. Is this the hidden reason why so many of these politicians failed to support his first impeachment and now the second? Is this the main “rule of terror” Trump operated we’ll never know about?
I suspect that it is
Thinking more about Trump keeping a Dirt and Leverage book what would be more “natural” for him than using loony fascists and conspiracy theorists to apply direct leverage on Congress politicians not to allow the Electoral College Vote ratification rite of passage to well “pass”! I’m sure Trump’s sociopath father would have taught him the importance of having “leverage” on people as he grew up.
I like to think that Trump’s opponents have got more and dirtier stuff in their books, with more substantive evidence to back it up. He’s also going to find himself under attack from different directions which will help. Tax authorities, Capitol Hill, donors…
Its certainly going to get a lot messier before it gets better.
The big challenge is going to be de-radicalising his supporters who are no different to any other extremist and yes, terrorist groups. That combined with delegitimising those who have led and promoted this which means a lot of Republican representatives on Capitol Hill.
I think we have a similar problem in tackling what one might call ‘false consciousness’, and discrediting the Tory/UKIP members of the government. They are doing not a bad job on their own with the cronyism thats in the public domain and disdain for Covid precautions. At least their supporters are not heavily armed.
It’s all falling apart for Trump’s enablers!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/14/trump-refusing-to-pay-rudy-giuliani-legal-fees-after-falling-out
I am amused
More news about the lack of moral compass at the heart of the Republican Party and some of the business sector continues to appear:-
https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/biden/
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2021/01/the-untold-story-of-how-the-republican-attorneys-general-association-funded-with-large-sums-from-corporate-felons-including-oxycontin-drug-pusher-purdue-participated-in-recruiting-the-mob-that-atta/
And the business sector counter. Wanting contractual fairness and stability. Very Christine Desan!
https://www.axios.com/ceos-fourth-branch-government-trump-7eee851f-0027-4bfa-a2c0-58ec254e2dbe.html