By Steven Jonas
"Either this nation shall kill
racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)
As I note in the note at the end of this column,
it is based on one that I published last October on the new BuzzFlash.com. Since that time A) Trump has been totally
unleashed by the Trumpublican© Senate. (This
could have of course been averted if three Republicans, say Sens. Alexander,
Collins, and Murkowski, just to pick at random, had had the guts [or whatever]
to force the introduction of witnesses and documents. Starting with Bolton. Of course, such evidence would have made it
clear that Trump had broken the law [even if that breakage was limited to that
of the Impoundment Act]. Enough
Trumpublicans©, using the Dershowitz Rule , still
might have voted to acquit, but the evidence of his guilt would have been a lot
more clear than it is now.) B) Being
unleashed, he ha snot been shy about demonstrating clearly his adherence to fascist
doctrine: there shall be no independent "justice" function in a fascist administration
(see the functional definition of fascism six paragraphs below).
Trump, the Trumpublicans©,
and the 2020 Elections
In the 2020 elections The Trumpublicans are
going to run on what I call "The
Six R's and The Two C's": Racism/Xenophobia, Rage, Red-baiting,
Religiosity (that is the use of religion for political purposes), Repression
(of the vote), Russia (interference, again); and Cheating and Conspiracy
theories (to the max).
Depending upon A) who the Democrats nominate
for both President and Vice-President, and B) how effective or ineffective his
or her campaign is, even with Trump's poll numbers where they are and where
they are likely to remain, using these tactics, Trump might indeed win a second
term.
As is well-known, over the course of his
pre-presidential and presidential career Trump has hit huge speed bumps, bumps
that would have derailed any other politician: e.g., both before and after the
2016 election: the "Billy Bush tapes;" the pay-offs to former paramours (which
also was adultery); the results
of the Mueller Investigation which showed collusion
with the Russians in the 2016 elections (although collusion which, with the
available evidence, did not rise to the level of a criminal conspiracy provable
in court beyond a reasonable doubt, by Mueller's estimation) and numerous
episodes of obstruction of justice, pervasive corruption, self-profiteering,
and grifting, to name a few. And then there is the Ukraine scandal, which is
still a scandal, despite the O'Connell Whitewash/Cover-up.
Trump entrapped himself, in large part by his
very own words, by dealing with, or trying to deal with, a foreign power in
return for political favors, which
is against federal law. Many Trump
opponents were saying words to the effect of "we got him." But he had
slipped out of the symbolic (civil) cuffs before and this time with McConnell
running the show he slipped them again. Given who Trump is, and the "6 R's/2 C's", even with his approval
ratings in the low 40s, given the structure of the Legacy-of-Slavery Electoral
College, he could slip through again into the White House, as he did in
2016.
And so, if he does take that oath
at 12:01 PM on Jan. 20, 2021, what might be in store for our nation, in some
instances right away?
The word "fascism," which I
have been
associating with Trump for some time now
(as have others as well, of course) is appropriate as we conjure a terrifying
second Trump term. In Trump's case,
since the system will not mirror exactly the 20th century models of Germany,
Italy, Spain, Hungary, and Japan, "21st-Century proto-fascism" is likely a more
accurate one. But in any case, modern fascism is characterized by the
following:
"There is a
single, all powerful executive branch of government, in service of a capitalist ruling class that controls
for the most part the functions of production, distribution
and exchange. There is no separation of
powers [one of James Madison's signal contributions
to the then-unique form of government established by the Constitution]. Thus,
there are no de facto independent judicial or legislative branches, at any level. There is independent media. There is a single
national ideology, based on some
combination of racism, misogyny, religious bigotry and authoritarianism,
homophobia, and xenophobia. There is a state propaganda machine using the big and little lie techniques. There may be a
full-blown dictatorship, a charismatic
leader, engagement in foreign wars, and the use of the mob/private armies."
Source: OpEdNews
