Tuesday, January 3, 2017

A Trump Retrospective


THE DUOPOLY WATCH | Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

Editor’s note: Wherein the author posits an important question for the American left: is Trump a genuine fascist, a proto-fascist or some other type of authoritarian? Is Trump’s following chiefly composed of racists? And, finally, is a racist identical to a fascist, and does it matter in the current situation? And finally, isn’t the Clintonian wing of the Democratic party equally ready to implement fascism as a “solution” to the structural crisis of global capitalism? If so, what’s the difference? Depending on the answer, anti-fascists can tailor their responses. Here’s Dr. Jonas’ analysis.

Looking back through my files, I have discovered that I have been writing about Trump, Trumpism, and the Trumpites for quite some time, going back to the old, independent, BuzzFlash in a column that appeared on April 28, 2011.  In this column, I am briefly reviewing my Trump columns that have appeared here on The Greanville Post, under my general heading “The Duopoly Watch.”  Not too many observers, including myself, thought he could win the Presidency.  But hindsight is 20/20. 

Now, given the strength of his combination of bringing out into the open the Repubs.’ traditional racism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and misogyny, and the many weaknesses of the Democratic Party and its candidate, it seems that is was almost inevitable.  So, this column presents something of a time-line following the development of Trumpism along, to the present, where we face the imposition of a 21st century form of fascism on our nation.  That its putative leader was elected by a minority of the voting public, just as Hitler was (indirectly in that case), is no accident.

“Trump — Racist — Revisited,” was published on August 18, 2015.  I began that column thusly:

            “Over four years ago, on BuzzFlash, I published a column on Donald Trump    entitled Yes, Trump is a blowhard,’ and no he doesn’t have any real programs to     offer that would have a chance of solving the problems he likes to list (some real;   some imagined.  His new [old by Repub. standards] ‘immigration’ policy is a bad joke    [see below]).  But like just about every other political commentator on our side round, I still find it irresistible to launch broadsides at him.

2. The next column, on Oct. 2, 2015, was “Hair Trump or Herr Trump?”  At the beginning of that one I noted that: “The Web is suddenly crawling with images of Trump as Hitler — the idea has apparently caught on. To what extent this is the weight of the establishment attempting to quash Trump as an unwelcome messenger is anybody’s guess at this time.”  The column explores the historical similarities, as they were apparent in Trump’s case at the time, between himself and his movement and Hitler’s, and the differences as well.

3. On Armistice Day (now called Veterans’ Day), 2015, I began a discussion of “Fascism in the 21st Century, considering, in Part I, “Briefly, Its 20th Century Background.”  In that column I presented my own, brief definition of the term, drawn from my own work, (see esp. Appendix II of The 15% Solution), and of course many other sources.  It is:

          “A politico-economic system in which there is: total executive branch control of both the legislative and administrative powers of government; no independent judiciary; no Constitution that embodies a Rule of Law standing above the people who run the government and the executive, legislative and judicial bodies through which they do so; no inherent personal rights or liberties; a single national ideology that first demonizes and then criminalizes all political, religious, and ideological opposition to it; the massive and regular use of hate, fear, racial and religious prejudice, the Big Lie technique, mob psychology, mob actions and ultimately individual and collective violence to achieve political and economic ends; a capitalist/corporate economy; with the ruling economic class’ domination of economic, fiscal, and regulatory policy.”

Click here for the full article.

Source: The Greanville Post

No comments: