The Fascists Are Back in Power
Just to keep you all in the loop, I'm working on about three to four entries right now, but they require a fair amount of research. Every time I get an idea, I keep needing to back up some to explain an earlier point. It'll get done, but it may take me another week or so. In the meantime, though, I've got a question that maybe folks can help me with (question in second-to-last paragraph). Here are the topics that have been kicking around in my head lately:
Neoliberalism and fascism. I've thought about fascism a lot in 2018. I don't think I'm alone.
In the US, it seems conservatives have been increasingly flirting with fascism. And I’m not talking about historical conservatives here. I'm talking about the ones that have cropped up in the last decade or so. You know the type: lost their damn minds, started gargling whatever vomit Trump was spewing that day, and dragged us all down into whatever the fuck this cesspool of politics is called.
Maybe now we're in a corporatized anarchocapitalist neo-fascist state? I'm still workshopping the label and taking suggestions, but seriously, every day, I wake up and ask myself, “Are we fascist yet?” I’m pretty sure the answer is yes at this point.
How has fascism returned, if one of neoliberalism's primary objectives was to stave off fascism?
That's not rhetorical. I'm doing my own research, but I'm interested in other people's thoughts, too. If you've got some insight (or even if you disagree with any of my premises), let me know in a comment. I'm looking forward to a discussion.
Good post, look forward to you future pieces!
Fascism is easy because all it takes is coded language that is propagandized to the majority to usurp power. Its sad and ridiculous
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For sure. It feels a bit surreal to see it happen so blatantly in my lifetime.
Part of what confuses the issue is the words we use.
Outside of the US, the term Neo-Liberal is pretty much the opposite of actually Liberal.
The Republicans are Neo-Liberals.
The Democrats basically are as well.
They are just two ends of the Neo-Liberal chunk of the political spectrum tied together in the middle by a neat bow made up of green cloth-paper.
As for how it happened, I haven't put enough thought into that yet to give a useful answer I think. It has, however, been building for decades. It started ramping up solidly in 2008 when they were given a target to rail against so that they could unify their base.
Combine that sudden unity of normally disparate forces with a long-term campaign of disenfranchising as many voters as they could get away with and demoralizing the rest, and you got a perfect storm of apathy and depression on one side and energized rage on the other rolling into the 2016 election cycle.
And those voters that the GOP failed to demoralize? The Democrats dealt with them on February 3rd, 2016 by flat up telling them on live TV that they weren't needed. They could go home. Their vote didn't matter. The candidate was already chosen and the Super Delegates would ensure her victory regardless of the popular vote.
And the Media reported the numbers exactly as if that were the case, and after about three nights of Sanders winning by a landslide and Clinton walking away with the larger number of delegates, those voters just stopped showing up... And they didn't show up for the General Election either.
I'm not a Bernie or Bust person. I'm pretty sure had DWS just kept her mouth shut and let things ride, then all of those voters WOULD have shown up a few months later and voted for whoever had the D by their name.
It was almost as if the Democrats intentionally threw the election.
I knew that night that the Republican candidate would win. So, as we watched the Republican primaries, and it started to become apparent who was going to win, I started to fear for our country.
I don't disagree. It was an effort that combined demoralization, equivocation of candidates, and general apathy. This go round, in the midterms, the Right's strategy seems to be voter intimidation (a tried and true method). By introducing enough hurdles, they can compel would-be voters to get discouraged, throw their hands in the air, and just not bother voting. The Democrats, meanwhile, are...what the hell are they doing again?
Hell, their current strategy is to even intimidate their own voters. "If you don't vote, the Liberals will literally haul you off to death camps. If they let you survive that long!"
I don't think the USA is fascist yet, for all your faults you guys have relatively strong republican institutions. There's always been a undercurrent of bigotry in America, that becomes more or less overt (and official) depending on the times, but you are not fascist yet.
The connection I see with neoliberalism and fascism is twofold: 1) neoliberalism works constantly to undermine these republican institutions that keep their power in check (thus undermining the same institutions that would keep fascism in check) 2) as people become more and more shafted by neoliberalism they become more and more susceptible to populist demagoguery of the far right variety (they also become susceptible to non-demagogic left populism but neoliberalism will always gamble with fascism than let anything left of center-left come close to power.)
I think you're onto something there... I feel like there's some counter-intuitive moves at work or perhaps neoliberalism was a faulty check on fascism in the first place.
I'm glad you don't think we've descended into the fascist black hole yet, but at what point does that slip definitively occur? If we start shooting immigrants at the border, that's kind of a dead giveaway for the fascist turn, isn't it? I'm not saying it will happen, but Trump's floating the idea and testing how palatable the notion is to his base, and I can tell you, it's quite palatable to them. Depressingly, I don't think they have ethical limits when it comes to human rights abuse.