Introducing The Next Generation Of Leaders And Thinkers

The Cure to Trumpism and Fascism

Donald Trump ran as a populist, denouncing the political establishment and the current political structure. No one took him seriously at first; it seemed like a bad prank. Then it got out of hand. He won primary debate after primary debate and won contest after contest. A contested convention was talked about but did not come to pass. Even given the superdelegates and the collusion in the Democratic primaries, Trump locked up his nomination much more quickly than Clinton did. So quickly, so much can happen. So quickly, people that aren’t taken seriously become the most powerful man in the world.

Trump seemed to be on the brink of collapse more than a few times in his campaign. Remark after remark, comment after comment, incident after incident from years ago. The Hollywood Access tape, which, if it were not  for the allegations of sexual misconduct, would not be worthy of much discussion. The remarks as to Judge Gonzalo Curiel not being able or worthy of serving due to his ethnicity. How his supporters continued to support him, even in the most dire of circumstances, reveals that a personality cult has evolved around Trump. The same holds true for the other side as well. The pay-for-play dynamic of the Clinton Foundation. The Democratic National Committee backing Clinton and trying to prevent Bernie Sanders from having a real shot at the nomination. Scandal after scandal in the Clinton circles. How she changes her opinion on every major issue whenever its political expedient. Both cyanide and arsenic will eventually kill you, just like two-party politics. Why not consider alternatives?

Can we count on someone who would react bombastically and impulsively to tweets to protect the blessings of peace and act responsibly in light of foreign conflicts? Can we trust someone who called climate change a hoax invented by the Chinese and authorized the Dakota Access pipeline and the Keystone pipeline to take serious the environmental threats we are facing? Absolutely not. Someone who in his announcement speech said that “some [undocumented immigrants] are good people,” as opposed to the majority of them and then a fraction being criminals, cannot be trusted in terms of foreign policy and immigration policy. He has called for a deportation force. Millions of peaceful, peace-loving, law-abiding people, thrown out, families torn apart. His executive order has been defeated in the courts, and yet he acts like a victim. He never accepts blame or responsibility. Everyone else is the enemy. Especially the media. This is how fascism is born.

What is fascism? It is a right-wing political dynamic where intense nationalism takes over and senseless protectionism is often accompanied with xenophobia and bigotry towards a certain group or groups. Fascist leaders tend to ride waves of extreme populism, echoing the fears of the commoners, blaming the rest of the world and a different ethnic or religious group, and demanding an overhaul of the establishment. The thing is, there are two kinds of populism: real and phony. Real populism is the Bernie Sanders brand of populism. It’s being a compassionate progressive, not a bigoted narcissist. It’s about all of us striving to make life better for the whole collective; it’s about peace and justice, hope and tranquility; it’s about putting people first and never, ever lying to them. Trump lies so much, and he blames the rest of the world for lying about him. Let us have a real discussion, a sincere exchange of ideas as opposed to saying, “We’re not winning anymore; our leaders are losers… we need to make America great again!” These are empty statements designed to arouse the populace to ends the exact opposite of righteous. According to the Cato Institute, the chance of an American being killed by a refugee is 1 in 3.64 billion. That’s billion with a B. This is a president who simply does not like facts very much and, in the face of them, paints them all as being inaccurate and unfounded and a personal attack against him. He calls the media the “enemy of the American people.” This is unacceptable.

Someone who wants to recklessly alter our regulatory code without much critical thinking, tear up climate agreements, and continue to pump funds into our already bloated military (and global empire essentially) cannot be someone who would do right by the environment and by peace. Climate change would be largely unaddressed by the United States government; international relations would deteriorate; and hate will only grow. We’ve seen an increase in bullying around the country. Racially or religiously charged bullying. Trump has also hinted at having ID cards or a national registry for Muslims in the United States, much like Jews in Nazi Germany had to wear the Star of David so they could be identified as Jewish. We do have a problem as to terrorism, but that is largely the doing of the United States. Our foreign policy led to this. We created vacuums, we invaded countries, we occupied. We made it only worse. Europe is being overcrowded, and it is the moral imperative to take in as many refugees as we can. How many people died during World War II as a result of the US not accepting them? One of those is as famous as anyone: Anne Frank herself.

2016 was a year for the history books. Our anger, fears, and anxieties boiled over and led to the rise of populist candidates and shattered records by third parties, though they were excluded from debates. Bernie Sanders energized the left but never had a fair shot, and from the beginning of the Democratic primaries it was decided that Hillary Rodham Clinton would be the nominee. Trump utterly hijacked the Republican Party and turned it into its own. Everywhere you went, you heard Trump, Trump, Trump. He dominated the year, and his brand of bombastic neo-fascism was enough to carry him into the White House.

Yet with two and a half million less votes than his opponent, he does not have a mandate. We have every reason to resist and fight back. We have every reason to call Trump out and combat him on every single issue where he is wrong. Not just wrong, but immoral and impulsive. We will call him out when he pushes statist, authoritarian policies, and when he calls for new infrastructure spending and combatting neoliberal trade deals, we will work with him to the best of our ability.

Greens and Socialists and other radical leftist organizations and parties will lead the fight against Trump. They will lead the opposition. Why? The majority of the country is tired of neoliberal and right-wing policies and desire a real alternative and some real change. The Overton window must go to the left if we want to survive as a country. And though the Green Party, Socialist Party, etc., are considered fringe by most of society, they are preaching common sense that is seen as uncommon. Further exploration of their platforms will reveal that they are pro-labor, pro-planet, and pro-peace, which the American people are. Further exploration of their platforms will prove that they are for the people, for the workers, for minorities, for refugees, for immigrants. The Democratic Party have let the American people down. There is no coming back from what they did. Propping up a deeply, deeply flawed candidate that virtually everyone agrees is corrupt and beholden to the will of the financial and political elite, and tearing down a good man, a decent man, a progressive lion, who could’ve made our country so much more free, equal, and just had he won. The Democratic Party cannot, cannot defeat Trump. Only the real left can.

Study after study demonstrates that the majority of the American people support left-wing policies. Even most Republicans do. When it comes to maternity and paternity leave, raising the minimum wage, single-payer healthcare, universal college, etc., the American people side with Greens, Socialists, and other leftists that are, at least for now, seen as radical. Yet in due time, they will be seen as the new champions of the people and seen as the obvious choice. They will be seen not as fringe but as mainstream.

Now, some aspects of green politics and socialism may be a little out there for some Americans. Common ownership of the means of production… yes, that cannot be shoved through with an iron fist. The American people must support these measures, and we must have a mandate, a democratic mandate, before any of these things are pushed through. We need the consent of the governed, and as Trump won with a massive popular vote deficit, he does not have that consent. Neither would Hillary Clinton have had that consent if she had won, given all the fraud and collusion in the Democratic National Committee. The closing of polling stations, conspiring with mainstream media outlets, etc.

At this juncture, who are the only groups speaking for the people who share the values of most Americans? The Green Party, the Socialist Party, and other “radical” left-wing groups. Radical is not a synonym for bad. It means going out there and being idealistic and actually dreaming of something better. The past decades have shown that the two parties are in bed with Corporate America and do not represent us. When the majority of the Republican Party supports single-payer, supports maternity leave, and other left-wing measures, and the party platform excludes all those things and listens only to the will of its far-right factions, you know there is a problem.

We are going to be in the streets, and we are going to be on the ballot, as Greens, as Socialists, or as nonpartisan radical candidates. Our radicalism is, in all fairness, common sense. When most millennials favor socialism over capitalism, most Republicans are closet leftists, and so many Democrats feel left behind, we need a paradigm shift in our political system. A real and lasting change. The Democratic Party has played a  huge role in allowing this situation to arise in the first place. What have third parties ever done but stood for truth and justice and called out the system for what it is? Third parties are not the enemy. Duopoly politics is. The rest of the world, most of which has vibrant multi-party systems, pities us for it.

Comments are closed.

Related Posts