Fascism
If you have any interest in the future of our society if the alternative to Joe Biden and the leadership of state and national political leadership prevails on Nov. 5, don’t say, after the fact, that you weren’t warned.
In the last couple of days I’ve watched the first installments of two new programs that will bring fresh new views of a distressing reality that derailed Germany in a dozen awful years; and has at times been a close call in our own United States, and is in fact prevailing at this very moment.
Your choice. If you choose to watch/listen, both are doable times and very engaging. At the very least watch the first segment of Maddow’s Ultra 2. and the first hour on Hitler and the Nazis. I have watched both. Short synopsis: we, the people, pick our poison. Nobody does anything to us. We do it to ourselves by who we elect to represent us. My opinion: the Germans did themselves in. We can easily do the same thing.
Here are the programs:
3) Complementary is the June 12 commentary from Heather Cox Richardson with a brief history of the insidious role of disinformation in the public sphere. It is also worth your time.
POSTNOTE June 14: I watched all episodes of “Hitler and the Nazis” on Netflix. The six episodes are new, about one hour segments, and very relevant to the present day in which we are living. If you’re not sure, take time to watch the first episode to get an idea. This is not abstract ancient history.
Quick review: The crucial target audience for this film are politicians and camp followers of Trump who think they have things all figured out. Hitler had huge support among the public in Germany, from all subgroups, including women. In the end, everything collapsed for everyone. It is an object lesson for especially we in the United States. Elections matter, and those who think they don’t make a difference and who decide to not vote at all, or vote for hopeless ideals, will drag us all down.
This is the only year in my lifetime where I will declare to anybody that the only vote that matters is for the Democrat candidate for any office anywhere. This is no year to pretend the stakes. There is no longer a “Republican” party that deserves the name.
Dick, I respectfully disagree.
In the US two-party system, it is NEVER the case that one should vote for the candidate of a certain party, “regardless”. This year is not an exception. Hysteria should not rule the day. Yes, I know – when we campaigned together in Woodbury 16 years ago, I actually DID say things like that to voters – at least those I thought would be receptive to it – “at the doors”. I was wrong then, and the arc of the Democratic party nationally, the DFL locally, and Progressivism in general, since then, has proven that. The Republicans may be “batshit crazy”, these days, taken in aggregate, but they have no monopoly on craziness, or corruption, or ill intent toward selected others. We have our own black sheep and incompetents, too.
I just finished reading the long-form online piece from the New York Times in which the erudite Ross Douthat interviews the much-reviled-on-the-left Ohio Senator J. D. Vance (who, or course, first burst into national attention as the author of the book “Hillbilly Elegy”). In spite of his conservatism – or perhaps BECAUSE of the forms it often takes – I both respect and like Douthat, who I met in person when he spoke at U St. Thomas 6 or 7 years ago along with Cornel West. (Now THERE was a pairing not to be missed!)
Anyway, much to my surprise, I came away from Douthat’s J. D. Vance interview with the sudden realization that I DID NOT STRONGLY DISAGREE with a single thing that Vance had said. There were many things he said where I would have wanted to discuss his stance with him – would have wanted him, as one’s psychologist often prompts, to “say more” – but not a single thing that made me think “Now THAT is why I could never vote for this guy!” https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/13/opinion/jd-vance-interview.html
Here is The Big Thing. Right now, BOTH parties are in a state of great flux. Before long, both Biden and Trump, as mortals, will pass from the scene. What will their respective parties look like after they pass?
On the Dem side, will the forces that dominated in the 80s 90s and 00s dominate (centrist to center-right on economics, left-centrist on social issues), will the contemporary Progressives dominate (wildly leftist on both axes), or will, somehow, the FDR coalition re-emerge from oblivion (left to left-centrist on econ, centrist or even right-centrist, as viewed by today’s standards, on social issues)? Those are three very different potential parties!
As for the GOP, when Trump passes, will it become policy-Trumpy (eclectic and scattered on both axes) but behaviorally civilized, and if so, who would LEAD that? Or will it go back to being the party of Bush the father and Bush the son, Mitt, John Boehner, etc. (reliably center-right to right on both axes – and who would lead THAT? – most of them are dead or no longer have careers)? Or would it become the kind of civilized populist force that – much to my surprise – seems to be envisioned by J.D. Vance (and some other young or young-ish GOP’ers – I’ll spare you and your readers a list). Essentially, that would be center-left on econ, and center-right on social. Which, by the way, polls repeatedly and consistently show is the most highly populated (28-30%) of the four quadrants (Right-Right, R-L, L-R, L-L) among the American people, while L-L consistently polls as the sparsest quadrant, with 20-22%.
On the Dem question, I make no bones that my preference would be for a miraculous FDR-ist revival. But there are literally NO Dem office-holders advocating for it or situated to lead it. Only the two other factions actually exist today. But note – The third option I list for the GOP, which is currently a very LIVE option – sounds at least superficially like the FDR Dems of the 30s-40s-50s – or like our MN DFL back in the days when it actually cared about and served the “F” (farmers) and “L” (labor).
So it is too soon to say “vote for one party, exclusively, for all offices, at all times”. But, then, it has ALWAYS been too soon, and probably always will be.