The Republican Party Has Turned Fascist – It Is Now the Most Dangerous Threat in the World

By Patrick Cockburn, The Intercept

26 June 21

By taking control of elections and voter suppression, Republicans are destroying American democracy

he G7 meeting focused attention on many challenges facing the world, but it did not address the most dangerous threat of them all, which is the transformation of the Republican Party in the US into a fascist movement.

When Donald Trump was in the White House there was much debate about whether or not he could be called a fascist in the full sense of the word, and not merely as a political insult. His presidency showed many of the characteristics of a fascist dictatorship, except the crucial one of automatic re-election.

But Trump or Trump-like leaders may not have to face this democratic impediment in future. It was only this year that the final building blocks have been put in place by Republicans as they replicate the structure of fascist movements in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s.

Two strategies, though never entirely absent from Republican behaviour in the past, have become far more central to their approach. One is a greater willingness to use or tolerate violence against their opponents, something that became notorious during the invasion of the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters on 6 January.

The other change among Republicans is much less commented on, but is more sinister and significant. This is the systematic Republican takeover of the electoral machinery that oversees elections and makes sure that they are fair. Minor officials in charge of them have suddenly become vital to the future of American democracy. Remember that it was only the refusal of these functionaries to cave in to Trump’s threats and blandishments that stopped him stealing the presidential election last November.

Many of them will be unable to perform the same duty in future elections. The Republican Party across the country is replacing or intimidating them so they are giving up their jobs or are being forced from their posts. In Pennsylvania, a state which played a crucial role in Trump’s defeat, a third of county election officials have changed as have numerous others in swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin. Their places are frequently being taken by conspiracy theory zealots who will have the power to nullify election results that are not to their liking. A survey by the Brennan Center for Justice shows that one in three local election officials say that they are being subjected to harassment and other pressures.

Speeding up this exodus are Republican state legislatures that have passed laws mandating heavy fines – $10,000 in Iowa, $25,000 in Florida – for election supervisors who make minor technical mistakes. Republican officials who refused to say that Trump won the election are being removed by their party. The Republicans should be able to do in 2022 and 2024 what they failed to do in 2020, which is to nullify election results at will so the true outcome of a poll can be ignored. Put simply, the will of the people will no longer count for anything.

Authoritarian regimes across the world have found that it is much easier and more certain to announce the election result they would like than to go to all the trouble of suppressing votes and gerrymandering constituencies. Once control of the electoral machinery is obtained then democracy poses no threat to those in power. Fascist leaders may use democratic processes to obtain office, but once there, their instinct is to pull up the ladder and let nobody else climb up it.

Nullification of elections is only the latest step in the Republican Party’s strange voyage towards becoming a genuine fascist party. Other steps have a much longer history, notably the moment half a century ago when President Nixon adopted his “Southern Strategy” whereby the Republicans capitalised on the Civil Rights acts to make a political takeover of the American South. The old slave states became the strongholds of the Republican Party which had once freed the slaves and defeated the Confederacy.

It is worth listing the chief characteristics of fascist movements in order to assess how far they are now shared by the Republicans. Exploitation of ethnic, religious and cultural hatreds is probably the most universal feature of fascism. Others include a demagogic leader with a cult of personality who makes messianic but vague promises to deliver a golden future; appeals to law-and-order but a practical contempt for legality; the use, manipulation and ultimate marginalisation of democratic procedures; a willingness to use physical force; demonising the educated elite – and the media in particular; shady relations with plutocrats seeking profit from regime change.

One by one these boxes have been ticked by the Republicans until the list is complete. The Tea Party movement was an important staging post on the road to Trumpism. Trump himself possesses all the classic features of a fascist leader, though he was somewhat hemmed in by the institutional and political divisions of power. Yet these impediments will be less in future as local legislatures, courts, electoral machinery and Congress itself are colonised by Trumpian Republicans. This erosion of democracy has a precedent, given that Al Gore in 2000 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 were denied the presidency though each won a majority of the popular vote, but it is becoming all pervasive

American fascism differs from its European, Middle Eastern and Latin American variants because of the history of America, with its legacy of slavery, and the Civil War still remaining as a great divider. Slavery was abolished, the Confederacy lost the war, but in many respects the civil war never ended.

The civil rights legislation of the 1960s provoked a white counteroffensive that still goes on. Opposition to racial equality has never ceased. The key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which declared that changes in state election laws must have federal approval, was invalidated by Republican appointed judges on the Supreme Court in 2013. “Our country has changed,” said chief Justice John G Roberts in a majority opinion, which declared that racial minorities no longer faced barriers to voting in states with a history of discrimination. The absurdity of this was immediately demonstrated as Texas introduced a previously blocked voter ID law.

Voter suppression has ballooned ever since, but never more than this year. Some 14 Republican controlled states have passed 24 laws criminalising, politicising and interfering in elections to their own advantage.

What explains the descent of the Republican Party into fascism? Racial division explains much. The division of American culture along the same geographical lines as the civil war explains more. Add to this the frightening dislocation imposed on white working- and middle-class Americans by technological change and globalisation. Powerful forces are let loose similar to those that once propelled the rise of European fascism and is now doing the same in America.

Ain't Gonna Happen

By Bernie Sanders, Reader Supported News

26 June 21

s you may have seen yesterday, a number of Senate Republicans and Democrats came together to negotiate a bipartisan infrastructure bill.

While the amount of money proposed, $579 billion in new funds over 8 years, is far less than needed and the method for paying for these projects has some major problems, there is no question but that we need a major investment in our crumbling roads, bridges, water systems, waste water plants, public transit and broadband.

There has been some confusion as to what happens next. So, as Chairman of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, let me be very clear in joining President Biden, House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Schumer in saying:

There will be no bipartisan bill unless there is also major legislation which, finally, addresses the long-neglected needs of the working families of our country as well as the existential threat to our planet of climate change. The two bills must go forward together.

Sign my petition: tell Democrats in the House and Senate that there will be NO bipartisan bill unless we simultaneously address the needs of the American people through a substantial reconciliation bill.

We can no longer ignore the reality that half our people — Black, White, Latino, Native American and Asian American — live paycheck to paycheck, millions work for starvation wages and our younger generation will likely have a lower standard of living than their parents. We must act NOW.

We can no longer ignore the reality that climate change is causing devastating destruction in our country and around the world. We must act NOW.

We can no longer ignore the reality that we are the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all and that we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. We must act NOW.

We can no longer ignore the reality that we are the only major country on earth not to guarantee paid family and medical leave. We must act NOW.

We can no longer ignore the reality that we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth and that our childcare and pre-K systems are dysfunctional. We must act NOW.

We can no longer ignore the reality that we are an aging society and that millions of senior citizens and people with disabilities require high-quality home health care. We must act NOW.

We can no longer ignore the reality that there are almost 600,000 homeless people in America and some 18 million households that spend at least 50% of their limited incomes on housing. We must act NOW.

We can no longer ignore the reality that millions of bright young people are either unable to afford a higher education because of the cost, or are leaving school deeply in debt. We must act NOW.

We can no longer ignore the reality that there are over 10 million undocumented people in this country, many of whom are performing critical and dangerous work during the pandemic. We need comprehensive immigration reform. We must act NOW.

We can no longer ignore the reality that some of the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in this country pay little or nothing in federal taxes. We must act NOW.

We are living in an unprecedented moment in American history and the Democratic majority in Congress, slim though it is, must show that it has the courage to act boldly and decisively in addressing the multiple crises we now face.

As we speak I, and other members of the Senate, are working on the most consequential budget for working people in the modern history of this country, a budget that I hope and expect will be voted on within the next month. As we go forward we will face massive opposition from Republicans, from wealthy campaign contributors, from corporate interests and their lobbyists, and from much of the media. But, in the midst of all this opposition, we must prevail. Now is the time to restore faith on the part of the American people that they have a government in this country that is working for them, not just the 1%.

Please help us pass this budget. Please make your voice heard.

Now is not the time to think small. It is the time to think and act BIG. But big change in this country never happens without a grassroots movement of people coming together and demanding action. And that starts with you making your voice heard. So what do you say?

Can I count on you to sign my petition telling Democrats in the House and Senate that there will be NO bipartisan bill unless we simultaneously address the needs of the American people through a substantial reconciliation bill?

It is time to get our priorities right in this country, and that starts with getting the American people the help they desperately need right now.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders