What the Fuck, America?

Monday, July 27, 2020


Recently I swore off Facebook until after the election is over. Depending on the outcome, and how people react to that outcome, I may stay off there forever.

I have very complicated feelings about politics in America right now for a variety of reasons. Like most Americans, I'm on edge due to the continuing pandemic restrictions (even though I agree with them 100%). This time of year is very tough for me, due to the proximity of the anniversary of my daughter's death. And I've now completely lost my patience with 45, his supporters, and his lickspittle hacks.

Seriously, I just don’t get it. At all. How can people not see where this is going? Are they stupid? Willfully ignorant? So enamored of the criminal in the White House they think he can do no wrong?

The most recent egregious abuse of power is occurring in - surprise, surprise - cities with Democratic leadership. I'm sure everyone by now knows that 45 has deployed his tRumpTroopers to "quell unrest" in these cities, against the wishes of the state and local government. They're using rubber bullets, tear gas (currently illegal in armed conflict with other countries, per the Geneva convention, but apparently okey-dokey against your own citizens), pepper spray, batons, and currently the pièce de résistance, hooding people, kidnapping them off the street, and taking them to an "undisclosed location." Yes, I said "kidnap." These people are taken into custody by federal officers without identification, they're not read their rights under Miranda vs. Arizona, and not charged. What do you call it?

There is a not insignificant portion of Americans who think this turn of events is just dandy, thank you very much. If they don't want to have chemical weapons used against them, then stay off the streets! If they don't want to be beaten, kidnapped, and terrorized, then they should just agree to stop protesting against...the abuse of power by law enforcement. Oh, the irony.

Of course, I strongly suspect their reactions would be very different if it was a Democratic President pulling this stunt against cities with Republican leadership. Like, say...white gun "enthusiasts" conducting an armed protest against a capital building, for example. But the tRumpTroopers are nowhere to be seen when that happens. And that's just dandy, thank you very much!

Here's the thing about these shenanigans. As a liberal, I would be horrified if any president, regardless of political affiliation, engaged in such an abuse of power. Why? Because this is a common move of regimes engaged in the process of fascism. Fascism isn't a belief system or a political opinion. It's a process of normalizing what would have been considered unthinkable. And in order to do this, it uses five strategies to get to the end result:
And then, finally, calling for law and order solutions to self-inflicted problems (tRumpTroopers in liberal cities).

The pattern is clear. So clear. And yet, people continue to believe the far right whackadoo news reports. They'll keep on believing them, until, as the poem by Martin Niemoller says, "Then they came for me."

Four years ago I had a deep and abiding anger over a minority of this country's population electing such a terrible human being. If he wins again, I just don’t know how I’m going to feel about his supporters. There’s just no excuse for not seeing him for who he is at this point, and supporting him means you support a fascist regime for the U.S., as well as a truly horrible person with limited mental capacity and no concern for anything other than his own ego.  

Supporting fascist regimes is not why I chose to don the uniform of this country those many years ago, and it’s getting harder and harder not to take other people’s politics personally. If they think that megalomaniac is the best choice for our country, then what else do they believe?

I believe that American politics are based on compromise. Americans of good conscience can disagree about the role of government in our lives. In fact, the Republic is built on this dynamic, which in the past, has kept us from moving too far in one direction or the other. Sometimes the Republicans win, and sometimes the Democrats win. It's the nature of the beast, the nature of American politics.

However, it's not about politics or policy anymore, and it’s not about Republicans and Democrats. It's about morals and values. Americans of good conscience should not disagree about whether or not it's appropriate for the President's Gestapo to hood and kidnap people off the street and take them to undisclosed locations without due process or mirandizing them. Americans of good conscience should not disagree about whether or not it's appropriate for our head of state to tell 20,000 verifiable lies about public matters in 3.5 years. Americans of good conscience should not disagree about whether or not it's acceptable for our President to abrogate the Constitution whenever he damn well feels like it. Americans should at least have a common dedication to the rule of law and a representative democracy.

But we don't.

Instead we find a large percentage of our country willingly sliding into fascism on the back of a cult of personality, white fragility, victimhood, nationalism, fear and bigotry. And there is no compromise when the choice is our representative democracy on the one hand and a totalitarian, fascist regime on the other.  There is only the side of the patriots, and the side of the fascists.

How has it come to this? What the fuck, America?

________

Also: Here's an interesting read from the UCF's resident Historian, Dr. David. Because punching Nazis is always the right thing to do. 

2 comments:

Te Necessary said...

It's so very hard. All of this is hard, but seeing who people are (especially loved ones) is so....crushing.

Janiece said...

It really, really is.