{"id":6313,"date":"2021-01-08T08:58:53","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T08:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=147545"},"modified":"2021-01-08T08:58:53","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T08:58:53","slug":"the-threat-of-fascism-rears-its-head-in-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/08\/the-threat-of-fascism-rears-its-head-in-washington\/","title":{"rendered":"The Threat of Fascism Rears its Head in Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photograph Source: Tyler Merbler \u2013 CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Let\u2019s not mince words: Wednesday\u2019s storming of the United States Capitol building was the work of fascism. That it didn\u2019t and couldn\u2019t succeed, and that Donald Trump is days from being out of the White House, should not blind us to the reality of larger social forces at work.<\/p>\n

The Orange Menace possibly finished off his personal political prospects with his pathetic attempt at a putsch \u2014 although I suspect the shameless toadying of Republicans seeking to capture his base for future elections will continue \u2014 but, as I have already written,Trump\u2019s base isn\u2019t going anywhere. Neither are Trump\u2019s fans among the police.<\/p>\n

By midnight Wednesday, police had arrested a total of 52 people, counting from Tuesday afternoon. Contrast that to last summer\u2019s Black Lives Matter protests, when at least 430 people were arrested.<\/p>\n

Consider the difference. White people storm an important seat of government, terrorize those inside and stage the equivalent of an armed insurrection, yet it takes hours for police reinforcements to arrive and those who don\u2019t leave are allowed to mill around for hours past a curfew. Police claim they were surprised by the size of the crowd even though Trumpites had announced their intention days ahead of time, the Orange Menace himself told his followers to go to the Capitol that morning and Trump consigliere Rudy Giuliani called for \u201ctrial by combat.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast, peaceful protestors motivated by the injustices of police brutality and indifference to Black lives walked down streets and are met with massive force and indiscriminate arrests. Multiple federal and local law enforcement agencies brought in tanks and other vehicles and built an eight-foot-tall fence surrounding Lafayette Park across the street from the White House. And that show of force was hardly limited to Washington. By June 4, less than two weeks after George Floyd\u2019s murder by police, more than 10,000 people had been arrested across the U.S., according to an Associated Press tally. Here\u2019s what The Associated Press had to say that day:<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs cities were engulfed in unrest last week, politicians claimed that the majority of the protesters were outside agitators, including a contention by Minnesota\u2019s governor that 80 percent of the participants in the demonstrations were from out of state. The arrests in Minneapolis during a frenzied weekend tell a different story. In a nearly 24-hour period from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon, 41 of the 52 people cited with protest-related arrests had Minnesota driver\u2019s licenses, according to the Hennepin County sheriff. In the nation\u2019s capital, 86 percent of the more than 400 people arrested as of Wednesday afternoon were from Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Those \u201coutside agitators\u201d must have had sophisticated teleporting equipment to have been in so many cities at once. What a pity they haven\u2019t shared it with us.<\/p>\n

Police show their preferences<\/strong><\/p>\n

During Trump\u2019s inaugural, more than 200 protestors were arrested, including journalists. Earlier this year, tear gas and force were used to disperse peaceful demonstrators just so Trump could wave a bible in front of a church. So we have a pattern here.<\/p>\n

The skin complexion of the demonstrators has much to do with these different approaches on the part of law enforcement. We can all imagine the body count that would have resulted had a Black group decided to storm the Capitol. But political affiliation is not absent. It\u2019s no secret that police heavily favor Trump and are well to the right of the populations they supposedly serve, and police unions across the country took a few minutes off from screaming for officers to be entirely beyond accountability to endorse Trump.<\/p>\n

Pictures of police posing for selfies with the invaders inside the Capitol began circulating by Wednesday evenings, and videos circulated showing officers allowing the mob through a gate, facilitating the invaders\u2019 ability to get inside the building. Anybody who was watching the television coverage as the events unfolded, as I did, could see that the Capitol invaders were handled with kid gloves. Police were seen walking with the invaders down the steps of the Capitol and only hours later slowly pushed the mob away with periodic advances, taking care to give the mob plenty of time to move back.<\/p>\n

Nor was the storming of the Capitol a spontaneous event. As housing and feminist activist Fran Luck noted, there was the appearance of preparation:<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhile watching coverage of the terrorist incursion into Congress today, when I saw the group of burly men effortlessly scale a 20+-foot wall surrounding the Capitol, it occurred to me that they must have had military training to do this \u2014 it\u2019s not easy to climb straight up vertically without much to hold on to \u2014 but it is what they teach you to do in army basic training. I also noticed they were dressed similarly, with flag handkerchiefs hanging out of their back right-hand back pockets. In my opinion, this was a staged action \u2014 probably rehearsed by a \u2018militia\u2019 and consciously created for future propaganda for the purpose of attracting new recruits This might also apply to the photo they released of the man wearing a MAGA hat and holding a rifle while sitting at Nancy Pelosi\u2019s computer; it could be used to convey the message: \u2018Look how far we got this time \u2014 next time we\u2019ll be ready to go all the way!\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Again, a most sharp contrast to Black Lives Matter protests, repeatedly violently attacked by police. And police violence at demonstrations for Left causes is routine. Again, it is impossible not to notice the bias in policing. Recall the 2016 standoff in an Oregon national wildlife refuge, when a pack of White far right militia members took over the refuge\u2019s headquarters, seeking to spark a national uprising, yet were allowed to come and go as they pleased and to destroy Native American artifacts.<\/p>\n

White privilege was fully on display during Wednesday\u2019s Capitol invasion, in addition to police demonstrating plainly their political preferences.<\/p>\n

Aspiring fascist leaders need violent mobs<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat else is new\u201d shouldn\u2019t be our response. The conclusion to be drawn from Wednesday\u2019s events is that we are almost certainly at the beginning of a fascist upsurge. There is no other conclusion to be drawn. Trump doesn\u2019t have the intelligence or sufficient ruling-class backing to be a fascist dictator, and we can only hope he\u2019ll be seeing the inside of a courtroom soon and then the inside of a prison. But it is quite possible another demagogue will arise, and the next one might not be such a buffoon.<\/p>\n

That is only part of the equation \u2014 there can be no fascist movement without street thugs and followers willing to use violence. The shock troops were on display Wednesday. Not nearly enough to pose an immediate threat and certainly too few to actually take over the Capitol even with police assistance. But with millions believing Trump\u2019s lies and ready to move on his word, a latent threat exists. And, perhaps, those shock troops might transfer their loyalties to another wanna-be dictator, one perhaps with more ability.<\/p>\n

Nor can we take solace in the fact that formal democracy remains the preferred method of governing; with most United Statesians still willing to believe they can better their circumstances through electoral politics, there is no need for U.S. industrialists and financiers to impose an outright dictatorship, especially as they continue to have an iron grip on the country\u2019s government, mass media and institutions, and exert decisive influence over both major political parties.<\/p>\n

The threat of fascism always looms in the background as long as capitalism exists. If a capitalist ruling class comes to a consensus that dictatorship is the only way to maintain their profits and power, then they are willing to unleash fascism, as happened in Italy, Germany, Spain, Chile, Argentina and other countries across the 20th century. The imposition of fascism arrives with shock troops \u2014 street thugs \u2014 augmented by police and the military, although sometimes, as was the case in Chile and Argentina, the street thugs augment the police and military.<\/p>\n

The street thugs following Trump have now shown their willingness to spring into action. Are the rest of us willing to step up and out-organize them?<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photograph Source: Tyler Merbler \u2013 CC BY 2.0 Let\u2019s not mince words: Wednesday\u2019s storming of the United States Capitol building was the work of fascism. That it didn\u2019t\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":534,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6314,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6313\/revisions\/6314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}