Bad things are happening in the world right now. Americans wake up every day more concerned
than the day before about preserving democratic institutions and the country’s
dedication to the rule of law. Daily news reporting brings word of new attacks
on Special Counsel Robert
Mueller’s investigation
into Russian interference of the 2016 Presidential election. Assaults continue on the courts and the very
idea of an independent judiciary. The
President’s lawyer says the chief executive can’t obstruct justice, could
pardon even himself, and suggests he doesn’t have to respond to a subpoena for
his testimony. This is the United States of America?
As if all that weren’t enough, images flood the media of children being
torn apart from their parents and hustled off to
detention center cages. Those children suffer that terror because
their parents dared come to the United
States seeking refuge from unspeakable violence and abuse in their home
countries. The picture suggests a modification of the inscription on the Statute of Liberty from:
“Give me your tired,
your poor,
Your huddled mases
yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of
your teeming shore.
Send these, the
homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside
the golden door!”
To:
“We dare you give me
your tired, your poor,
Your huddled mases
yearning to breathe free,
Send these, the
homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
And we will make you
wish you never had,
I lift my lamp besides
the golden door, so that ICE can see to apprehend you!”
Polls say a majority of Americans recoil at this picture of their
country. Indeed, the pushback grows
daily, as last week’s nationwide protests of President Trump’s
immigration policies demonstrates.
Unfortunately, what we’ve witnessed in the Russia investigation and at
the southwestern border, symbolize something larger and more dangerous. That something is FASCISM and it is a worldwide
threat.
Madam Secretary
Madeleine
Albright served America as United Nations
Secretary Albright understands fascism first hand, having fled
Nazi occupation of her native Czechoslovakia as a child. She followed in her father’s academic and diplomatic
footsteps and became a major player in world affairs, culminating in her
service as Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State between 1997 and 2001. Ministers around the world she knew and still
confers with are sometimes called “Madeleine’s Exes.” She knows of what she
speaks.
What’s Fascism?
The Secretary defines a fascist as “someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly
unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and
whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have.” This definition covers a wide swath of
potentially abhorrent political behavior and governmental mischief. By showing how fascists have operated in
history and what they’re doing today, Secretary Albright makes clear just how
much danger the world now faces. From
Turkey to North Korea to Venezuela, the book traces how today’s would-be
fascists mimic the classic fascists of history, like Italy’s Benito Mussolini and Nazi
Germany’s Adolf Hitler.
The
book makes clear most fascists, both historically and those currently on
the rise, first come to power through elections. This book will disabuse readers of the notion
fascists always take power through military coups or armed rebellion. That happens from time to time, but it’s the
exception, not the rule, and has been in history. Hitler, for example, got his nose under the
tent as his party, through electoral success and coalitions, gained control of Germany’s
parliament in 1933. The fascist -
looking leaders who’ve worked their way to greater and greater power in recent
years - Recep
Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, the late Hugo Chavez in Venezuela,
Viktor Orban in
Hungary -- all won elections of some kind.
Once in office, they solidified control by eroding democratic institutions,
taking advantage of nativist instincts in their populations, or exploiting economic
dislocations enabling concentration of executive power. They co-opted the courts by appointing
cronies (or ideological soul mates). The
legislative branches rubber stamped their programs. They silenced criticism from the media.
Trump’s Playbook
Capitulation to the executive by legislators, appeals to
nativism, and attacks on democratic institutions, including the media,
characterize the first 18 months of Trump’s tenure. Secretary Albright writes of the 45th
President, “Trump’s view of the United
States is dark. Among his favorite
mantras are that U.S. courts are biased, the FBI is corrupt, the press almost
always lies, and elections are rigged.
The domestic impact of these condemnations is to demoralize and divide.” As Secretary Albright contends, Trump’s
actions resemble those of the authoritarian figures, like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, he so
admires.
Trump’s opportunity to replace semi-moderate Supreme Court Justice
Anthony Kennedy first drew alarm
because the court vacancy means Trump could appoint someone to the Supreme Court who would dangerously expand
executive power and appoint someone who will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and make
abortion illegal in many American states.
His choice of appellate judge Brett Kavanaugh has
inflamed, not calmed
those fears. Now, Democrats are sounding the alarm because
a fifth vote for the conservative block on the Supreme Court might serve as
Trump’s get-out-of-jail-free card in connection with the Russia investigation. That’s the kind of fascist action really at
stake in the coming battle over a Supreme Court nominee and the kind that lurks
in the pages of Secretary Albright’s essential book.
