The Slow Creep of Fascism

The thing with fascism is that it just slowly becomes the norm. The sun still shines, the birds still sing, people still pitch in during a hurricane, the SF Giants still suck and the Warriors start up again in a month or so.

But all the while the norms we live with inexorably change. The President's mouthpiece demands that a critic get fired, that an investigator be imprisoned. Law enforcement is encouraged to resort to violent extremes. Our friends, our neighbors, the people we go to church with are transformed into suspects. We find myriad excuses - "Freddie Gray had it coming, learning disabled children don't really need the protection of human rights, America was better off when certain groups couldn't vote." Or, simply, "I wish people would shut up on Facebook and focus on the good things in life." But at the bottom of it all is this one single thought: "As long as it isn't me."

'We Send a Report Every Morning to ICE': Motel 6 Reportedly Outing Guests to Immigration Officials

The Danger of a Propaganda-Driven America

Human beings have always been vulnerable to propaganda and ideology that caters to their darkest fears. Once sufficiently held captive by their fears, by ideology and propaganda groups of people begin to strike out violently and/or look the other way while ideological violence strikes others. Small outbreaks of violence become normalized. Acts of coordinated political violence become permissible. Finally, large outbreaks of violence against groups of people considered 'vermin' become 'righteous' acts of self-preservation.

My dear friends, the US right now has traveled a long ways down the road of this process. A significant number of us have been propagandized into existential fears against Muslims, Jews, gays, people of color, immigrants, liberal 'snowflakes', the disabled, homeless, atheists, the press, climate scientists, etc. Small outbreaks of violence in spray-painted swastikas, an 8 year old boy lynched, 'Patriot prayer' rallies that pose as pretexts for violence pepper local news feeds daily. Coordinated political violence against immigrants are now the norm as ICE rounds up children in schools, breaks up families. The President encourages the police to rough up suspects and treat them violently. Joe Arpaio is pardoned. DACA youths put on notice. Basic norms of political functioning and human decency are transgressed daily. The likelihood of a free and fair national election is remote, if not impossible given what happened in 2016 and our non-response to it.

I believe people don't realize how much danger we are in. The things going in our favor as a society is the utter incompetence of the executive branch as well as a reservoir of goodwill that seems to be ingrained in significant numbers of Americans. But there is an inexorable march to outbreaks of propaganda-driven violence. Truth as a norm, once demolished, becomes nearly impossible to recover without the fire of tragedy. And without truth a society is incapable of neither mercy or justice. My fear is that such a society waits for us just around the corner.

Bernie Sanders Is Not Helping

Bernie Sanders supporters, let me speak plainly. There is historic distrust between the economic left (socialist wing) and the civil rights movement. This distrust is rooted in the economic left's frequent detours into overt racism on behalf of the white working class that goes back generations.

In the 2000's America had two significant pushes for immigration reform, once under George W. and again under Obama. Obviously the extreme right/freedom caucus would have none of it. But neither would the economic left wing. Not only was Bernie not an ally to Hispanic labor, he was overtly hostile towards it and was an ally of racist dog-whistlers such as Lou Dobbs, etc. This is why Dolores Huerta was so hostile towards Bernie in the last election and why Bernie, in response, treated the concerns of Hispanic labor and leaders like Dolores Huerta with open hostility. The treatment that Dolores Huerta received from Bernie and his supporters here in California was frankly, disgusting - worse than Trump and Trump supporters.

On top of this are the concerns of voters for whom Hillary represented a major advancement of the concerns of women. At this moment the Sanders base, as far as I can tell, is more interested in telling Hillary to shut up and leave public life than say, Steve Bannon. The democratic base, on the whole, still see Hillary's accomplishment as the first woman to receive a major nomination and win millions more votes than her opponent as a landmark for women's empowerment. To be told that they and their champion should 'shut up' and that their concerns are not important is not likely to bring a sense of unity. To do so at a moment in time when misogyny is making a worldwide comeback is doubly wrong-headed.

My point is this. The historic tension between the concerns of the civil rights coalition and the economic left have never been more frayed. Telling Hillary to shut up and shaming her from public life merely exacerbates this tension. Watching Bernie's role in this leaves me in a position of supporting key elements of his platform but wishing, very much, that Bernie and his 1950's white savior complex would exit stage left. Frankly, if Bernie were to join Hillary in leaving aside Presidential politics I would be very happy. It's time for a new generation to take the reigns. We need some folks who understand the divide we're in and how to heal these open wounds. Point blank, Bernie shows no signs of healing them and only pours his energy into exacerbating them. He's not helping, he's hurting.