America isn’t recovering from fascism

Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reported Democrats are moving ahead on the COVID relief package. They will be using the budget reconciliation process to do it so it can’t be filibustered. McCarter explained how that works. Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported that Biden has issued an executive order to overturn the nasty guy’s ban of transgender people serving in the military. Alas, it may take a while for the military to settle all the details. Good things are coming. Moscow Mitch tweeted:

Today, I made clear that if Democrats ever attack the key Senate rules, it would drain the consent and comity out of the institution. A scorched-earth Senate would hardly be able to function. It wouldn’t be a progressive’s dream. It would be a nightmare. I guarantee it.

Heather Cox Richardson, who studies the contrast between image and reality in American politics, responded:

Surely I can't be the only one who reads this as the threat of an abuser desperate to keep power over his victims?

A few replies assure her they read it the same way. Eleveld reported that the nasty guy is still doing all he can to meddle in GOP politics. I mentioned yesterday that the Arizona GOP censured three of its more responsible members. That may have been the nasty guy’s doing. He’s out to punish anyone that didn’t fully support him. No matter what that does to the ability of the party to nominate candidates who can please suburban voters. Don Winslow tweeted about Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former nasty guy spokesperson:

Tragically, Sarah Sanders has a good chance of winning in Arkansas and being the next Governor there. This is WHY it is so critical to deal with the Trump enablers/surrogates NOW so that they do NOT blossom and seek political office. Failure to do so NOW spreads Trumps seeds.

Walter Einenkel of Kos reported that the news outlet Just Security has created a ten minute compilation of videos the insurrectionists posted to social media. The video starts with the nasty guy’s incitement speech and the crowd’s responses. The two parts are damning evidence that the storming of the Capitol, with the calls to execute Mike Pence and other leaders, happened because the nasty guy incited the crowd. The makers of the video, Ryan Goodman and Justin Hendrix, hope it will be used in the impeachment trial as the last bit of evidence. Or maybe the first bit. Einenkel included the video at the end of his post, if you feel you really need to watch it. Umair Haque of Eudaimonia has an article on how to recover from fascism. He starts with a basic problem – nobody is saying anything about needing to recover from fascism. Yeah, the GOP is unrepentant and hasn’t learned a thing. But has America? Signs are not good. There are three necessary and collective actions to recover from fascism. The first is justice. Not just justice for crimes against individuals (though is many cases we’re pretty bad even at that), but justice for higher crimes, those against humanity.

These are the most repellent and shocking kinds of actions — truly depraved ones, which threaten democracy in the deepest way: by taking away humanity, personhood, dignity, decency, from all of us. Those things were done in the name of every American, because they were done by the state. And so a special kind of justice is necessary. … Without a process of special justice like the Nuremberg Trials, America will never recover from fascism — because the fascists will have gotten away with it. … And when fascists get away with it, they’re not punished, and when they’re not punished, they’re not deterred, and when they’re not deterred, …it happens all over again.

Why did it happen the first time? There are economic roots. There is sharp downward mobility. Old racial hatreds resurface. This happened in Weimar Germany and in America. I think that is too much in the passive voice – The sharp downward mobility was because the rich were no longer sharing with the poor. The old racial hatreds resurfaced because the rich were using the targets of the old animosities as scapegoats to deflect blame. But, yeah, the America middle class began to implode in 2010 (actually in 2008, though the roots of inequality are 35 years older). The average American lives from one paycheck to the next and couldn’t pay for emergencies. From other things I’ve read and discussed here, the fascists aren’t the poor. But they do use the vast wealth inequality and the scapegoating to get the poor to install them in power. To solve this problem America needs a Marshall Plan. This is the second item of the three. After WWII the Marshall Plan was America’s seed money for Europe to allow it to rebuild the public infrastructure that benefited everyone and stabilized the middle class. America needs schools, hospitals, transportation links, and more. Building that will provide jobs. A large and stable middle class will take away the poverty that rebreeds ancient hatreds (more accurately removes the desperation that allows the rich to scapegoat others). The third item is a transformation of cultural and social norms.

Racism and bigotry and hate must become not OK. Not in some abstract sense, but in a real one. People who have led hate must be punished — they must be sanctioned. They must become cultural outcasts. They must occupy the lowest rungs on the social ladder, that of dunces and criminals and scoundrels. They must be ejected from every last space where civilized people gather, whether the restaurant, bar, nightclub, library, or, especially, Congress. They must be held in contempt, ridicule, shame, and scorn.

How is America doing on these three efforts? Justice: Democrats are talking too much about healing, which in the past has meant let’s forgive and forget. A Marshall Plan: the Democrat relief package is way too small (and doesn’t tax the rich to bring down inequality). Social norms: Stephen Miller, the man who oversaw the torture of kids, is now a Fox News pundit. Which means America isn’t recovering from fascism. And the fascists are waiting for another chance. Now a bit of fun. Bernie Sanders showed up at the inauguration wearing a parka instead of an overcoat. He put on pattered mittens, ready for the cold. A photo was taken of him sitting on a folding chair by himself (properly distanced) with mask, his legs crossed, and arms across his chest with the mittens in full display. That prompted an outpouring from Twitter as people inserted an image of Sanders with parka and mittens into whatever scene they could think of for comic or ironic effect. I saw a few collections of these and laughed at a few, but decided not to share. Then I found one especially funny, though I’m aware I’ll have to explain it to you, lessening the humor. Beside Sanders is a tuba and in front of him is a music score for “Dvořák 9, From the New World” Yes, this is the famous symphony by the Czech composer. The tune of the second movement is known as “Coming Home,” though that’s not the name the composer gave. This image is funny because in the whole symphony the tuba has only 14 notes. Seven are in the slow chords that open the movement and the other seven are in similar chords towards the end of that movement. For much of this movement and for all of the other three movements the tuba player just sits there. Like Sanders was doing. The detail of the 14 notes came up in my orchestration class for my master of music. I had said that I would have given those 14 notes to the bass trombone.