Job #1 – look up “The 14 Characteristics of Fascism.” Now, seriously and critically – examine post-1980 America. If YOU are serious – it should be OBVIOUS that powerful, well-financed, forces have changed 1789-1980 America into what is now, under long-established evaluation tools into a near- PLUTOCRATIC THEOCRACY. Trump-Musk have simply made it worse, more cruel, even more corrupt. Step by step, following PROJECT 2025,” they are centralizing power in the presidency. That current occupant is THE man the Founders feared, the anti-Washington.
1]. “In writing this book..I have found myself more and more fixated on one gnawing question. Is what we are dealing with merely a social movement of the right whose radical ideas must eventually face public scrutiny and a rise and fall on their merits? Or is this the story of something quite different, something never before seen in American history? Could it be – and I use these words quite hesitantly and carefully – a fifth column assault on American government?
“Pushed by relatively small numbers of radical-right billionaires and millionaires..profoundly hostile to America’s modern system of government, an apparatus decades in the making, funded by those same billionaires and millionaires, has been working to undermine the normal governance of our democracy…one such manifesto calls for a “hostile takeover of Washington, D.C.” [Nancy MacLean: “Democracy In Chains..The Deep History of The Radical Right’s Stealth Plan For America”] [Question: is PROJECT 2025 that plan???]
*** In November, 2024, America elected an ignorant 78-year old teenage cult leader as “our” president. What could possibly go wrong? How much damage to American society, business, government can he do?
2}. There were danger signs: World War I era persecution of German-Americans & “Red Scare”; the July-November, 1933 Far-Right plot to overthrow FDR; putting 120,000 innocent Japanese-Americans in WW II “camps”; 1940s-50s “Red Scare”; John Birch Society; Nixon; Reagan [Iran-contra & more]; Bush II [lying into Iraq war]; Trump I; steady growth of “Christian Nationalism”; “Originalism” & “law and economics” legal theories; The Federalist Society & corruption of America’s judicial system; changes in corporate morality; Republican authoritarianism in states they control; the 1987-2025 flood of FAR RIGHT DISINFORMATION ; the growth of Far Right militia groups in all 50 states; January 6, 2021 coup attempt; ‘PROJECT 2025″
*** “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” {Benito Mussolini]
3]. Do YOUR own research into FAR RIGHT goals, 1900-2025. Research WHY the original “Populist” and “Progressive” revolts by ordinary rural and urban Americans occurred. Research WHY laws and regulations were passed to control corporate power. People didn’t suddenly “hate” corporations, what happened in 1865-1900?
*** Chief Justice, Wisconsin Supreme Court, Edward Ryan, to University of Wisconsin graduates, 1873: “There is looming up a new and dark power..The enterprises of the country are aggregating vast corporate combinations of unexampled capital, boldly marching, not for economic conquests only, but for political power…money is taking the field as an organized power. The question will arise..which shall rule – wealth or man, which shall lead – money or intellect; who shall fill public stations – educated and patriotic free men, or the feudal serfs of corporate power.” [accessed from “Selling Out”]
4]. Research Nazi Germany, 1933-41. What were ordinary people doing? What was the atmosphere like? How did the Nazis control public opinion? Find the extent of corporate support for the Nazis.
Consider: Jews were NOT the first to go into “camps.” Jews in “camps” had one of sic badgers: red for ‘politicals”; green for criminals; pink for homosexuals; black for “anti-socials”; purple for Jehovah’s Witnesses; yellow for Jews. Research the Nazi “justice’ system [Ingo Muller: Hitler’s Justice” – translation]
Other books to learn what it was like living in that dictatorship: Erick Larson: “In The Garden Of Beasts”; James & Suzanne Pool: “Who Financed Hitler”; Adam LeBor & Roger Boyes: “Seduced By Hitler”; Robert Gllately: “Backing Hitler”; William Shirer: “The Nightmare Years. 1930-1940”; Victor Klemperer: “The Language of the Third Reich”]
5] Since Trump”s 2017-2021 term, much serious research has been done. Much driven by fears of demons set loose. Some “must” reads for concerned Americans: Steven Livitsky & Daniel Ziblatt: “How Democracies Die”; Theo Horesh: “The Fascism This Time”; Jason Stanley: “How Fascism Works”; Timothy Snyder: “On Tyranny”; Anne Applebaum: “Twilight of Democracy”; John Dean & Bob Altemeyer: “Authoritarian Nightmare”; Henry Giroux: “American Nightmare”; in 2006, Chris Hedges: “American Fascists..the Christian Right and the War on America.”
*****YOU!!! As this is written in late February, 2025 – there are signs Americans are slowly waking up to the HUGE threat the Trump-Musk dictatorship poses. Congress critters met hostile town halls [“Republicans face angry voters in town halls”; S.Peoples & E.Tucker, A.Seitz; Assoc. press; 2/24] and “Signs of Strain As Tariffs, Cuts Begin..Consumer sentiment sours with Trump’s abrupt moves” [A.Rappaport; New York Times; 2/28]. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE???
***** YOU!!! – Ask yourself – are “reasons” given by Trump-Musk valid for their decisions??? Are they true in ANY sense??? Is what Trump-Musk are doing consistent with 1900-1980 American democracy??? The Constitution’s Preamble says “We the People”. crated a government to “establish Justice” and to “promote the general Welfare” – how does ANYTHING Trump-Musk propose to do accomplish these REQUIREMENTS?????
6]. The Founders intended Congress to be THE dominant branch. They INTENTIONALLY divided up power – “checks and balances.” Trump-Musk have tried to create a NEW form of American government – one that has authoritarian, FASCIST tendencies. Trump-Musk have PURGED the FBI, fired inspectors generals, ignored court orders, tried to control YOUR “free press,” violated numerous laws, moved to limit the Federal Reserve’s independence.
**!!**!! – Trump’s “rationale”: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” !!!!!!!!!!!
*** “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elected, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” [James Madison; Federalist. #47}
With Justice For All 