Use the Damn Word

 “An unimagined catastrophe now characterizes how American education is being shaped by far-right Republican Party politicians.” Henry Giroux, Counterpunch

A large truck rushes down Milpas Street, gears grinding. Breaks my chill. It’s sunny and warm in Santa Barbara, the second day of the annual Fiesta celebration. My wife and I are both SB natives and have seen numerous Fiestas come and go, and like a lot of old-time locals we stay away until all that remains is confetti from cascarones. When our kids were small we always took them to the parade, and one year, Gabriel’s preschool was in it. But it’s been a long, long time since we drank our way down State Street, and rubbed behinds in the tourist circus. 

The word I want more Americans to study and use is fascism. I cannot remember seeing and hearing so many political voices uttering, amplifying, and repeating authoritarian language or proposing, and in many cases during the past few years, passing into law, more and more extreme measures designed to make it even more difficult for people to reason for themselves. The rights of women to control their bodies, to make their own decisions about giving birth, exercising that autonomy, naturally garners a lot of attention. I’ve no beef with that. What I’m watching is what despicable motherfuckers like Ron DeSantis in Florida, and Greg Abbott of Texas, are doing to transform public education into party-approved doctrine and dogma. This goes way beyond telling little fibs and huge lies about the causes of the Civil War and its aftermath, and protecting the delicate sensibilities of white children from the facts of their country’s history. I’m talking Nazi Party levels, people, or if that analogy bothers you, the Soviet communist party under Stalin. Ever heard of Stalin’s purges? If you didn’t toe the Party line you got a bullet in the back of the head. The Republican Party at this moment is functioning in much the same way, but using ostracism instead of bullets. Cowards are still afraid to cross Big Daddy Trump, so they slip their resolute masks on and fulminate about election fraud and call into question Biden’s legitimacy, even as evidence mounts and mounts that Trump attempted to overthrow the US government. People who watch too much Fox News or too much MSNBC are equally deluded. We’re watching a power grab, an authoritarian one. Get it straight: Trump’s desire, his fixation, is to become the American state, as Putin is the Russian state. Trump loves putting his name on things. Why not an entire country?

Authoritarianism is a potent aphrodisiac in a time of drastic change and social upheaval, of endless war and extreme wealth inequality, of suffering and privation for the many and opulence for the few, and of nostalgia for a golden age that never was. Nationalism. Even better, Christian Nationalism. Us against them, good versus evil, all nice and simple, little individual thought required. If it takes wiping the historic record clean, burning all the books, arresting those who disagree to maintain purity of the group, party, race, so be it.

This is scary shit, political monkeypox, and a virulent strain, so don’t sugarcoat it or refuse to call it out by name; fascism has gradations, shades and degrees, like most things in life. And one more thing, never underestimate the role that unregulated capitalism plays in causing the tremors that shake us to our skeletons. What happens when capitalism refuses to address the needs of the masses for basic necessities? Authoritarianism, social control, crackdowns to maintain order, and more and more extreme tests of loyalty to the Great Leader or the Party, which is usually one and the same. It doesn’t happen overnight, like flicking a light switch, it happens more gradually.

Authoritarians appeal to people who are scared of losing their privilege or place. The Gospel of Bigotry and Resentment plays well in times of uncertainty, and there is no shortage of messengers appealing to the aggrieved. We need to chill and think, but our little digital devices demand constant attention. We fucking killed silence and made contemplation a dirty word. 

Violated, Broken, and Maimed: The Acquittal of Donald J. Trump

“It is after all so easy to shatter a story. To break a chain of thought. To ruin a fragment of a dream being carried around carefully like a piece of porcelain.” Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

The Senate’s acquittal of Trump was no surprise. The sham trial was no surprise, either. The idiotic defense offered up by Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz was as predictable as snow in Minot, North Dakota in January. Madison and Hamilton are rolling over in their tombs. “Don’t feel bad, men, your Constitution worked pretty well for over two centuries.” But not even in your darkest and most fearful imaginings could you have conjured Donald J. Trump, and an entire political party (save Mitt Romney) of cowards, hypocrites, and incompetents, who without batting an eye traded the rule of law, checks and balances, for the law of the jungle. 

Trump’s followers are betting that the good times (meaning the tax cuts, regulatory rollbacks, defense spending, low interest rates, oil and gas drilling) will keep going -- although it’s against the laws of nature that they do -- and their power grows and solidifies, and that Trump will not at some point become paranoid and turn on them, as Joseph Stalin was wont to do. Politicians of Stalin’s era feared a midnight knock at the door and a firing squad; members of today’s GOP wet themselves just thinking about being maligned by Trump on Twitter and Fox News.   

Afraid to stand up to the bully for fear of losing position and privilege. But not afraid to trash their oath of office and stomp on Madison and Hamilton’s best work.  

The imbecile bully who, after today, may as well be king. Mad king Donald. 

The American government is not a parliament of whores as P.J. O’Rourke once called it, it’s just a cheap whorehouse on the edge of a dying city, with leaky toilets and creaky beds, soiled sheets, and suspicious stains on the floor. 

Hey, Donald, we’re becoming a shithole country. Are you going to bomb us? 

Once again a minority triumphs over the majority.

In 2016 I didn’t think Trump had a chance of becoming president. I overestimated my countrymen’s ability to think logically; I underestimated their pain and fear. In 2020 I don’t see how Trump can lose. Incumbency is powerful in and of itself. Trump’s also sitting on a tower of cash that he can splash around the media landscape. But the real problem, for me, is lack of a Democratic candidate who can unite most of the party, build a large enough coalition, and energize the masses to vote. In the current field, only Bernie Sanders has the mojo to excite people, particularly the young, but the national Democratic Party despises Sanders. Why? For the same reason Republicans won’t cross Trump. Fear of losing power and privilege. Sanders might overturn the gravy train, he might build a movement, he might try to raise taxes on the wealthy and slow the growth of Pentagon spending. He might actually put some official weight behind a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. 

Establishment Democrats and their big money donors aren’t having it. That’s why they let Bloomberg buy his way into the game. That’s why MSNBC and CNN twist themselves into knots to avoid acknowledging that Sanders is a viable candidate. That’s why an unknown pipsqueak named Pete Buttegieg is still hanging around, as if he might stand a chance. It’s why Joe Biden is always described as the front runner. These are the safe guys, tried and true neoliberals and war enthusiasts, the kind of stand up people who would give Juan Guaido a standing ovation. 

I knew this day was coming, but it still leaves me low. What it portends for the future scares me. Intellectually I know that despair is not an option, and that all good and decent people have to keep their hope of a more just world alive; it’s just that today something feels violated, broken, maimed for all time.