Immigrating to Canada and becoming a Canadian citizen has brought me euphoria, but has also led to some cultural clashes with my children that I never anticipated. While it has led to some discomfort, it has also changed my perspective in positive ways.
Oh, there’s going to be more violence, both in quantity and intensity. “When,” not “if.” Vigilance is necessary now more than ever.
Joy Reid on MSNBC made a point the other day that got me to finally understand why people embrace fascism: “Are we witnessing the end of politics?” There is a minority of people whose shitty ideas cannot be enacted politically via the democratic process, and so they are rejecting democracy in favor of violence and authoritarianism. In order for this to have a real effect, that minority must be large enough that they can’t simply be controlled by democratic principles, and small enough that they can’t get their agenda put in place politically.
Their last gasp before becoming full and open fascists is sneaking fascists into government. DeSantis as governor of Florida, Trump as president, all of his federal and SCOTUS judgeship appointments. I’d bet that Canada has corrolaries to those examples. The UK is doing the same thing. If fascists achieve enough power within the democratic framework, the only way out is revolution.
Okay, that’s just scary. That just reinforces my opinion that fixing the environment, social programs, and the various rights issues are not separate battles. Effectively fighting any one of those battles requires fighting the ideologies, not the specific action. Pushing those ideologies back to the margins is the only way to stop playing whack-a-mole.
They can’t get their desires enacted through the democratic process, but they can elect people who will just break the rules and dare anyone to stop them. This is Trump’s modus operandi, as well as DeSantis’, and probably many of the Republican presidential hopefuls.
The Nazi party managed to gain a plurality of seats in the Reichstag in 1933, although they were just short of a majority. Hitler became Chancellor, a position held by the leader of the strongest party in the Reichstag (a little bit like Speaker of the House), appointed by President von Hindenburg. When von Hindenburg died in 1934, and in the wake of the 1933 Enabling Act, Hitler assumed the presidency alongside being Chancellor, giving him dictatorial power.
About 90 years ago, the Third Reich was elected. It is dangerously foolish to think the United States is immune to such a thing.
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Oh, there’s going to be more violence, both in quantity and intensity. “When,” not “if.” Vigilance is necessary now more than ever.
Joy Reid on MSNBC made a point the other day that got me to finally understand why people embrace fascism: “Are we witnessing the end of politics?” There is a minority of people whose shitty ideas cannot be enacted politically via the democratic process, and so they are rejecting democracy in favor of violence and authoritarianism. In order for this to have a real effect, that minority must be large enough that they can’t simply be controlled by democratic principles, and small enough that they can’t get their agenda put in place politically.
Their last gasp before becoming full and open fascists is sneaking fascists into government. DeSantis as governor of Florida, Trump as president, all of his federal and SCOTUS judgeship appointments. I’d bet that Canada has corrolaries to those examples. The UK is doing the same thing. If fascists achieve enough power within the democratic framework, the only way out is revolution.
Okay, that’s just scary. That just reinforces my opinion that fixing the environment, social programs, and the various rights issues are not separate battles. Effectively fighting any one of those battles requires fighting the ideologies, not the specific action. Pushing those ideologies back to the margins is the only way to stop playing whack-a-mole.
For what reason? It is stated that they know there is no way to achieve their ends politically.
They can’t get their desires enacted through the democratic process, but they can elect people who will just break the rules and dare anyone to stop them. This is Trump’s modus operandi, as well as DeSantis’, and probably many of the Republican presidential hopefuls.
The Nazi party managed to gain a plurality of seats in the Reichstag in 1933, although they were just short of a majority. Hitler became Chancellor, a position held by the leader of the strongest party in the Reichstag (a little bit like Speaker of the House), appointed by President von Hindenburg. When von Hindenburg died in 1934, and in the wake of the 1933 Enabling Act, Hitler assumed the presidency alongside being Chancellor, giving him dictatorial power.
About 90 years ago, the Third Reich was elected. It is dangerously foolish to think the United States is immune to such a thing.