# Could fascism have been avoided and what can we do now (Part 1 of 3) Date: 2024-11-19 Next Part: https://disrael.github.io/blogs/raw/could-fascism-have-been-avoided-and-what-can-we-do-now.part2.md --- --- ### Could fascism have been avoided and what can we do now Agreeing on what went **long term** wrong is important in case there is another chance for a different America post Trump. **Fascism** **:** a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized [autocratic](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/autocratic) government headed by a [dictatorial](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dictatorial) leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition The root cause of our last election has two main viewpoints: Unavoidable — racism, wild west, and patriarchy was our early DNA and there was a stream of “individual freedom” lovers that led to fascism. #### **VS** Avoidable — fooled around and found out: if you don’t want to be fascist then Democrats should stop playing with fascism. Below we explore each and then what we can do now. ### NO fascism could not have been avoided Unlimited growth is essentially fascist. Without [Limitarianism](https://www.amazon.com/Limitarianism-Case-Against-Extreme-Wealth/dp/1662601840) it produces strong men and they corrupt the government. It also plays into a wild west masculinity that ends with billionaires riding penis shaped rockets into lower earth orbit. But unlimited growth was hard coded in American DNA from the start by the willingness to use slaves and slaughter natives to achieve it. Then there are other indicators that America is irredeemable: * Former South Africans Musk, Thiel, and Sachs want apartheid 2.0. * “Southern strategy” a thing because slave heritage never goes away. * Bill Clinton was the first Democratic president since FDR to win two consecutive terms and that was only possible with his hard right tack. * The Reagan revolution was already relatively fascist. The combination of reduced government and a growing economy leads to robber baron strong men and pseudo-dictators. When Reagan said, “Fascism was really the basis of the New Deal. It was Mussolini’s success in Italy, with his government-directed economy, that led early New Dealers to say, ‘but Mussolini keeps the trains running on time.’”, he missed the central point of fascism — **dictators**. You don’t avoid dictators with less government; you avoid dictators with more and better government. * *Free* markets and popular anti-politics are cut from the same cloth — if you don’t trust experts, government institutions, and regular politicians to govern then eventually strong men fill the gap. * Slavery actually lasted well into the 20th century because of the black codes. Only the fight against communism briefly made America clean up its act — literally as the last American slave was freed because FDR was afraid of image problems. * It’s true that other countries are also having problems with fascism but like Spain they tend to recover instead of regressing. What other democracy has crippled abortion rights? Okay [Brazil and Chile](https://reproductiverights.org/maps/worlds-abortion-laws/) are worse but even Israel is loosening up. * British “aristo-fascism” has a long history and Japan is always in the running for most misogyny but American exceptionalism really showed up with a majority popular vote for Trump. Fascism is built on contradictions and so historically falls apart again and again; usually in some very painful outcomes for nations that embrace it. Things will now get a lot worse for the American fascists and there is no need for sympathy. ### YES fascism could have been avoided America is a much the home to regulation and limits as it is to unlimited growth. Many major advances in anti-fascism started in America — ending monarchy, 5 day work weeks, child labor laws, Wyoming was the second with women’s suffrage (behind the Pitcairn Islands), birth control, freedom of religion, etc. To see how fascism might have been avoided we have to understand Bill Clinton. If “third way” works then you are headed [straight for facism no matter what](https://brill.com/view/journals/fasc/11/2/article-p187_3.xml?language=en): > Within the field of fascism studies the trope of the ‘third way’ has served as an invaluable asset in terms of granting fascism ideological autonomy and originality; and this is why it is now widely recognised as one of the core ideological components of generic fascism.[6](https://brill.com/view/journals/fasc/11/2/article-p187_3.xml?language=en#FN000006) Democrats voting for a fascism pre-cursor [came before Trump](https://www.vox.com/2016/4/28/11515132/iirira-clinton-immigration) > But what most people don’t know is that in 1996 — fresh off the heels of signing welfare reform, and two years after signing the “crime bill” — President Bill Clinton signed a bill that overhauled immigration enforcement in the US and laid the groundwork for the massive deportation machine that exists today. and anyone paying attention knew this was southern strategy > Clinton also visited the Stone Mountain Correctional Facility in [Georgia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_%28U.S._state%29 "Georgia (U.S. state)") shortly before [Super Tuesday](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Tuesday "Super Tuesday") to promote his “tough on crime” message. The location of the prison, [Stone Mountain, Georgia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Mountain,_Georgia "Stone Mountain, Georgia") is notable for its ties to white supremacist movements. Stone Mountain was the birthplace of the second rendition of the [KKK](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan "Ku Klux Klan") and was a “white supremacist mecca.” It is home to Stone Mountain Park which features a massive monument to the [Confederacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America "Confederate States of America") carved onto the face of Stone Mountain.[[17]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton_1992_presidential_campaign#cite_note-17) Clinton’s press conference at the prison was organized to have a group of inmates, mostly black, present in the background. The image of “white political leaders in business suits in front of subjugated black male prisoners in jumpsuits”[[18]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton_1992_presidential_campaign#cite_note-18) conveyed a message summed up by another contender for the Democratic nomination, former California governor [Jerry Brown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Brown "Jerry Brown"): > *“Two white men and forty black prisoners, what’s he saying? He’s saying we got ’em under control, folks, don’t worry.”* President Clinton had massive social regimentation policies but he did the same for economic regimentation. On top of finalizing NAFTA that was started by his predecessors, Clinton laid the groundwork for the [financialization of the US economy](https://www.cjr.org/the_audit/bill_clinton_the_republicans_m.php): > Clinton installed Robert Rubin and Larry Summers in the Treasury, which resulted in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which officially did in Glass-Steagall and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which left the derivatives market a laissez-faire Wild West (not to mention a disastrous [strong dollar policy](http://economistsview.typepad.com/timduy/2011/01/what-is-rubins-legacy.html) that was a critical and underrated factor in the bubble). He also reappointed Ayn Rand-acolyte Alan Greenspan, who has as much responsibility as anyone for creating the crisis, as Fed chairman — twice. Where previous fascism focussed on state control, this fascism focussed on corporate control and the Ayn Rand [brand of fascism](https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/30/oa_monograph/chapter/1178515): --- **[Continue reading Part 2 of 3](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/raw/could-fascism-have-been-avoided-and-what-can-we-do-now.part2.md)**