We now have a fascist in the White House, and, for all intents and purposes, with Tea Party and other radical conservatives running Congress , along with Trump fascist appointees in the executive branch and increasingly in regulatory agencies, controlling the entire government.
Americans are generally known for rejecting extremism when voting for President. But this time, with the advent of ISIS cutting off the heads of anyone they captured, and refugees from the war-torn Middle East and Africa pouring into Europe like the ancients did out of Africa thousands of years ago, the voting public was scared and highly protective of anything like that happening here. Hillary won the popular vote, but enough Rust and Bible Belt Americans voted for Trump, especially after FBI Director Comey opened another investigation into Clinton’s email that were now connected to sex-texter Anthony Weiner, ex-husband of one of Clinton’s closest advisors, Huma Abedin. Fake news on social media perpetrated by the Russian government, seeing a way to cyber-muscle past its enemies’ defenses, then opened up a small hole in the front line for the fascist fullback Trump to squeeze through.
In addition, 10 per cent of Bernie Sanders progressives voted for Trump (as a recent research study shows), and a significant number of Sanders loyalists didn’t vote at all for President, which, of course, would favor Trump.
So the die was cast for a Trump victory. Consequently, white supremacists, anti Semites, neo Nazis, white survivalists, KKK racists—fascists all—raised their disempowered heads and pricked their ears towards Trump’s rhetoric, seeing an ally in the Republican president, who has done little to oppose them, even appointing one of them, Stephen Bannon, as his White House chief strategist (who has recently been fired, and now back editing his alt-right website, Breitbart).
A worst-case scenario is now upon our already great country in the most immanent challenge our democracy has ever faced. The answer? Hold on to the handlebars and resist until Democrats can take over Congress in 2018, and can unelect Trump in 2020. That will not be easy, for once a fascist takes power, his one and only goal is to solidify more power, as just about all dictators in history have done. They do this by various means, but mostly by intimidating and controlling the media, as Trump is doing as I write. Then, he can install his own standards of language and news, as George Orwell described the oppressive government’s official language, Newspeak, in 1984. Eventually the dictators and their henchmen go too far and they are overthrown, but that could take years.
The United States is in dire danger of that happening. The secession of some states is not the answer, as the Confederacy found out in the Civil War. We must find a way to resist, protest, and hold relevant feet to the fire, as we did with the Vietnam War. Our Constitution is a good operating manual, although its language is vague enough to be distorted and manipulated in the hands of Trump and his appointees. We must find a way. Otherwise, fascism will destroy the freedoms we in America have so painstakingly built and protected.
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