At The Tipping Point

The ability of a government to openly murder citizens, then successfully and blatantly lie about it, is a page from the playbook of fascist rule. In fact, it’s essential to the operation of a fascist government. Anyone who has studied world history will recognize that the US is at a tipping point. The murder of citizens in Minnesota is the canaries in the coal mine. The reaction, or lack thereof, by local politicians and the citizenry will become a measure of the continued viability of the Republic. Take effective actions and the Republic has a chance to survive, Take ineffective actions – or act not at all - and the forces of fascism are almost certain to prevail. This is the challenge every patriot now faces.

Much like the Nazi’s open persecution of the Jews and gypsies during the 1930s or the southern whites’ persecution of the blacks during the Jim Crow era, we are seeing the persecution of political enemies and ethnic groups by the current US administration. Unaccountable paramilitary forces similar to the Stormtroopers or KKK are the hall mark of fascism’s rise to power. Only a member of the cult that supports the rise of fascism can refuse to see it. It is a hard fact that the United States is on the verge of becoming a fascist state.

Consider this. The US has a President who keeps a copy of Hitler’s speeches by his bed. The courts, particularly the Supreme Court, are systematically taking away the rights of citizens and increasing the power of the Executive Branch. The Congress, crafted as the senior branch of the government by the Founders, is now a mere unincorporated branch of the Executive. The Federal Government is now controlled by a group of right-wing billionaires. The modern version of the Sturmabteilung - the Stormtroopers - is now being aggressively deployed in selected American cities with the objective of triggering a series of events that will lead to the declaration of martial law and the cancelation of elections. If they succeed, the Republic falls. And that is the primary objective of a fascist state – the systematic dismantling of a government based on the ideal of self-governance by the people.

The eventual goal of these efforts, to quote Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, is to claim an absolute right. “It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.” In other words, to make people believe what the state determines they should believe. To make you believe that the city of Minneapolis is some sort of war zone, and to completely ignore the fact that the actions of the government have made it seem that way. To make you believe what the state needs you to believe in order to enable and preserve a ruling elite in power. In the US, that ruling class is billionaires. Unless you are one of them, you are cannon fodder – meaningless in their vision of a world which they believe they own lock, stock, and barrell.

The primary goal of every fascist state is the absolute subjugation of all except the ruling elite. Putin’s Russia, Orban’s Hungary, Kim’s North Korea are all fascist states. And, make no mistakes about it, the intention of the elite in the US is to have their country join that fascist league.

Like in Germany of the 30s, even those who support the rise of the fascist state will be dominated by it. The sad fact is that all those who voted for Trump – people who live in rural areas, farmers, small business owners, politicians, people dependent on affordable healthcare, and so many more – will be ground up and swallowed by the fascist state. The price of admission to the club is a ten-figure net worth. So, check your financial statements and see if you qualify. I’m betting you don’t.

The only effective response to such an assault on a society has been the strategy advocated by Mahatma Gandhi and advanced by Nelson Mandella and Martin Luther King. Such movements require that citizens take to the streets in overwhelming numbers.

Forget the talking heads (they are bought and paid for), or the so-called social media influencers (propaganda machines and bots). Forget the elected politicians (neutered by their donors). Only when masses of people take their destiny into their own hands can the forces of fascism be turned back.

A Republic, if you can keep it? That is the test now facing all Americans. So, how much do you value living in a free society? How much do you value your children living in a free society? Your grandchildren? What’s it worth to you? How much are you willing to do to save the Republic that has nurtured you?

Goebbels also said, “let me control the media and I will turn any nation into a herd of pigs.” Ask yourself, is that what you want – to be one domesticated swine in a herd of pigs. You need to make a personal decision and act on it. Oink, oink or a free citizen in a Republic “of the people, by the people, and for the people”.

All this brings good news and bad news. The good news is that saving the Republic short of civil war is possible. Other generations have proven it. At the end of the Gilded era, the Robber Barons were reigned in through peaceful legislative action and due to widespread public outrage. In the sixties, demonstrations and aggressive journalism turned out a corrupt administration, stopped an insane war, and set in motion advances in civil, voting and environmental legislation. The results in each case were that the US was again internationally recognized as the leader of the free world rather than an emerging fascist state.

The bad news is that you are going to have to get off your ass and into the fray. Posting impotent crap on social media is not going to do it. Posting snide remarks about Trump and his minions is not going to do it. Bemoaning tragedies and sending thoughts and prayers is not going to do it. Thomas Paine said it well, “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country...”.

So, which are you? The sunshine patriot who will see the country into a new dark age and who will live in unending servitude to their uber-wealthy landlords, or among the real patriots who will wrest back control over their own and their country’s future to live as free citizens in what would again become the last, best hope for humanity.

You – yes, you – must make a personal decision. Like millions of your fellow Americans, you must decide. And, what you decide matters. Not only for your future, or that of the country, but for all of humanity.

© Earl Smith