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By Seva Gunitsky
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And that's clearly President Donald Trump’s modus operandi.
“So what does the history of American fascism tell us about its resurgence? The good news is that the three major factors that drove its expansion are absent today.
“The first was a major economic depression and social dislocation that undermined people’s confidence in democracy and led them to look for alternatives.
“The second factor was fear of communism, which led many leading intellectuals to embrace fascism as a bulwark against Bolshevism and as the lesser of two evils. As in Europe, worries about communism intensified fascism’s appeal in the U.S. “I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler,” argued popular Christian activist Frank Buchman in 1936, “who built a front line of defense against the anti-Christ of communism.”
“The third factor was the rise of Nazi Germany as an economic and military powerhouse. Hitler’s ascent began a long period of German recovery, economic expansion and the swift end of unemployment in that country. By 1939, Germany had a labor shortage of 2 million people, while industrial production had more than doubled. Generations of historians have debated whether the recovery was real, but the widespread perception of German success attracted admirers regardless of its reality.”
Robert Reich explains that “As tyrants take control of democracies, they typically follow 10 steps:”
1. Exaggerate their mandate to govern – claiming, for example, that they won an election by a landslide even after losing the popular vote, and that they lost the popular vote because of massive voter fraud.
2. Call anyone who opposes them “enemies,” including journalists and media outlets that criticize them, and accuse such journalists and outlets of spreading fake news.
3. Blame economic stresses on immigrants or racial or religious minorities, and quietly foment violence against them.
4. Quietly encourage domestic terrorists to use violence on defenders of democracy. Refuse to openly condemn such acts. Get manufacturers of guns and munitions to encourage such acts as well.
5. Communicate with supporters directly through mass rallies and unfiltered statements (now called tweets).
6. Tell the public big lies, causing them to doubt the truth and to believe fictions that support the tyrants’ goals.
7. Appoint family members and generals into high positions of authority
8. Make personal alliances with foreign dictators, but express indifference if not defiance toward democratic leaders.
9. Draw no distinction between personal property and public property, profiteering from public office.
10. Count on average peoples’ confusion, fear, or apathy to allow all this to happen.
Here are Robert Reich's 7 signs of a tyrant:
