The Anatomy Of Fascism: Trump And Barr Sending Secret Federal Agents To American Cities DMT.NEWS
Article by WN.Com Correspondent Dallas Darling
Like Germany after World War I, the United States itself has never been free from fascism. In fact, starting with Shay’s Rebellion and the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, antidemocratic, populist, and xenophobic movements have always flourished in America. Much more dangerous are movements that imply authentically American themes in ways that resemble fascism, such as President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” and new “law-and-order” ideologies under the banners of White Nationalism and Supremacy, and American Exceptionalism.
Making Democracy Work Badly
Critics say this is the reason that President Trump and Attorney General William Barr could not protect a judge’s family that was just murdered by a right-wing zealot, but is targeting Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters across the country with unidentified federal law enforcement officers.
Having repeatedly called them “terrorists,” “anarchists,” “agitators,” and the “greatest threat to America,” they have ordered hundreds of federal troops in unmarked vans to descend on cities to “snatch” protesters off of the street and to hold them indefinitely.
Their announcement on Wednesday came after secret federal agents detained hundreds of protesters en masse in Portland. It will now include Albuquerque, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, New York, and Oakland. President Trump and AG Barr argue these cities are running rampant with protesters creating autonomous zones and continuing to protest police brutality as part of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Critics, however, say the unidentified federal agents are only escalating an already tense situation as they whisk people away in unmarked vehicles.
Stage One of Fascism
Like Donald Trump, the conservatives in Germany brought Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party into office quasi-constitutionally, within a coalition of grieved political movements the fascist leader did not control totally. Having achieved office quasi-legally, in the president’s case an archaic electoral college system and by interfering in the election, Hitler had been entrusted only with the powers granted as head of government under the constitution. In other words, Adolf Hitler’s powers were limited since he held just a small minority in the Reichstag and cabinet positions.
Adolf Hitler and his enablers soon turned that toehold into outright dictatorship. In addition to completing their grasp on the state by transforming a quasi-constitutional office into unlimited personal authority and corruption, which Robert Paxton warned was the real “seizure of power” in “The Anatomy of Fascism,” they participated in massive illegal action by purging any opposition and appointing like-minded fascists (i.e., William Barr). In the meantime, political allies were still crucial, only needing to acquiesce.
Stage Two of Fascism
But even Adolf Hitler did not become the dictator of Germany at once. At first, he believed that the best device to give himself more independence from his coalition partners was one more election, hoping for the outright majority that had so far eluded him. Before the election could be held, however, an event gave him an excuse to carry out a virtual coup from within, without a breath of opposition from right or center. The event was the fire that gutted the Reichstag (Germany’s Parliament) building on February 28, 1933.
Adolf Hitler and the Nazis immediately blamed the fire on a communist youth protester, giving them remarkable speed and self-assurance to capitalize on the widespread fear of communist “terrorism.” Since enough conservatives and Germans shared their fear to give him and the Nazis almost unlimited leeway, Adolf Hitler was given emergency powers to “arrest suspected terrorists and anarchists (i.e. communists) at will. They also were given authority over the state government’s police power. Most Germans stood by. Few were prepared to resist.
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20577Stage Three of Fascism
Usually, the Justice Department sends agents under its own umbrella, like agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives or the Drug Enforcement Agency. But this surge of abuse of power includes both the president and the Department of Homeland Security Investigations officers, who generally conduct drug trafficking and child exploitation investigations. Trump has not only linked the protests over racial injustice to crime, but at a moment when more than 150,000 Americans have died of COVID-19.
Just as troubling is a leaked report from the Justice Department that showed the greatest threat to America was not protesters but right-wing extremists and White supremacists.
Indeed, and as secret federal agents were proactively snatching protesters off the street, Roy Den Hollander, a Trump-loving, anti-feminist, and White nationalist, murdered the family of a federal judge, Judge Esther Salas. The shooter was targeting the liberal judge who is Latino for her role in defending women and undocumented workers, and for investigating the president’s financial records.
The Last Stage of Fascism
Critics warn that President Trump’s decision to dispatch federal agents to American cities is an indication that he is not only trying to escalate violence but manufacture a “Reichstag Event” to seize total power.
They may be right. This constitutional crisis is playing out at a highly polarized political moment when he is trying to show that he is the “law-and-order” president and while painting Democratic-led opponents and cities as “hating America” and “out of control.” As the general election nears, he also has given notice that he will not accept the results if beaten.
Dallas Darling (darling@wn.com)
via https://www.DMT.NEWS/
by , Khareem Sudlow
