This is How Fascism Comes to America
[A couple of months ago, I wrote an article bemoaning our dwindling civil rights. In the comments, LadyRavana recommended an article on facism over at LiveJournal. I looked at the article, saw that it was long, and bookmarked it for later. I finally got around to reading it, and I'm sorry I procrastinated.
The article is called "This is How Fascism Comes: Reflections on the Cost of Silence" by Tim Wise. Ordinarily, I'd excerpt a couple of paragraphs and urge you to go read the whole thing. In this case, I discovered that doesn't do it justice, so I'm going to break with tradition and reprint the whole thing.
The article originally comes from Tim Wise's Facebook page, which non-members can't access. It was reposted at LiveJournal, so the rest of us could read it. Here is the article.]
This is How Fascism Comes:
Reflections on the Cost of Silence
By Tim Wise
October 12, 2008
For those who have seen the ugliness and heard the vitriol emanating from the mouths of persons attending McCain/Palin rallies this past week—what with their demands to kill Barack Obama, slurs that he is a terrorist and a traitor, and paranoid delusions about his crypto-Muslim designs on America—please know this: This is how fascism comes to an ostensible democracy.
If it comes—and if those whose poisonous, unhinged verbiage has been so ubiquitous this week have any say over it, it surely will—this is how it will happen: not with tanks and jackbooted storm troopers, but carried in the hearts of men and women dressed in comfortable shoes, with baseball caps, and What Would Jesus Do? wristbands. It will be heralded by up-dos, designer glasses, you-betcha folksiness and a disdain for big words or hard consonants.
If fascism comes, it will spring from the soil of middle America, from people known as values voters but whose values are toxic, from simple folk whose simplicity, far from being admirable, is better labeled ignorance, from “all-American” types whose patriotism is a dagger pointed at the very heart of the national interest, for it so forsakes all the best principles upon which the republic was founded, choosing instead to elevate and ratify the narrow-mindedness, the bigotry, and the intolerance that also marked our country’s origins.
If fascism comes, it will be ushered in by tailgaters at the big football game, by Joe Six Pack, who, upon finishing his sixth beer and belching forth the stench of a mediocre life lived, will gladly announce its arrival, so long as it comes with a steady supply of Pabst Blue Ribbon and hot dogs on the grill, and giant foam hands with a “We’re Number 1″ finger, some Mardi Gras beads and a good titty bar.
If fascism comes it will dress like a hockey mom, or a NASCAR dad. It will believe Toby Keith to be an artist, Larry the Cable Guy to be a comic, and that the world was made in six literal days less than 6000 years ago.
If fascism comes it will come from the small towns; the ones Sarah Palin, quoting a famous racist and Jew-hater, said “grow good people,” and which occasionally do, but which, just as often grow provincial, isolated, fearful and superstitious ones.
If fascism comes it will come from faux populism, from anti-immigrant hysteria, from persons who have more guns in their homes than books, or whose books, when they have them, are principally volumes of the Left Behind series, several different copies of the Bible, and a plethora of romance novels.
If fascism comes it will be welcomed, lock stock and barrel by persons who pray at every meal to a God they visualize as white, whose son they also think was white, and who they believe is going to rapture them all into the sky upon the blowing of some heavenly trumpet, after which point all those who don’t think as they think will be burned in an eternal lake of fire. Their vision and version of God is itself fascistic—to love a God who would do such a thing is to love an abusive, sadistic and evil deity after all—so it should come as little surprise that their conception of the state would be equally authoritarian or worse.
If fascism comes it will be at the behest of those who hold a contempt for what they call “book learnin,” who prefer Presidents who mispronounce basic words because they make them feel smarter, and who are looking for nothing so much as a commander-in-chief with whom they would enjoy having a beer, or two, or twelve at some backyard barbecue.
If fascism comes it will be interviewed, lovingly, on talk radio, by hosts whose cerebral inadequacies are more than made up for by their bellicosity, their bombast, their willingness to shout down those with whom they cannot argue, for argument requires knowledge, and this is a commodity with which they have not even a passing familiarity.
If fascism comes it will come wrapped in red, white and blue, carrying a crucifix and a shotgun, projecting its own sexual confusion and insecurity onto others, substituting volume for veracity and rage for reason, and landing on the New York Times best-seller list as a result.
If fascism comes it will have a pajama party at Ann Coulter’s house, pop pills with Rush Limbaugh, and go gay-bashing with Michael Savage, all in the same weekend. And it will refuse to learn another language or get a passport, because doing either of those would make one cosmopolitan—which is just another word for “faggot.”
If fascism comes it will come because a lot of people who aren’t like the folks I’m talking about here, won’t stand up to the ones who are. Because we’re too busy, don’t want to make waves, don’t want to lose friends, or alienate family. It will come, in other words, because those who know better are cowards, more concerned with getting along, making nice, and being liked than with telling the truth, calling out evil and saving their country.
If fascism comes it will come because of the silence, and thus, collaboration of those who think themselves good, and certainly superior to the knuckle-draggers they can see on YouTube at the McCain rallies, but who in the end are no better and in some ways worse than they: after all, at least fascists stand up for what they believe in. They are telling us, in no uncertain terms what kind of United States they want and are willing to fight for, and maybe even to kill for. But many “progressives,” many liberals, many of the so-called enlightened are doing nothing at all.
If fascism comes it will come because those liberals thought voting for Barack Obama was all they needed to do; it will come because they allowed themselves to believe that politics is what a person does every four years, but not at work, and not in the neighborhood, and not at the dinner table. Meanwhile, know-nothings filled with hate, nurtured on racial and religious bigotry and who have overdosed on the kind of hypernationalism that has always proved fatal to those places foolish or craven enough to allow it a foothold, talk of their visions for America at every opportunity. They raise their kids on that sickness, they build churches whose very foundation is rooted in that cancerous rot, and they will think nothing of steamrolling those who get in their way.
So when, exactly, do we fight back? When do we say enough? When do we stand up to our relative or friend who sends us the e-mail about Obama being a Manchurian Candidate or al-Qaeda sympathizer, or the one about the decency of Midwestern flood victims as opposed to those stranded after Katrina, or about how God was punishing New Orleans because of its tolerance of homosexuality, and tell them what we think: namely, that they are a bunch of racist, heterosexist loons, whose friendship or familial connection we neither want nor intend to pursue unless they get help. When do we decide that we love our country and humanity too much to allow these people one more day of decent sleep, one more day of self-assured confidence in their craziness and the willingness of the rest of us to just take it? When do we decide that every irrational, Jeezoid, racist thing that comes from their mouths will be attacked, will be rebutted, until they can no longer take for granted the ability to say any of it in mixed company without being called out?
Why, in the face of the fascism they would surely introduce if given the chance, are we intent on being so nice? Why are we not more offended? Offended not merely at what such persons say about others—like Obama, or Latino immigrants, or whatever—but even about we who look like them? After all, their open exhortations of racism presuppose that they are speaking for us, and that this kind of brain-dead ventilation is something to which all white folks should aspire as though it were virtually the essence of enlightenment.
If fascism comes it will come because we did not see in their actions a sufficient threat, or because we allowed ourselves to believe that it couldn’t come, that our institutions were too strong, our people too good, for that to happen. If it comes it will come because we allowed ourselves to believe the rosy and optimistic version of America spun by Obama, without tempering that optimism with a clear-headed appraisal of the way that (sadly) a still huge number of Americans actually think: because we allowed the vehicle of our hopes to outrun the headlights of truth; because we convinced ourselves that we actually lived in the country of our aspirations, rather than the nation we have at present.
And if fascism doesn’t come—if, rather, democracy does—it will come because good people said no. It will come because we saw in this moment the opportunity to demand the full measure of our humanity and to pour it forth upon the national soil. It will be because we understood that democracy isn’t what you have, it’s what you do. But if we are to issue that demand, if we are to stand straight and fulfill the potential we possess to do justice, we had best exercise the option quickly, for the opponents of justice are on the move. They are preparing to enter on the winds of our silence and indifference, and complacency. Let them find no quarter here.
The above essay originally appeared on Tim Wise’s Facebook page. It has also been reposted at LiveJournal.
December 7th, 2008 at 3:57 am
Applause!
This makes me feel good for being the killjoy who does a reply-to-all when family or friends send out one of those “I forwarded this from a religious fundamentalist” or “anyone who is not a bible-believing (but not reading) republican must die!” chain mails. I love it when the originator apologizes to everyone on my behalf for my dissenting voice, even though no apology should be needed since my reply sticks to the facts and never attacks. I haven’t received any recently….I was probably uninvited from the lists.
Thanks for this Tim. It’s motivational and I need it.
Josh Nankivel
http://non-theist.com
December 7th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Wow, hyperbolic but essentially correct.
I take issue with two points, the first, I assert that the faux conservatives that have dominated the political right since the Reagan years must be convinced rather than shouted down. Since they are ideologically galvanized by a false sense of victim-hood, they must be, as individuals, made to defend their positions, not simply attacked or shamed into compliance. How does Mr. Wise suggest that we do that?
Second, since I, as well as Mr. Wise legitimately fear the rise of a fascist state in the US and since I am an urban, college educated, sports hating, Democrat voting liberal, what would his opinion be on the rifle, shotgun and pistol that I keep securely locked away in case of just such a political shift?
December 7th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I must confess to a certain sense of satisfied contentment in the wake of Obama’s election, especially after watching how the transition has progressed thus far and having my impressions of him validated. That’s all well and good, but we need reminders like this article to keep us alert, especially when it seems as if the good guys finally won one.
People who warn of the demise of our republic are always viewed as paranoid, conspiratorial know-nothings, at least until they’re proven right. We are, in my estimation, one of the most short-sighted societies in human history. We assume that the United States has always been here and that it will continue to exist in its present form indefinitely. It is perhaps no small coincidence that the very same people who think this way also view human beings the same way. So when the curtain finally does fall, as it plausibly could, on our democratic experiment, will we shrug our collective shoulders and assume that such a change was inevitable, or will we heed the admonishment to stand up to that which we know to be wrong? Will we be able to do so before its too late?
I, too, have not been shy in “correcting” bogus chain e-mails that found their way into my inbox and then returning them to all original addressees, many of whom I recently saw in person on Thanksgiving Day. Not a single person brought the subject up, which is not in keeping with the vehemence of the original e-mail I received, so perhaps they bothered to read what I wrote. I think most of them were too shocked by the knowledge that a member of the family doesn’t tow the party line when it comes to God and Republicans and were afraid I’d make a scene, which seems a more likely explanation to me. At any rate, they’re on notice that their tripe will not escape my notice unscathed in the future, so at least there’s that.
December 8th, 2008 at 10:15 am
I replied to many chain letters from my fundie relatives too. Thankfully, I was able to keep it short and sweet with Snopes links. If it was a long soapbox diatribe, I would stop receiving those emails altogether and then never have a chance to debunk them and maybe, just maybe, plant a seed in one of the other 20-some-odd recipients. I know my fundie relatives are far too brainwashed, but I don’t know about the other recipients.
On the bright side, my wife’s mom is right-leaning (although not fundie) and really did not like Obama in the slightest at first, but didn’t like McCain either. However, guess who she voted for on election day? That’s right. She was part of the reason Obama carried NC. Rock on. I like to think all the anti-McCain and pro-Obama emails my wife sent had something to do with that.
Thomas – I did not detect an anti-gun sentiment to the article at all. I mean, guns were mentioned but only in the context of “more guns than books” which, although hyperbolic, does paint a nice picture of a right-wing jesus militia type, of which you are obviously not a part.
Now, if I had written the article, there certainly would have been more of an anti-gun sentiment to it! No offense intended, but I really, really, really dislike guns. I prefer civil disobedience to armed defense and takeover. Call me a hippy!
December 9th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Wow, I found this article very insulting and really just plain prejudiced. Certain aspects I agree with, but accusing people of not having a passport because it would make them “cosmopolitan” or drinking at a football tailgate, listening to Toby Keith or Larry the Cable Guy is something only the so called ignorant people from the midwest do as downright demeaning. I can even point out that his view of the average middle American’s gun ownership isn’t about “protecting their god given right” but oftentimes about protecting their hobby – hunting. I’m perfectly fine with limiting assault rifles and handguns, but the guy who owns a dozen rifles has a hobby…big deal if it happens to be hunting instead of reading Noam Chomsky in a coffee shop.
The author could have left out the cultural details and still make a good argument…but I felt as someone from hunting, football and country music loving rural Nebraska (tailgates, beer and country music being amongst things I love) that this was more or less on attack as what the author perceives to be “midwestern culture.”
Obviously, he doesn’t understand why most midwesterners don’t have a passport and travel little (believe me, there are a lot of people who would love to travel and see more “cosmopolitan” things in the world but money and access to airports do have a lot to do with this).
You can still have facism in Vermont, but it will likely come in a different package than facism in Nebraska. Of course it is easier to pick on people from a very red place, but in my eyes this author lost his credibility when he started using certain aspects of midwest culture hyperbolicaly to get his point across.
December 9th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
I agree with Lindsay to a certain extent. Yes, the demographic that tends toward these traits is mostly centered in the mid-west, but that’s a bit of a stretch to judge the group as a whole. I know the author’s intentions were good and that they were just simplifying it for the general public, but I think they should have been a bit more cautious with their word choice.
December 10th, 2008 at 6:11 am
I think you both are missing the point. The traits he was pointing out are the traits that the Palin/McCain ticket was using as the perfect example of down-home patriotic idealized Americans. You see, the exact opposite was happening in those rallies. Lattee drinking hipsters were being portrayed as terrorist loving commies. The point of the article was not to demean those traits, but to show that the very people attending the Palin rallies decrying fascism are the most likely at this time to be the ones to actually bring about fascism.
If the average Palin rally attendee loved them some Starbucks, the tone of the article would have been different.
BTW, don’t forget us southerners — we’re grouped into the same lot.
December 10th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Parrotlover: That part I get, but the word choice should be more specific to that particular line of reasoning. We get that they are talking about the election, but other people might just assume that they are judging the population of the mid-west as a whole, etc.
Same deal here in the southwest…ugh…For some reason, everything thinks we are still a bunch of cowboys and Indians who hate Mexicans.
December 10th, 2008 at 9:22 am
I do understand PL77 that urban liberals do get the same labels from the conservatives, which I think are undeserved. I just think that the author could have been more clear about this intention and could have left out cultural reference that would have made this piece much more credible. I just don’t believe that a tit-for-tat to what conservatives stereotype liberals being the best way to play this game. You’re just never going to win with those types of arguments.
I do admit that we do have have many traits that can be poked fun of and we bring it upon ourselves. I guess the Nebraska Safe Haven Act comes to mind. I think our new state motto should be “Need to get away from the kids…leave them in Nebraska!”
December 11th, 2008 at 6:55 am
I guess I just didn’t see it that harshly. I thought it did a pretty good job of not stepping over the line of culturally insulting in its use of stereotypes. Obviously I was wrong! I didn’t realize it was that sensitive of an issue.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:49 pm
As a Liberal living in the South, I agree wholeheartedly with the article, The Southerners deserve every bit of stereotyping they get.