When Fascism Was American

[TBF]

Nevertheless, three decades of inequality and austerity have impoverished large sections of the American working class — along with declining US political prestige, bloody military adventures, and pervasive outrage at corruption in mainstream politics — have made a growing number of Americans more receptive to xenophobic and racist appeals that give voice to the powerlessness they feel in the face of hardship.

The past shows that the US is not immune to fascism. We must take the current far-right upsurge seriously and use every tool at our disposal to destroy it.

Before Donald Trump, there was Father Charles Coughlin, who popularized fascism for Americans in the 1930s.
by Joe Allen 12-29-15

The open racism and xenophobia that have characterized Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and perhaps provided much of its appeal, has been alarming. For a growing number of people, Trump’s rhetoric is a sign of something deeper and more frightening: the growth of a fascist movement in the United States.

Ohio governor John Kasich — one of Trump’s many rivals for the Republican nomination — produced an anti-Trump video that paraphrases Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s warning about the Nazis.

For many other commentators, as well, the violence Trump supporters have directed at critics during campaign rallies, along with the candidate’s call for banning Muslims from the United States, are further confirmation that Trump is a Nazi. In the last Democratic presidential debate, former Maryland governor and presidential candidate Martin O’Malley denounced Trump as a “fascist demagogue.”

<snip>

The US hasn’t seen the stirrings of fascist mobilization since the late 1930s when mounting fascist victories in Europe galvanized its adherents in America, chief among them Father Charles Coughlin and his Christian Front. This history has something to offer us today ...

Much more here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/12/trump-coughlin-nazis-christian-front-kristallnacht-antisemitism-kasich-fascism/

[guillaumeb]

1. Trump provides simple "solutions" to complex problems.

All while telling white people that all of the problems arise from "the other". That way the solution is to get rid of "the other" and the problem will be solved.

Recommended.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Best of the link is,

Democrats must pay attention to Economic and Social issues other wise we loose the debate to the Fascists. Pay Attention America,the Rethugs resemble the Thirties all over again.

[TBF]

5. They really do resemble them -

and not just Trump. He is almost comical. But many are flocking to Cruz and he is just as scary.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. For folks who grew up in Major Cities during

the nineteen forties,for the most part,did not see this crap first hand. When I saw the photo,remember seeing similiar photos framed on relatives mantels and cupboards. That is why I became a hard core Progressive,heard the hate,saw the hate,and remember the hate. No more,ENOUGH.

[Person 2713]

3. Thanks rec to read later

[tblue37]

4. K&R. Rec #5--to the greatest page. nt