Fascism dressed in the native garb

The US media is all over the place trying to label the perpetrators of yesterday’s events in Washington. In the same report they’ve been called ‘a mob’ ‘terrorists’ and ‘rioters’ among other tags. Though four people are dead, by no means can these people be called terrorists. If they were the death count would be in the hundreds and the capitol would be a smoking ruin. Nobody was more surprised than them to find themselves inside the house as the pictures clearly show. No. What these protesters were is a misguided, uninformed, easily manipulated mob of useful idiots in the larger alt – right project of destroying American democracy. They have their counterparts in every democratic state including Ireland where they had a great recent election. The reality is that if you have enough money, together with a docile media and a preoccupied electorate it’s easy enough to undermine democratic politics. Over the last four years especially the would be fascists have enjoyed a great run both in Europe and the US. People often think that unless they see the nazi salute and the moustache it can’t be fascism but the reality is that when fascism comes to America, Ireland or England it will be dressed in the native garb. This is why people never see it until it’s too late as in Poland and Hungary today or Germany in the thirties. In America commentators are expressing shock and outrage and surprise. But many of us saw this coming four years ago and were in no doubt that Tramp (a mobster) had no intention of ever quitting. As his actions became ever more outrageous everyone thought he won’t get any worse – except he did. This was also the reaction of the German Weimar govt. to the rise of Hitler. They kept on using this rationale until it was too late as Hitler used the ‘attack’ on the reichstag to eliminate the opposition just as Tramp egged his followers on to attack the capitol in the hope of imposing martial law. There is plenty of blame to go around for these attacks and not just on his deranged cult. Plenty of senators who know better have rode the tiger the better to capitalise on the maga crowd for their own presidential ambitions down the line. May they rot in hell. One more striking thing about yesterday’s mob is the complete absence of black protestors. This is no coincidence. At its heart this is racism which tramp has promulgated from the get go to rile up his mostly southern states base. This playbook has its roots in the rejection of the great social legislation enacted by president Johnson in the 1960’s. These objections to black emancipation and civil rights woul be exploited by every republican candidate for office since in what came to be called the ‘southern strategy’. Nixon and Reagan were it’s most obvious beneficiaries and succeeding republican presidents had pulled the country so far right that the stage was set for a demagogue like Tramp. Now that the inevitable has come to pass the usual hand wringing has started with cabinet members resigning as if they had some moral standing or character to protect. That ship sailed long since and the time has come to rout this rogues gallery of charlatans and grifters and consign them and the horse they rode in on to the ash heap of history.