Tuesday, May 28, 2024, 7:00 - 8:00 PM
Join ACLU for our May Franklin County Action Team Meeting as we prepare for a summer of action in criminal legal reform and more!  

Location:  ACLU Ohio - Columbus Office, 1108 City Park Ave Ste 203, Columbus, OH 43206.  

Register here.

Much more than a mere handsome action hero, Viggo Mortensen, star of The Lord of the Rings movies, is spreading his creative wings again by getting behind the camera for the second time. In addition to playing the male leader, Mortensen has directed, written, produced and composed music for The Dead Don’t Hurt. The politically aware artist (see: https://progressive.org/magazine/viggo-mortensen-do-something-get-kitchen./) has also done something interesting with the tried-and-true Western genre – putting progressive politics about women, slavery, immigrants, middle-aged romance, parenting, etc., into this Civil War-era horse opera set in Nevada around the time the territory became a state. 

Introduction

The focus of this post is on the fascist aspects of Trump’s rhetoric and plans. It argues that, if Trump wins the presidency in November, he and his administration are likely to implement his anti-democratic vision.

Is he a fascist?

Federico Finchelstein has written extensively about fascism. In his most recent book, The Wannabe Fascists: A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy (publ. 2024 by the University of California Press), he identifies “the four pillars of fascism,” including: (1) “violence and the militarization of politics; (2) “lies, myths, and propaganda”; (3) “the politics of xenophobia” and racism; and (4) dictatorship (pp. 16-17). He argues that Trump is not quite a full-blown fascist, but rather a “wannabe fascist because he has not yet become a “dictator.”

More than 23 years ago, George W. Bush, Jr. signed  Presidential Proclamation 7463 declaring that a “national emergency exists by reason of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, New York, New York, and the Pentagon, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.”  

The White House has demonstrated, in several administrations, both Democrat and Republican, “threat inflation” for the sake of spending endless money on wars, and manipulating fears to hold on to power to continue to spend endless money on even more wars in the ultimate protection racket.

As a result, the constitutional system of checks and balances is being obliterated in favor of an Imperial Presidency, and, as the Constitution is eroded, so too, are our liberties.  

The recent chipping away at our First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights can be traced directly to the psychology of a "State of Emergency," which licenses shredding of freedom.