Re: [Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Re: Fwd: Neofascism in the White House? | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * This is a brilliant piece. I accept his argument (& Lou's) that calling Trump a fascist can actually get us to ignore the real problem or to look in the wrong direction. Quite clearly we are not dealing with a fascist regime in the USA. Though, I doubt not that at least some of the Trump- team would not have stood out in the crowd at Nuremberg. Still,I have to confess to almightygodsohelpmemaryevervirgin and plead guilty to calling Trump a fascist as a term of abuse. I will desist in future. comradely Gary On Fri, May 5, 2017 at 3:01 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > * > > A comment from the always interesting Farans Kalosar: > > Gleichschaltung has to be understood as the second phase of a two-step > Nazification process, the first stage being the machetergreifung or > machtuebernahme, the capture or takeover of power. > > The sequence of events in culminating with Hitler's appointment as > Chancellor on January 30, 1933 was the first stage. What led up to that was > a complex series of opportunistic maneuvers within the legal limitations of > the Weimar constitution, which amounted to a hollowing out or > neutralization from within of the rules and rituals of bourgeois > parliamentary government. This was accompanied by a buildup of coercive > forces under the banner of the Party and the expansion of military-style > organization to every corner and aspect of life in the Reich. > > Despite a long history of preparation for power, the bringing into line of > the German state and people through an aggressive program of organization, > regimentation, and legal repression can be seen as beginning in earnest > with the Enabling Act of March 28, 1933, which established the formal > dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. This process of organization and > reorganization would continue for twelve years and would involve a > continuous doubling down on the most extreme outrageous positions and > practices of the Nazis, leading eventually to the Final Solution and the > total defeat of the German armed forces in 1945. > > You could allege that the current regime in Washington completed the > seizure of power in January 2017 and that the bringing into line is now > under way. But in fact, there are few signs of anything really analogous to > the rise to and consolidation of power by Hitler. > > Where the Nazis--while defiantly incoherent intellectually--were utterly > on point when it came to organization (albeit with a multitude of mutually > hostile fiefdoms), Donald Trump is chaotic and almost deliberately > inconsistent. Indeed, Trump appears to be making no more practical use of > his majorities in congress than Barack Obama did when first elected. > > Where everything in the Nazi state aimed to mobilize the German masses > toward the goals of the State, Trumpism seeks to put the masses to sleep. > > The message from the chaotic and wildly undisciplined Trump isn't "join us > and we will conquer the world." It's "Relax: you've elected the right guy > and he will take care of everything." Trump's icons are the wildly > eccentric and unclubbable Kid Rock and Alex Jones, not Himmler or Goebbels. > He has no SS, no SA, and his rallies--so far--are merely intended to > stimulate passive approval of his actions and improve his standing in the > polls. His White House is a chaos of impulsive appointments and firings > where the only consistency is supplied by the members of Trump's own family. > > Indeed, Trump appears bewildered by the very powerful authoritarian > machinery bequeathed to every American president since Roosevelt, and even > to be at war with such nominal icons of U.S. fascism as the FBI and the > CIA. While he has appointed a disingenuous right-wing fanatic to the > Supreme Court, and an out-and-out Ku Kluxer as head of the Department of > Justice, the much-bruited total reorganization of the federal government > has yet to begin in earnest and may never happen. > > Furthermore, enormous rallies like the Women's March and last week's > significant Peoples' Climate march take place with hundreds of thousands of > demonstrators cursing the name of Trump--while White House staffers gather > in the open door of the mansion and look on--and yet nothing happens to the > protesters apart from a few right-wingers calling them "morons." >
[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Re: Fwd: Neofascism in the White House? | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * A comment from the always interesting Farans Kalosar: Gleichschaltung has to be understood as the second phase of a two-step Nazification process, the first stage being the machetergreifung or machtuebernahme, the capture or takeover of power. The sequence of events in culminating with Hitler's appointment as Chancellor on January 30, 1933 was the first stage. What led up to that was a complex series of opportunistic maneuvers within the legal limitations of the Weimar constitution, which amounted to a hollowing out or neutralization from within of the rules and rituals of bourgeois parliamentary government. This was accompanied by a buildup of coercive forces under the banner of the Party and the expansion of military-style organization to every corner and aspect of life in the Reich. Despite a long history of preparation for power, the bringing into line of the German state and people through an aggressive program of organization, regimentation, and legal repression can be seen as beginning in earnest with the Enabling Act of March 28, 1933, which established the formal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. This process of organization and reorganization would continue for twelve years and would involve a continuous doubling down on the most extreme outrageous positions and practices of the Nazis, leading eventually to the Final Solution and the total defeat of the German armed forces in 1945. You could allege that the current regime in Washington completed the seizure of power in January 2017 and that the bringing into line is now under way. But in fact, there are few signs of anything really analogous to the rise to and consolidation of power by Hitler. Where the Nazis--while defiantly incoherent intellectually--were utterly on point when it came to organization (albeit with a multitude of mutually hostile fiefdoms), Donald Trump is chaotic and almost deliberately inconsistent. Indeed, Trump appears to be making no more practical use of his majorities in congress than Barack Obama did when first elected. Where everything in the Nazi state aimed to mobilize the German masses toward the goals of the State, Trumpism seeks to put the masses to sleep. The message from the chaotic and wildly undisciplined Trump isn't "join us and we will conquer the world." It's "Relax: you've elected the right guy and he will take care of everything." Trump's icons are the wildly eccentric and unclubbable Kid Rock and Alex Jones, not Himmler or Goebbels. He has no SS, no SA, and his rallies--so far--are merely intended to stimulate passive approval of his actions and improve his standing in the polls. His White House is a chaos of impulsive appointments and firings where the only consistency is supplied by the members of Trump's own family. Indeed, Trump appears bewildered by the very powerful authoritarian machinery bequeathed to every American president since Roosevelt, and even to be at war with such nominal icons of U.S. fascism as the FBI and the CIA. While he has appointed a disingenuous right-wing fanatic to the Supreme Court, and an out-and-out Ku Kluxer as head of the Department of Justice, the much-bruited total reorganization of the federal government has yet to begin in earnest and may never happen. Furthermore, enormous rallies like the Women's March and last week's significant Peoples' Climate march take place with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators cursing the name of Trump--while White House staffers gather in the open door of the mansion and look on--and yet nothing happens to the protesters apart from a few right-wingers calling them "morons." I do not disagree that the present situation is only transitional and is very dangerous. We can't assume that Trump will remain, as he appears so far to have been, largely a paper tiger--or at least, someone whose governance in the long run will not differ much from what we would have seen under Hillary Clinton. But the problem with wielding the "fascist" swear-word is not that Trumpism is less dangerous to the peoples of the world than fascism, but rather that it may be significantly different but even more dangerous, causing us to look in vain for the wrong enemy and ignoring the one that is under our noses. Indeed, fascism itself is by no means synonymous--as American liberals always try to assume--with the Final Solution. It includes such relatively mild infractions as hauling your enemies into a police station, dosing them with castor oil, and literally beating the crap out of them with rubber hoses--or merely, like the fascist Putin, ordering a relatively small number of
