The lesson of the 1930's is that democracy is precious (and fragile).

[Soph0571]

Graphic mine

As Mason points out in this article (link below) the authoritarian strong men the world over is using the pandemic to seize further control of their societies. And from Belarus to Hungary to Russia to the USA they are all feeding off each other, emboldened by this time we are living through – and creating a real danger for western democracy for the first time since WW2. This week in the USA there were storm troopers on the streets, the post office is being destroyed from within to undermine postal voting in the election, the president suggests that the election may be delayed and even if it is not delayed he will not accept the results, and if they try and make him accept the results then he will sue. As Mason says:

...both in Germany and Italy fascism was prepared by authoritarians who worked overtime to erode people’s belief in democracy. Amid an economic crisis, and with the state unable to guarantee people’s physical security, the prestige of democratic institutions evaporated.

Mussolini wrote in 1921 that "democracy is dying in every country in the world... new aristocracies are rising: now that it has been shown that the masses cannot be the protagonists of history, but only its instruments" (Opera Omnia, Vol 18).

[link:https://www.newstatesman.com/international/2020/07/why-actions-authoritarian-leaders-are-urgent-political-issue-uk|] Emphasis mine

There is a fascist in the WH actively working to erode peoples trust in the democratic process. So very very 1930's. At this point it is not enough for them to gerrymander, to suppress the vote by whatever means they can – at this point they are undermining the very fabric of the election system to cling to a white authoritarian power that does not belong to them post November, because despite what they are trying to pull the US is still a democracy and just cause a nazi conned and lied his way to the highest office in the land does not mean he gets to con and lie his way to staying there after the nation gives him an electoral spanking (fingers crossed). And if he refuses to go then come January, they need to go arrest him and throw his arse in prison for high crimes and misdemeanours against the very democratic institutions that form the American experiment and which he trying to destroy in front of our eyes.

[Hortensis]

1. "Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies,

their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.”

– Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

Exactly what we're living. AG Barr actually arrogantly boasted that last.

The dangerous threats of the 1930s have risen again. Wackjob Trump should never have pointed to her, but even that crazy Dr. Stella with her demon sperm is an outrageous indicator of the anti-reason, anti-science, mystical thinking attractive to millions of those drawn to fascist leaders and their lies. Merely a different manifestation of the far-right claim that the Covid pandemic is fake and a LW plot to destroy America's sacred freedoms.

“When Fascism came into power, most people were unprepared, both theoretically and practically. They were unable to believe that man could exhibit such propensities for evil, such lust for power, such disregard for the rights of the weak, or such yearning for submission. Only a few had been aware of the rumbling of the volcano preceding the outbreak.”
– Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom

Perhaps we should thank Trump for being such an incompetent wannabe fascist. Before Trump, most discussion of the fascism rising on our right was to deny such talk as foolish and ignorant.