I have been attempting to write this for some time. The hardest thing isn’t actually putting thoughts to paper, it’s trying to keep up with the runaway circus.
If you have read my little bio for my blog here, or know me, I have no background in law (as in attorney, paralegal, etc.), but between the civics and government classes in primary and secondary schooling, along with courses in Constitutional Law, and Supreme Court (or lower federal courts) decisions that set some form of legal precedent in regards law enforcement, I have what I think to be a passing knowledge of our founding document.
On top of this, several times over my military career, and the different police departments I worked for, I had to swear an oath. The backbone of that oath, which is the same for any oath of office in our nation is that you will protect The Constitution. Everything after that is reinforcing this principle. Not a political party. Not a Dear Leader. A nearly unprecedented piece of writing that set forth the way a nation ought be run.
The clown car of executive office and its administration that has been in charge for approximately 60 some days now, is very many senses of the phrase, a domestic threat to that document.
Shortly before the election, I penned something that I cannot say was prophetic in any sense of that word, as it was pretty apparent what was going to come if a particular candidate for president did win. Even so, on the day after when the official decision of the winner of that race was announced, I wrote again, stating that I hoped that my anxiety and fear over what would happen would not come to pass, and the better parts of the thoughts, ideas and plans the incoming executive office would have chances to come to fruition.
Alas, anything that I might have given positive acknowledgment to has been utterly swept away in the Constitutional crisis that a sitting president, along with his lackeys, toadies and sycophants have managed to wreak upon this nation. We are talking billionaire business people, golf buddies, and people who had some form of power or sway during/after the first instance of ridiculousness drank the Kool-Aid, and not only survived the poison, but caught the same delusions.
Now I have heard many people equate all of this fanaticism and mania with fascism. What is missing though (at least for the moment) are two things that would make that claim true. Violence as a political tool. While we have seen that this is in the toolbox (think January 6th, 2020), it has not yet manifested. Violence is so much a part of fascism that one cannot claim to be fascist without the absolute belief that violence is not just a means to an end politically but is an end in and of itself.
The second thing missing is the dictatorial element. For all of the faults this current executive branch administrators and the billionaires pulling the strings a dictatorship is not (again, at least not at the moment) a desired outcome. Instead it is an authoritarian rule – where one person is the mouthpiece, and “face” of government, but this one person does not have absolute power, it is instead input is accepted and considered (though it must conform to the whim of the day).
“Modern populism is rooted in a radical desire to repackage fascist traditions by moving away from dictatorial nationalism.” – Frederico Finchelstein (please note, this is not the exact quote from one of Mr. Finchelstein’s publications, but a paraphrasing, that I hope stays true to the essence and idea of what he was hoping to share with his words).
Below is a list of the common aspects of a populist government
Common aspects of Populism
1. An attachment to an authoritarian, anti-liberal, electoral democracy that generally eschews a dictatorial form of governance.
2. An extreme form of religion in politics (the Dominionist element of Evangelical Christianity)
3. A political theology that has centers around a charismatic, almost messianic, leader of the people. (The same people who cheered on a particular politician directly comparing himself to Christ, are the same sort of folks who decried John Lennon comparing the popularity of The Beatles against Christiandom.)
4. A prophetic or apocalyptic view of electoral victories as the will of the people made manifest (and/or as a sign of divine acknowledgment).
5. Radical nationalism
6. The political leader is a personification of the people.
7. The movement is identified as the people, and the movement’s leaders as true representatives of the people.
8. A weak understanding of the rule of law and of the separation of powers. (The absolute steamroll of Congress, and the defiance of the judiciary)
9. Descriptions of political antagonists as anti-people – enemies of the people, and therefore traitors to the nation.
10. A claim that the movement is anti-political (a means of eliminating politics as usual, not removing politics as a whole). (Drain the Swamp anyone)
11. Pronouncements and speech are made as the voice of the people and targeted against those positioned as the ruling elite (which shall not be confused with the current ruling class)
12. The party/government represents true democracy, and as the antithesis against real or imagined dictatorship/tyranny (deep state, globalization, military coups).
13. Homogenizing the people into a single entity and equating electoral majorities as true representations of the voice of the people
14. A deep antagonism of, or aversion to independent journalism, and disdain for questioning or analyzing the movement/the leader and their actions. (Locking out, barring, and dismissing journalists and/or news organization that ask tough questions, provide counter points to current policy, and dispense facts without spin or bias – granted there are very few news organizations, let alone journalists who do not place some slant to what they report to sway you toward a particular conclusion, instead of just providing facts as they are known at a particular time, and allowing the reader/viewer to decide for themselves)
15. An extreme dislike for pluralism or political tolerance. (The rabid and mind-boggling mad dash to destroy any reference to any person who is not male, and white and contributed to the struggles and/or betterment of our nation).
16. A stress upon popular culture as the embodiment of national traditions & values. (This may be a little difficult for some to grasp, but the banning of performances from the Kenedy Center because they run counter to the political dogma fits this because those performances do not fit with the narrative of what are the “traditions & values” being foisted upon everyone by the Representative of the People and underlings.)
17. An aversion to violence as a political tool (possibly more so in words than in actual actions to prevent such violence).
I am well aware that I have stepped upon a landmine, and when it goes off, it will potentially destroy a lot of relationships. Sadly, that is what this tribalism of society, this politics of extremes has rendered – an almost wholesale disregard of a person as being a living, breathing, thinking individual with feelings of their own. Instead, years, even decades of friendship, and lifetimes of blood and/or marital ties are putting most people into us v them camps. While this saddens me, I cannot allow myself to be labeled as remaining silent to the utter disregard of The Constitution, as this new March to the Sea destroys far more than the city of Atlanta.
If any in the executive branch wish to redeem themselves, they need to stop blindly following orders (that defensive argument didn’t work for Lt. Calley, nor for the defendants at Nuremberg), and begin to resume their duties as per the oaths of office that they swore, in which they vowed to protect The Constitution from all enemies, Foreign and Dometic.
I may rue this next statement, but were I to not place it here, I would be better to not write and post this at all. Comments, questions, etc. are welcomed, though I also, as usual, request civil discourse and rational debate.