Trumpism is hardly dead yet in this country, and is being kept on life-support by far-right extremists in other countries who find its "principles" useful.

 

I find it difficult to understand how anyone with a sense of proportion or morality can find at all acceptable the flagrant abuses to simple human decency posed by Trumpism, whether we define it as fascism or some other form of reactionary extremism. Those on the political right who willingly line-up behind this seem to believe that their beliefs are the only ones that have any validity and no one has the “right” to believe anything else.  We can see the results of such beliefs at their worst in North Korea, where recently two teenagers were publicly executed for being in possession of, and watching, South Korean television shows. 

We see this kind of intolerance to basic human rights happening all over the world, with unhinged dictatorial movements emerging even in allegedly solidly democratic states. German police have just completed a massive raid throughout the country, arresting members of a far-right extremist group called the Reichsbuerger—“Citizens of the Reich,” with the intention, according the English-language German news outlet DW,

…to storm the parliament in Berlin (the Reichstag) and to attack the country's power supply, and to depose the federal government in order to then take power. There were even plans for certain individuals to take over important ministerial posts for the moment of the "takeover." According to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, there were plans to form a transitional government that would negotiate the new state order in Germany with the Allied victorious powers of World War II — first and foremost with the Russian Federation.

Over the years, the Reichsbuerger, which it is believed to have over 20,000 members, engaged in acts of violence (including killing police), mass protests of government policies, and the illegal stockpiling of arms. Among the arrested was Heinrich XIII, the hereditary pretender of a former principality that was absorbed into the German Empire, and who reportedly was to be the head of the new “reich”: 

 

The Russian embassy in Germany claimed ignorance about the activities of the group's terrorist activities, but one of the arrested was a Russian woman who was reported to be the group’s contact with Russian government entities; we of course are familiar with Russia's proclivities in undermining democratic processes during the 2016 election in this country, so why would Germany be an exception?

Meanwhile, there are those speculating about the intentions of Italy's new prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, accused by most to have fascist inclinations, and her support is particularly strong from people like this:

 

Foreign Policy notes that her governing cabinet is far from filled with the "moderates" she promised, and that

Meloni has bought in a group of flagrant, truly terrifying right-wing hard-liners, surfaced from the very bottom of the political barrel. Alongside a smattering of Berlusconi-era figures, mired in financial scandals and conflicts of interest, the new administration includes those nostalgic for the fascist years and weaned in far-right youth camps; the children of former Mussolini lieutenants; and militants who engaged in violent campaigns against the left for two decades during the bloody Years of Lead.

For those of a “religious” bent, the Taliban has apparently not learned any lessons about “moderation” or made any effort to assuage concerns about its behavior. Sharia law is now in full force in Afghanistan, with “eye for an eye” justice and punishment for any “crime” against their “interpretation” of what the Koran says. Women are again banned from schools, workplaces and even amusement parks. We can probably expect that in time there will be tribal units banding together to oppose Taliban rule, and of course we will arm them, and this thing will start all over again.

There are those who will blame Joe Biden for this, but we should put the blame where it belongs: Donald Trump, who probably “empathized” with the Taliban’s dictatorial impulses (just like he does that of Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orban), and allowed the Taliban to quietly overrun Afghanistan in "secret" and unhindered by U.S. military countermeasures so long as the Taliban agreed not to attack U.S. forces.

We shouldn’t be all that surprised by any of this. I mean, why be hypocrites? Trump recently posted on his “Truth Social” website

Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great Founders did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!

What the hell is this supposed to mean? After some blowback even from a few Republicans who nonetheless insisted they would still support him if he was the 2024 presidential nominee, Trump is now claiming that he didn’t actually “mean” the overthrow of constitutional government, but we know what he means, don’t we? Even some of his supporters pretend that they don’t really understand what he means, but whatever it is it sounds like a “good” idea to them, then it must be. 

Today, being “patriotic” means devolving the country into a white nationalist dictatorship rather than safeguarding the principles its founders actually stood for. There seems to be no realization of the consequences of giving in to the whims of a sociopathic narcissist like Trump, nor an understanding the meaning of living under a quasi-authoritarian state, such as the loss of even of the right to own their precious guns if it threatens the existence of the "state."

Of course that won’t ever happen in this country, right? Election conspiracies, Republican election officials refusing to certify election results, January 6-type insurrections—just let the blowhards blow and let the courts uphold the rule of law, right? Well, just let’s not be too sanguine about that: the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case in which it is being demanded that the courts should be stripped of the power of ruling on election issues, and state legislators (meaning Republican) will have the sole right to determine the validity of election results they do not like.

What could possibly go wrong with that? We see what could happen in Brazil today. No, Jair Bolsonaro has not only not conceded his election defeat, but has not called upon his supporters to refrain from political violence throughout the country in the belief that the election was “stolen.” Bolsonaro has a “plan” to overturn the election results that will give him “victory” without even bothering with a recount: his advisers have told him that if the counts from certain voting machines are invalidated, then he will get the majority of votes from the machines still “approved."

What is this about? Apparently some older voting machines were “belatedly” discovered to have a “bug” that prevented the input of a machine’s own identification number, but this issues have been declared a non-starter because the machines still identified the location and voting district they were used in. Meanwhile,  Bolsonaro has rescinded his claim that he will “respect the constitution” and redoubled on claims of election fraud. 

Interestingly, Bolsonaro and his supporters have been unresponsive to queries about why the voting results in the first round of elections that gave his party a majority in the national legislature have not similarly been questioned given that the same voting machines were used. Again, for fascists drunk on power, election results are only "valid" if they "win."

The French English-language news outlet RFI is reporting today that Trumpian tactics designed to undermine democracy is happening all over the world. While Elon Musk is being accused of allowing far-right hate speech to proliferate on Twitter after accusing Twitter of having previously been used to facilitate the election of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva over Bolsonaro, RFI notes that

A tsunami of falsehoods flooded Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube -- from "deep fake" videos to doctored photos seeking to manipulate voters -- with pro-democracy activists accusing the platforms of doing too little to combat the menace.

Those who have used these and other methods to promote election fraud conspiracies—only to suddenly claim there was no “problem” when they won--include elections in Israel, where Benjamin Netanyahu (he’s still around?) engaged in a “stop the steal” campaign, and in Hungary where Orban retained power in April after a campaign rife with disinformation; Orban is close to Putin as well as Trump (who invited him to speak at a CPAC meeting), and is making threats to oppose NATO expansion as the EU is struggling to find a way to “persuade” Orban to accept the principles of a democratic state that all member countries are supposed to abide by. Orban even accuses his opponents of supporting military aid to Ukraine—which begs the question of why Hungary is even a part of NATO at all, save for its “strategic” location.

Other countries where democracy is under threat by Trumpian tactics is the Philippines, Kenya and Nigeria. In the recent election in the Philippines, which saw the return to power of the House of Marcos in the form of Ferdinand Marcos’ son Bongbong (yeah, you read that right) Marcos, The New Yorker noted that

As Jonathan Corpus Ong, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who has studied disinformation networks in the Philippines, wrote “For too long, progressives have taken for granted that facts in themselves are sufficient. In the case of the Philippines, the liberal weapons of historical accuracy and fact-checking are simply no match for Marcos’ creative folklore, turbocharged by social media fan culture and relatable influencers.”

That is the challenge that democracy around the world faces today. The crimes and corruption committed by the Marcos family past and present were irrelevant to most voters, only 27 percent  of whom voted for his challenger for the presidency. In the U.S., even those Republicans who claim they do not support Trump’s conspiracies, nonetheless many would still allow him to undermine democracy if it means maintaining power, no matter the method. 

The truth must be suppressed or “re-interpreted”—because an ignorant and uninformed electorate is easily manipulated when they live in a world where “reality” is whatever they wish it to be, not what the facts say it is.  Whatever the result of their blindness, everyone will pay the consequences, including the willfully ignorant.