Donald Trump: Fascim Can Never Be The Legitimate Outcome Of Democracy

This blog was published in the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/tess-finchlees/fascism-must-never-trump-_b_13135302.html


Yesterday, Barack Obama asked world leaders to give Donald Trump a chance. To do what exactly? Create a Muslim data base? Build a wall to keep Mexicans (some of whom are nice, the rest are thieving rapists) out? Appoint a white supremacist to his cabinet, signalling that black lives don’t matter? Or, Replace workplace equality laws with a “grab a p***y” day?

If it’s possible to become the president of the United (now Divided) States of America by detonating a dirty bomb of bigotry, inciting hatred and civil unrest, we either accept that fanning the flames of fascism is a legitimate means by which to obtain power, or we reject it. There’s no middle ground.

I stand with the principled people of America and internationally who reject the legitimacy of Trump’s presidency. In a growing movement of conscientious objectors to the normalisation of fascism, one of the most powerful admonitions came from a fellow Dubliner, Senator Aodhan O’Riordain. In a speech which has gone viral, he lambasts Trump as “ a monster” and describes what’s happening in Britain as “appalling”.

Post Brexit, a UN report criticised the EU referendum campaign for using divisive, anti-immigrant and xenophobic rhetoric. It read, “Many prominent political figures not only failed to condemn it but also created and entrenched prejudices, thereby emboldening individuals to carry out acts of intimidation and hate towards minority communities”. An EU referendum leaflet was found in the bag of the man accused of Jo Cox’s brutal murder. A man described as a white supremacist obsessed with far right extremism.

Donald Trump’s campaign bore all the hallmarks of Nazi propaganda. The slogan “Make America great again” and the proposed Muslim database, are straight out of Hitler’s handbook. Appointing Steve Bannon, a man accused of misogyny and endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan, as chief strategist, was a gratuitous act of provocation.

Fascism thrived in the wake of the economic depression of the 30’s, preying on fears and pitting communities against each other, competing for dwindling resources. In the wake of a global economic crash now, the far right is invoking the same dangerous tactics.

Capitalism, the illegitimate child of corporate greed and de-regulation, has made a mockery of democracy. There is nothing free about the markets. Corporate giants, with their ubiquitous lobbies buy government policies favourable to their survival. Eroding competition, democracy, human rights and environmental protections in the process.

Rather than admit that unrestrained capitalism has failed, and unable to extol any discernible benefits for the masses, Trump, like neoliberal proponents in the UK and elsewhere, seek instead to divert public rage against those they perceive to be “other”. Lack of jobs, school places and affordable housing is blamed on immigrants, rather than a bankrupt ideology that starves public services of investment and siphons public funds into the pockets of the rich.

Bernie Saunders’ authentic socialist convictions would, I believe, have spoken to the 15 million disaffected families living in poverty in the US and inspired more people to vote for him. There can be no doubt however that, of the two presidential candidates, only one was qualified for the job. Instead, the richest man, bereft of any credentials, snatched it from the abundantly more qualified woman, Hilary Clinton.

One thing is clear, the electorate is fed up of “centrists” who sit on the fence, hedging their bets. People are angry and demand change. Fielding insipid candidates and policies that fail to get people off their sofas to vote is a losing formula.

We need a strong left, unashamed in its defence of immigration, for example. Instead of pandering to the far right, the left should be expounding the virtues of immigration and the fact that an increase of immigrants by just 3% in the workforce of wealthy countries would boost world GDP by $356 billion by 2025. Immigrants didn’t cause the financial crash but we need them (of whom I’m one) to recover from it.

In the UK at least, there’s a vibrant resurgence of the left underway, driven by grass roots movements, like Momentum, inspired by Jeremy Corbyn’s socialist policies. Predicated on fairness, social justice, redistribution of wealth and equality, as opposed to self-aggrandisement, hate and fear.

But, for democracy to function and for the left to succeed in providing a healthy alternative narrative, we need a progressive, responsible media. Where are the regular forthright left wing commentators to counter the ubiquitous right wing goaders such as Katie Hopkins and Toby Young?

Last Friday I watched the BBCs Have I Got News For You.  A misogynist, xenophobic, racist had just been elected president of America. Yet, the most senior, accomplished, black female politician in Britain, Diane Abbott, was mocked for the way she speaks.

Trump and Brexit have dragged political debate into the gutter. The wounds inflicted will linger long after the stench of flatulent rhetoric has dissipated into the choke damp ether.

Now is not the time to hide in a bunker. If something’s worth fighting for, be it the NHS, libraries, equality, or multi-culturalism, get out and fight for it. It’ll take more than armchair activism to salvage any hope from this wreckage.

Trump has already made the world a lesser place

"You can't vote for Trump!" protested my 8 year old in response to his friends expressed wish to do just that. "Why not?" she retorted. Having explained that you have to live in America, he added, "...and anyway he hates girls and foreigners, which basically means, he hates you". Outraged, the 8 year old girl said she definitely wouldn't vote for Trump, even if she lived in America (& was old enough...).

They agreed that there was no danger of him becoming president though, followed by a joint, "phew". Why not? I asked them. "Who would vote for someone who hates girls and foreigners," replied my 8 year old, rolling his eyes with an implied "duh".

I hope they're right, but then I never thought I'd wake up to a Brexit Britain. If xenophobia and hatred can win here, anything can happen.

Who knows what kind of hell awaits us in the morning...

I don't buy the poppy propaganda. I won't be wearing one on my lapel

Once in a while someone says something that I wanted to say and does it so eloquently and rigorously, covering all the bases, that there’s nothing left for me to add. Robert Fisk did that yesterday in his article about poppies being the symbol of racism. I had worked on a similar piece for a week but wasn’t brave enough to press the send button. Like Fisk, The poppy on the lapel has always made me feel uncomfortable. I have never worn one & I never will. So much betrayal, hypocrisy, incompetence and deception, packaged up & marketed as something so sanitised & simplistic, it feels sinister. Never more so than in xenophobic, Brexit Britain.  

As Fisk so powerfully put it:

The Entente Cordiale which sent my father to France is now trash beneath the high heels of Theresa May – yet this wretched woman dares to wear a poppy.

When Poles fought and died alongside British pilots in the 1940 Battle of Britain to save us from Nazi Germany, we idolised them, lionised them, wrote about their exploits in the RAF, filmed them, fell in love with them. For them, too, we pretend to wear the poppy. But now the poppy wearers want to throw the children of those brave men out of Britain. Shame is the only word I can find to describe our betrayal.

That’s a hard act to follow, so I’ll keep my powder dry for another day. I give way to the unapologetic, angry, truth exposed by the magnificent Robert Fisk. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/poppy-symbol-of-racism-never-worn-one-never-will-robert-fisk-remembrance-day-first-world-war-second-a7394976.html