To understand where the Trumpers come from, you must factor in America’s real history as well as its fabricated one.
American history as taught to the average working American has always been a Disneyland affair, dating back to 1776, when a progressive and potentially revolutionary document called the Declaration of Independence was signed and delivered to the King George III of England.
The cost of victory, however, was Pyrrhic in nature and became much more limited in scope when protecting the institution of slavery became a priority, + leaving women unable to vote and embracing a policy of brutal expansion that followed. One that required an almost three-hundred-year war (starting 170 years before the formation of America) accompanied by a concerted genocidal policy to be launched against Native American peoples from coast to coast after America’s founding.
Many Early Historical Myths Still Survive
Surely, a young America had God on its side. One that had ordained that owning slaves of color was justified by their inferiority. So the Southern preachers told the masses on Sunday, some even after the Civil War. All media and most text books in schools at one time labeled Native Americans as murderous savages who worshiped false gods and had to be eliminated. Immigrants, that later came by the millions, were not true Christian Americans we were told.
Hollywood was happy to oblige these racial myths in endless “John Wayne” type movies about how the West was won by slaughtering the Indians, not even bothering to cover up the fact that every signed Treaty was broken by the U.S. government. And the Confederacy, to this very day, is still remembered as a noble cause by many Southerners, with Confederate flags still flying outside of homes and some state Capitals in honor of the slave owners.
The masses also read in the papers and heard from many politicians about the evils of left wing and later communist led unions, forcing a 70 year struggle for government recognition.
Despite this century-long-barrage of lies and misinformation, the truth did manage to leak out to many people. But large swathes of Americans were forever scared by this misinformation and still absorb these outright lies to this very day. Leaving us a divided land ever since.
Declining Trade Unionism
There was a period of almost 70 years of militant class struggle by our working class, which finally won wide recognition in the late 1930s during the Great Depression.
Thanks to a shrewd FDR, who managed to both isolate the domestic fascist groups of the 1930s and contain left wing tendencies by making major concessions to a much stronger and better organized union movement.
Many credit FDR with saving capitalist rule from its own worst tendencies. Post WWII was a period where, after FDR’s death, the elites used their Congressional powers and extra-legal methods to defang the unions, repress leftist influence and reassert their cultural dominance. The period was highlighted by the red-baiting McCarthy hearings.
Today, union membership is dramatically lower, wide-spread de-industrialization being one of the main reasons.
Authoritarianism and Belief in God
There is an estimated ten-thousand-year history of civilization dominated by patriarchy and religious exclusivism. Most of us have been taught to be submissive to male authority figures as well as to believe in an imaginary all powerful Supreme Being.
This authoritarian God like figure is believed to be all knowing, one that sees all and knows all. It serves as the ultimate authoritarian figure the masses have been taught to seek, obey and submit to.
These God-like powers have consistently been claimed by dictatorial state leaders, bible belt preachers, and even those who seem far removed from being a religious leader, like Donald Trump. One of the many cult leaders who claimed God like powers or connections was David Koresh. Many of his followers faced death by fire rather than escaping, including Koresh. It’s why some blindly fall victim to a cult, even on the left.
The Left is Not Immune From Cultism
Stalin, Jim Jones and Pol Pot all had cult-like followers. In Jone’s case, some followers committed mass suicide while others were forced to under threats of deadly violence after Jones was thought to have sent assassins to murder a U.S. Congressman. 1
Most cult followers have already been taught to depend on “divine guidance” from God, so when they encounter someone who is charismatic, unscrupulous and here on Earth claiming such powers, it can sometimes be impossible to resist.
And explains why many still follow cult leaders regardless of their despicable, criminal, immoral and selfish acts. Sometimes to their own deaths.
Anti-Democratic Historical Building Blocks of Fascism
- Slavery, Segregation, Jim Crow and White Supremacy
- Genocidal National Theft of Native American Lands
- Decline of Independent and Democratic Trade Unionism
- Patriarchal Heterosexual and Societal Family Structures
- Submissiveness to Authority and an All Powerful God-Figure
- Authoritarian Schools, Institutions and Social Practices
- Violent and Competetive Sports Practices
These building block are far from universally experienced, but include or effect enough current Americans to create a sizable base of support for reactionary and fascist recruitment.
Trump . . . A Third Party That Isn’t
One way Trump support can be understood is as a Congressional and democratic rejection in favor of dictatorship by a large segment of the white population, with many whites desperately believing that a corrupt grifter like Trump, who shares their biases and sounds like one of them, can take them to the promised land. And to be frank, defend their white skin privileges and bring back America to the 1950s.
Approval ratings for Congress are often below 25% and as low as 15%, even lower for Republicans versus Democrats. Neither gets a ringing public endorsement. With some causation of the trend towards fascism stemming from the low esteem many of the masses hold for Congress and democracy as they understand it.
Trump himself is, in essence, a one man third Party that isn’t. One that the Trumpers are willing to vote for as long Trump is its figure head. He has thrown Republicans a poisoned lifeline; they are in danger of collapsing without him.
The Economic “Walmarting” of America
Few politicians have addressed the excessive government influence of the many mega-sized corporations which get tax breaks they don’t need. Taxes have been lowered from 94% (for those over $200,000 in income) just after WWII to 35% today (for income above $357,000); and that’s before the many tax deductions these businesses and corporations often receive.
Many have grown so large today that they can fairly be called monopolies. Which have eliminated millions of small businesses than never had a chance of ever competing with them. Replaced by super large chain stores and expensive franchises that few Americans can afford.
This has indirectly fostered a less obvious source of Trump’s support: a gut level, misdirected hatred of both parties and politics in general. This has been historically a major recruiting area for winning the working and lower middle class over to the fascist cause. The economic “Walmarting of America”, as some call it, has certainly been one contributing factor building reactionary and later Trumpian movements.
More on Franchises
Statistics on small business are deceiving. If you count based on the number of people employed, many more “small” businesses will be counted, as the defined cut off for a small business used is up to 500 employees! Increasing numbers of businesses classified as small are in reality not so small or franchised businesses, the later requiring a huge investment and never actually owed by the franchisee. You sign a franchise contract that is temporary, akin to a lease or rental of a business. It does not signify business ownership by the franchisee.
Republican Goals of 2024: Create Chaos and Crisis, Seize Power
The 2024 goal of the Republican Party is to create chaos and crisis. Enough to overthrow the democratic process by offering dictatorship to restore order. A classic strategy and goal of fascism.
It is believed that Hitler, for example, after the Reichstag (equivalent to our Congress) was destroyed by fire, blamed it on the German Communists. He used it as a pretext to claim that they were plotting against the German government, and induced President Paul von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree suspending civil liberties. Expect the Republicans to try something on this level one day if not stopped, and the January 6th plot leaders are not punished and imprisoned.
They Will try Anything to Gain Power
The Republicans already have achieved partial success and have recruited millions of Americans who agree with their goals. Expect them, if it becomes clear they will lose big in November, to attempt electoral sabotage and spread humongous, Trumpian lies towards creating a Constitutional crisis and arouse the MAGAs to riot and target the polls.
The goal of the Trumpian led Republican Party is to create widespread chaos and crisis before trying to overthrow the democratic process and promising that dictatorship will restore order.
1 - Some believe in Jim Jone’s sincerity when he first formed the People’s Temple but gradually drifted into drugs, hustling and cultism and later moving his operations to Ghana. Others believe he was always a cult type hustler.