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ABSTRACT:
7 Ways We Can Fight Back Against the Rising Fascist Threat
By Sara Robinson, Campaign for America’s Future
http://www.alternet.org/story/141929/
Writing about fascism for Americans is a fraught business. A third of the readers dismiss the topic (and the blogger’s sanity); they’ve got their own definition, or anyone who invokes the F-word is a de facto alarmist of questionable credibility.
Another third dismiss it because America has been fascist since (choose one:) 1) 9/11; 2) Reagan; 3) McCarthy; 4) the Civil War; 5) July 4, 1776. For them, careful analysis and worried warnings are dangerously naive.
The final third engage in thoughtful discussion, including what must be done.
The most insidious part of fascism is that when it’s obvious to everyone that these people are dangerously out of control, it’s too late to do anything about it. Early warnings are the business of futurists. We can still change our minds, and spend our future elsewhere, but we are now actively choosing, whether aware of it or not. Things are happening now that set a course we may be unable to alter.
How do we turn back? A few basic principles:
First: Teabaggers must not win. When a bully learns that intimidation and threats work, he does more of it. The longer he goes without penalty, the worse he gets and the harder it is to stop him. Do nothing, and he takes over.
It only takes a handful of thugs to terrorize people into giving up civil rights, abandoning democracy and doing what they’re told. The main imperative becomes staying off the goons’ radar. All enforcers need do is make a horrific example out of “troublemakers” now and then to keep everybody else in line.
With a colossal conservative investment in organizing and directing teabaggers, we’d be stupid to believe that this will go away when Congress returns in September. Having had a taste of power and publicity, these newly empowered mobs are likely to stick around and see what else they can muck up.
Our choice is stark: knock them back while they’re new, small and not yet entrenched; or later when they have real power to fight, and the cost is higher.
Second: Think nationally, fight locally. Conservatives run this fight as a national campaign, but the terror that fuels fascism is always intensely, intimately local. Fascist goon squads recruit from the neighborhood, built on people we know. Since that’s where they start, that’s where they have to be stopped. This is why all the best tactics involve community-level action. Anybody who sits this one out because they assume that folks in D.C. will handle it shouldn’t be surprised when they get “special treatment” from longtime neighbors, or discover their car vandalized.
That’s the next baby step from where we are now; and in some places, it’s already happening. Winning means getting out and defending community standards and boundaries while they’re still there to be defended.
Third: Use nonviolent resistance — leave heavy lifting and rough enforcement to police. The only way to stop a bully is to stand up to them, but that doesn’t involve eye-for-an-eye. If we meet thuggery with thuggery, we lose, because they’re better at, and enjoy it. The right wing is looking hard to make a case that they’re innocent victims of the “left”. The Nazis used this kind of victim-blaming to tremendous effect as they built up their party. We must not give our proto-brownshirts any basis to make the same kind of argument.
It’s about the moral high ground. Our choices must be consistent with our values. Standing up for health care reform is important; but before that, we need to stand up for civil discourse and free speech. We’re defending the rule of law; our best tactic is to use the law. When people from either side cross the line, it’s time for police and prosecutors to assert that bullying people in a public meeting (or anywhere else) is illegal and will not be tolerated.
Fourth: Make sure media gets the story right. Teabaggers run out of power if the media turns off their cameras, but this nefariously incited drama is a real ratings-booster. Left alone, the media (local news in particular) turn these hate and fear mongers into cultural heroes. The best cure for bad speech is good speech: documented, on YouTube, blogged, spread widely; a coordinated rapid-response letterwriting to local papers; and keeping local reporters well-fed with news of concerned nonpartisan citizens working to keep control of democratic discourse in the face of organized thugs trying to suppress it. Since the media are watching, make sure they see it all.
Fifth: Support legislators who don’t show fear. The Democratic leadership knows that these noisy, scary people don’t represent the 73 percent of Americans who support health care reform. The GOP runs the risk of being marginalized as the Party of No, and the Party of Moonbat Crazy. If you’ve never attended a public meeting, August 2009 is the month to start. Your congressperson’s Web site probably lists his or her schedule, or a number to call to inquire.
That’s a first step. Do more. Write. Call. Find out where your local congressional office is, and drop by. Tell staff how you feel about health care reform, teabaggers, your legislator’s courage. If they’re stressed, encourage them. A constituent in the office counts. One visit or call is good. More is better. Contact your representatives at least once a week to support their public service.
Sixth: Shut down the hate talkers. Teabaggers come straight out of right-wing talk-radio audiences, mainlining raw emotion and toxic misinformation: “death panels!” “kill your granny!” “Join the “resistance!” Cut off this endless torrent of lies and fearmongering to power down the whole movement. Basic recipe:
- Record their shows.
- Note anything intimidating, threatening, or aimed at inciting violence against a named target.
- Note every advertiser.
- Write a polite letter to the CEOs of sponsors, toss in choice quotes and ask if they want their product identified with them. This works extremely well — and quickly — at local and national levels.
Finally: Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Conservatives invest a lot of money and effort to build a mass movement aimed at destroying democratic government — and they’re not going to let up as long as Democrats are in control. This is our new reality — and it comes straight out of Chapter 6 of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. They intend to keep the outrage junkies high with never-ending, made-up reasons to act out. Which means that even if we win this round, we must push back against the bullies, over and over, for the next three to seven years.
There are only two outcomes: get very good at spotting and stopping these attempts at a brownshirt takeover the minute they crop up; or they get very good at public intimidation and keep ratcheting it up toward violence and goon rule.
That’s how it’s going to be for the rest of this administration. The sooner we resign ourselves to the zero-sum nature of this fight, the sooner we can get on with getting good at it.
Sara Robinson is a fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future and a consulting partner with the Cognitive Policy Works in Seattle. One of the few trained social futurists in North America, she has blogged on authoritarian and extremist movements at Orcinus since 2006, and is a founding member of Group News Blog.
Read the full story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/141929/
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