President Donald Trump, his patron Elon Musk, and the MAGA regime have ushered in more overt Fascist policies and practices since taking power again earlier this year. Their hostility toward racialized populations, trans people, and immigrants, and many others is obvious and undeniable. It’s easy to identify them as Fascists due to their philosophies and how those are implemented and enforced in policies and practices, along with their sometimes blatant usage of Nazi and Fascist symbology.
But how did we get here? Did the US really go from not-Fascist to Fascist on the basis of an election? If so, do we truly have a robust democracy, since Fascists can just get themselves voted into power?
What We Can Learn From History
We can consult history to inform ourselves about people, places, and events that have impacts on our present problems and conditions. But we must be careful in the US, because we are fed narratives about the past and present – in the classroom, in the media, in our workplaces, and even in churches – that are designed to make us fear any other system or philosophy outside of Capitalism, and the philosophical school of Idealism that it is rooted in. This is because the very wealthy ruling class doesn’t want this country or humanity to progress to a more democratic system in which they’d lose their power to leech off of the rest of us.
In order to correctly understand a problem, we must be willing to acknowledge when we have acted on incorrect information, propaganda, or systemic behavioral conditioning. We must look at things as they actually are, not as we wish they were, and behave accordingly. Magical thinking is not a solution to our problems. So it’s important not to make excuses for the powerful as we examine their actions.
Let’s take a look at some of the history of Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden, who was elected in 2020 on the premise that he would stop the Fascism from Trump’s first term in office.
Joe Biden in the 1970s
Senator Joe Biden worked closely with segregationists, including Dixiecrats like Senator Strom Thurmond, Senator James Eastland, and Senator John Stennis. In fact, he gave a eulogy for Thurmond, and is on record calling him one of his closest friends.
He was hostile towards busing as a method to desegregate schools, and toward integration itself. He stated on the record during senate hearings that he feared his children growing up in “a racial jungle” if Black kids were bussed into schools with white kids. “Jungle” was being used as a dogwhistle here in a country that has been dehumanizing people of African origin by forcibly bringing them here as slaves, breeding them like livestock on slave farms, especially after the outlawing of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, abruptly ending Reconstruction after the abolishment of slavery (except as a punishment for crimes – a handy loophole for racists), creating ghettos to segregate Blacks and Whites, and the destruction of any Black cities and enclaves that managed economic success in spite of the US apartheid system. Biden knew this history, but he still said and did the things he did anyway – proudly.
Democrats/Liberals who stan Biden: if he were a Republican who had done these things, would you look at him the same way?
Joe Biden in the 1980s
Do you remember Joe Biden running for president in the 1988 election, and why he dropped out? He was deceitful, admitting to plagiarizing other people’s words as his own, and to failing to properly cite sources during law school, but claimed that there was no malevolence in his actions, so he should be forgiven.
This video is on a channel for GOP supporters, but don’t take that as an endorsement from this site – the archival footage is from PBS NewsHour from September of 1987:
If you worked for a boss who stole your work and presented it as his own, would you respect him? Would you think he was qualified to lead you and your co-workers due to his superior skills?
Joe Biden in the 1990s
Senator Joe Biden and Strom Thurmond worked together on the 1991 Biden-Thurmond Violent Crime Control Act of 1991. Biden bragged about it. Think about what you already know about these two men, and their history, and who do you think they would want to see as primary targets for incarceration and the death penalty.
The 1994 Crime Bill is responsible for mass incarceration of (primarily non-white) people who are used for their slave labor – thanks to the aforementioned loophole in the 13th Amendment. While Joe Biden acknowledged his contributions to mass incarceration, he continued to support similar policies.
Are you aware that after the forced, undemocratic dissolution of the USSR in 1991, and the shock therapy implemented upon it by US Neocons, Russia wanted to normalize relations with the NATO powers, and even asked to join as an ally and was rebuffed?
Russia decided to nurture its relationship with China instead of with the West, and here’s how Senator Joe Biden reacted . H was so haughty in his dismissing of Russians, Chinese, and Iranians. That is white supremacy fueled thinking. Think about how deeply wrong he was about the direction of history, and the resulting impacts.
Again, if you are a fan of Biden, I ask you – if Joe Biden was a Republican saying these things, would it alter your opinion of him?
Fascism Didn’t Arrive Suddenly In The US
I haven’t covered Biden in the 21st Century, but there are ample examples of his continued racism and xenophobia, along with helping uphold white supremacy, that can be cited. But I’ve been at this article for a few hours now, and I’m hungry.
If you’re unaware of the long history of US racist, xenophobic prejudice, propaganda and practices against “others” – which are ongoing – Biden’s attitude may not strike you as being rooted in hate, because it is common to see Americans with those views. But being common doesn’t mean it isn’t representative of a deeply flawed, dehumanizing worldview – because that’s exactly what it is.
Joe Biden isn’t the only example of this, but as he is the most recently preceding POTUS, many Americans are using him as a metric to measure Donald Trump by, and if people only allow their idealized concepts of him – the POTUS they wanted him to be and wished that he was – then they are not measuring or evaluating material reality correctly. This leads to incorrect assumptions and resulting actions.
If we as a society want to effectively fight Fascism, we must be willing to challenge the existing system – and understand why it cannot be reformed into justice. Learning history is key to these efforts, because the history narrative of the Capitalist Ruling Class is fraudulent, so our understanding of how things work is flawed.
If you want to look back at other past US Presidents and the role they’ve played in upholding apartheid and Fascism – I highly recommend Margaret Kimberley’s book Prejudential.
Shifting from the US/Eurocentric/Capitalist frame of reference, which is rooted in settler-colonialism and the philosophical school of Idealism, and learning to use Dialectical and Historical Materialism philosophy, applying a class conscious frame of reference instead, has helped me not only politically, but on a personal level, because as it turns out, a lot of my personal trauma is rooted in the consequences of people living in an Idealist society that uses magical thinking, cognitive dissonance, cognitive biases, and outright lies to deal with its problems. It’s all connected.
Being honest with ourselves about history and the role Capitalist-serving politicians play in it is vital to any efforts we want to make to improve our lives. I hope that you will join me in the truth and reconciliation movement that aims to correct the historical record and help keep the ongoing recording of it credible.
It’s vital that we investigate history for ourselves if we are to correctly understand what led us to the present, and how to proceed forward in a way that does not repeat past historical atrocities. We need leaders who are willing to do this and be honest about the history of the US, in terms of both domestic and foreign policies. Otherwise, we are unwitting pawns of the Capitalist Ruling Class, who have demonstrated that they will utilize any means necessary to maintain their control over power and wealth. Becoming informed yourself, and sharing what you learn with others is a revolutionary act, particularly when this information is being hidden and silenced. Please consider sharing this article with your circles. Thanks!
