Everyone of us must, in any way we are capable of, do more. Talk, preach, nag, and do whatever is necessary to get people to listen and to understand what's at stake here.

The few Republicans I know don't want to live in a fascist country. But, for some reason beyond my understanding, they just don't see that that's where their party is going.

preaching, and nagging to listen.

I'm trying to do anything we can to stop a fascist takeover of our country.

Unfortunately, we don't have the vast propaganda machine that the Republicans spent decades building. We can't match them in this, so what are we supposed to do? Surrender? -- No fucking way. It's up to all of us to speak, write, and even paint it on building walls. The Republican Party is a fascist crime organization that is trying to own us all.

And has been for some time.

that's about all you can do. Her vote will have the same impact as yours or mine.

I hear ya totally - any one of them will doom us to a future featuring God, Guns, and Greenhouse Gas.
Perhaps your friend has a family member or other friend who is a republican? Trump's a very convenient scapegoat. Yeah, beware the never-Trumpers who turn around and say DeSantis is a viable choice, or defends corrupt SCOTUS.
Sadly I've lost touch with family members who just don't get it, exactly as you describe. I just can't sit there and "not talk about it". So I avoid them completely.

You don't. "Trumpism" is a cult. Most of the adult members of my family are magats. And anything tfg and the Repubs spew is gospel to them. It's beyond my comprehension....

All are potential petty tyrants, looking to steal for themselves. Because that's what labor camps are about. They steal your labor, and you're detained so they can clean out your home and bank assets. You're unaware. And once they get to that point, they won't ever let you loose to find out or accuse them. That's what small town Nazism did.

You can see that being legalized now where red states have empowered Republicans to sue people in civil court for things that don't like.

If she wants to see the big picture, have her watch Shiny Happy People on Amazon Prime.

(So long as she's not an evangelical)

and the scariest part is that ALERT military training camps and how they are encouraging to have tons of kids to take over society. And all of them running in elections in the red states and winning with their crazy cult ideas.

And the guy who started the ideas grooming and assaulting young girls.

Just f**king sickening!!

And how after all of the truth comes out Josh's wife stays with him because she is brainwashed that it would be a sin to leave. How the minstry is still thriving and the military school still happening.

I wondered how Trump got so many crazy people stirred up and it looks like they were waiting to have someone let them out in public.

away from it happening 3 years ago.

If the rioters got into the House chamber with the Congress, Trump would have declared Martial Law and rejected the election.

stop the certification, take power.

Big stories that end up being nothing, like Santos bail money? People that are not glued to the T V or internet get the big stuff. IMO.

What does your friend think about the Republican Party passing laws to substitute their religious beliefs for medical treatment options, including just counseling, for LGBTQ+?

What does she think about the abortion laws Republicans have passed, in many stats totally outlawing abortion because six weeks is too soon for most women to know they pregnant? Does she believe that untrained state politicians should be deciding women’s healthcare?

How does she feel about Republicans banning books because they teach the horrors of slavery or have black or brown characters or LGBTQ+ characters? Does she agree that partisan politicians should be telling teachers what they can say in classrooms, being forced to remain silent even when curious children ask questions about their classmate having two mommies or two daddies? Controlling what is taught to schoolchildren is how Republicans are trying to change the country from a democracy to a fascist nation. It’s exactly what Hitler did when he first came to power. He banned books and his Nazi Party wrote a new curriculum for all German schoolchildren to indoctrinate them to accept Nazi beliefs and policies as normal. The first people the Nazis targeted for persecution were not the Jews. They were the gay people and those with physical and mental disabilities.

These are all laws meant to control what certain people can say and do, not based on our Constitutional laws but on their religious beliefs and the power to enforce their personal will on all citizens. These laws are fascist, and Republicans will only try to control more and more of our lives if they gain the power to do so.

Why does she think there has been a rise in antisemitism and white supremacy in the country? The statistics on the number of attacks are clear. Along with increased murders of trans people.

To understand fascism, it’s helpful to read about the rise of the Nazi Party and see the parallels to the authoritarian state that Republicans are trying to create.

Here’s a link to a site Holocaust Museum that would be interesting reading. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nuremberg-laws

Also check out sites such as the museum now occupying part of Hitler’s Nazi Congress Hall in Nuremberg. I’ve been there, and it was absolutely chilling to read the Nazi propaganda and see the parallels to Trump’s actions and statements when he was president—a philosophy that Republicans adhere to now.

https://museums.nuernberg.de/documentation-center/

She doesn't deny that these things happened, but they just don't seem to be at the top of her priority list. To her, that's all in the past.

And what's frightening to me, there are probably millions of other Americans who are somewhat aware of 20th Century history, but their thoughts and lives are elsewhere. The strongest thing that would-be-tyrants have going for them is that most people really aren't paying much attention to recent or ancient history, or think it doesn't affect them.

And as many know, "Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." (Winston Churchill)

That may be a way to reach her.

... consequences of the Nazis are the ones who found out what they were when the bombs start falling on them.

But the vast majority of the country just don't get how perilous it all is.

We have s party that has absolutely no philosophy or guiding principals past their overwhelming belief that rhey are part of some kind of holy and patriotic war against a phantom enemy relentlessly trying to destroy all that is good.

It just is not going to end well.

I know folks like your friend and it disturbs me to the point that it affects my health.

People are absolutely clueless.

Go be w/us all OP.

Everyone needs to vote and everyone needs to know the issues.

I've tried to tell her that there's little difference between banning books and burning books. She thought I was being overly dramatic.

as a woman, she is now second-class due to the SC.

of the points in the articles in your discussions that would help her see how it is happening already.

https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/opinion/gerry-chidiac-us-flirting-with-fascist-future-5728436

https://www.bu.edu/articles/2022/are-trump-republicans-fascists/

https://robertreich.org/post/715048365109493760

I am not and it is happening much faster than even those that see it can believe.

being forced to the back of the bus (again).

I have also warned my siblings that I will not be a babysitter if or when they have a forced birth. lol.

Here is the thing though Cyrano... think about how you feel right now. Does it feel good to have an understanding that there is a "much better than zero" chance that the US can become an authoritarian state?

I ask because I am in the same boat as you. I worry. I agitate. I sound the alarm to others. Again, I worry. Sometimes it interferes with the enjoyment of the brief life we have here on earth. That is a strong impulse for some, to just live life one day at a time. To enjoy the little things before they are gone.

I agree with you that more people should be aware of what is going on. That is actually a leftist thing to believe. "The average person", with similar interests, outnumber the wealthy by magnitudes but we lack "class consciousness". We lack an understanding of what is happening. We buy into the narratives spun by the wealthy. Or, some people just want to enjoy what they have before they die and we get busy just trying to survive.

We have been told that "politics" is something separate from our lives. It is something "other" people do, when politics affects our daily lives in profound ways.

You may reach more people by not going global, but talking to them about their own daily lives and then relating it back to how that decision at City Hall, or in the County, then the State, and then the Federal Government has that effect on them.

And I often think of throwing in the towel and paying more attention to enjoying life day by day. Nonetheless, that's really hard to do when you know there are people out there who want to "own" you, own your body, and own your very thoughts.

Just remember to take time away for a bit and replenish your energy.

I don't see that happening anytime soon, and it wouldn't have happened if Chump had won in 2022.

If Chump had won, the Repukes would have taken the opportunity to pave the way for changes to be made in the legislative and judicial branches. And THEN a fascist leader could have stepped forward. It would not have been Chump though. He just wanted to play a dictator on TV, but he lacks the knowledge and the ambition to make it happen.

We Democrats, liberals and progressives still have a lot of work to do. We need to make sure that a man like Chump can never get near our White House - our seat of power - again!

I think Democrats need to offer a vision, though I recall that Reagan’s shiny city on the hill made me gag.

I know what I want, but maybe that will be different for others. Here’s my list.

A country where
1. Everyone has affordable healthcare and people don’t have to worry about dying early from curable diseases or whether they can access all healthcare.
2. The prices we pay for drugs and medical treatment are on a par with what people in other developed nations pay.
3. Schoolchildren, and all people do not have to be worried about dying at the hands of a mass murderer.
4. Climate issues are addressed to help keep our planet safe for current and future generations.
5. Workers are paid fair wages, have regular hours, and can participate in savings plans for retirement.
6. The infrastructure is not in danger of collapsing and killing people.
7. Innovation is rewarded and companies are incentivized and/or discouraged through taxes to keep manufacturing in the US.
8. Housing is available for all, with special help for those who suffer from mental or physical disabilities.
9. Drug addiction is treated and deaths from overdoses reduced or eliminated.
10. Civil discourse is the rule rather than the exception as we address the issues facing the country and decide together how to move forward.

My top ten. What are yours?

There's a lot of food for thought here.

I believe a lot of DUers would be happy to comment on this.

Nice job my friend!

to go blithely along without a sense of urgency is the same disconnect that imbues non-MAGAt Republican voters to presume their party is moving along okay. When the Fascists come out of the closet, lackadaisical Democrats will vote with a vengeance, and their GOP counterparts will probably not vote Republican. It happened in 2020 to some extent and that was before Jan/6.

Ultimately, it's all we got!

They only started dragging their feet into abandoning, for the most part, their false equivalency tactics of "both sides do it". But only because that was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain as Trump's crimes piled up.

Now they are finally holding Trump to count, but its all about Trump now. There is no effort to warn the American public about how the signs of Fascism are everywhere. How DeSantis is on the same path to Fascism as Trump was. That whomever is the nomimee for the Republicans, they will no doubt be Fascist enablers as they have successfully warped the majority of their supporters into wanting it. And distrusting Democracy.

Is she a young woman or a woman who is working and has several kids. If she is busy working and taking care of children, she may be uninterested because she is so busy with her life.

a presidential election at the instigation of the sitting president who encouraged multiple ultra-right wing groups to converge on the Capitol building, break in, and invade the House Chamber.

The Nazis didn’t just make their shit up out of the blue, they studied how America had oppressed blacks for over 150 years.

It’s not that Fascism could happen here. It’s already been happening here. And not just recently. But since the beginning.

Probably too much to ask to read a whole book, but YouTube usually always has the authors giving talks about their work.

I'm just starting David Corn's "American Psychosis, A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy." Next is Dana Milbank's "The Destructionists, The Twenty-Five-Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party."

Books by reformed Republicans are interesting, Stuart Stevens "It Was All A Lie, How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump" and Tim Miller "Why We Did It, A Travelogue From the Republican Road to Hell."

Last edited Fri Jun 23, 2023, 10:50 PM - Edit history (1)

After being at a dinner party last week, and hearing some of the absolutely horrible things that my neighbors were saying about trans people, I'm convinced that the US has to prepare for the worst. The right wing fuckheads are steering this country down a very dark and dangerous path, and enabling the worst of humanity to carry out some horrifying deeds. Talking to people who've been brainwashed through religious and Q propaganda is like talking to a brick wall, the brick wall is going to win every time.

I would try taking a brick out of the wall,
Trump knew about the Red Mirage, but used it to deceive his followers.

But it is hopeless at my current psychology level.

The Charleston white supremacist rally and the death of Heather would be one.

Short documentaries on behavior on airplanes, school board meetings, other places where the norm is civil behavior but instead turns threatening and hostile.

Interviews with experts on fascism like Ruth Ben-Ghiat might help too.

My book club has about 20 Democratic women. Most all have college educations & quite a few were teachers - three at a college level.

It always amazes me how little they follow politics. I know they all vote Democratic.

People on DU are way more into politics than the average person. Your friend votes Dem so that’s good. I would just enjoy her company and not push her or you could lose a friendship.

in the US in the 1930s, foremost the German American Bund, also movements and parties like the British Union of Fascists under Sir Oswald Mosely in Britain, and in other countries, even Canada. Fascism is nationalistic, pro corporate and anti democratic and authoritarian.

The US had Father Couglin, the virulent antisemite 'radio priest' in Detroit in the 1930s until FDR shut him down, also Henry Ford, a major antisemite and Hitler devotee along with other prominent industrialists and financiers who were more afraid of Bolshevism than fascism esp. after the Russian Revolution. Some admired Mussolini.

Add in Nazi sympathizers like American aviator Charles Lindbergh, and 'America First' members who didn't want to get involved in another war in Europe after WWI. - See Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler and the * Business Plot to overthrow FDR, a political conspiracy in 1933 which is covered in a number of programs and videos available on YouTube.

I hear you and know several people like this, Democratic voters consumed with their own lives and too comfortable and complacent to follow politics and real news sources that lay out the true story and dangers. Trying to get through to them is discouraging. But we must keep at it, the resources noted in this thread are a good start. Hang in there, preserving democracy is vital now.