FASCISM

It Can't Happen Here - OR CAN IT?

Yesterday at a rally, Trump said “Musk rigged the election for me.” Then we have this photo of Elon Musk published all over U.S. media. Was this a fascist salute or just a man’s over-zealous response to Trump winning the election?

I wrote this Substack on Fascism in October 2024. It is worth sending ut a second time.

“When Dorothy Thompson disembarked from the ocean liner Leviathan in New York on September 14, 1934, it was the first time the reporters waiting on the dock seemed more interested in her than in her Nobel Prize-winning husband, the novelist Sinclair Lewis. He, too, had come to meet her, and was waiting at the side of the pier, quietly irritated by all the attention she was getting.” (“It Can’t Happen Here,” an article written by Adam Hochschild and published in the Smithsonian on November 2023.) “Thompson, a writer for the Saturday Evening Post and other publications, was in the spotlight as the first American correspondent to be expelled from Nazi Germany.” (Ibid) This article goes on to tell the American public that while she was having breakfast in her Berlin hotel room, the Gestapo visited her with an order that basically said she was to leave the country within 24 hours.

In brief, Thompson - who spoke fluent German - had managed to acquire an interview with Hitler. “She found a man whose countenance is a caricature, a man whose framework seems cartilaginous, without bones. She wrote he is inconsequent and voluble, ill-poised, insecure . . . the very prototype of a ‘Little Man’.” (Ibid) She witnessed in Germany the “shouting curses at Jews” and the marching of Hitler’s troops in any and all directions. (Ibid) After returning to the U.S. she embarked on a “marathon” lecture tour to warn Americans about the rise of fascism.

In many ways, I can totally sympathize with Dorothy Thompson. I lived and worked in six dictator-led countries over twenty years - mostly Russia, but while operating a two million dollar microcredit program in Turkmenistan, I was told that I had 24 hours to leave. Turkmanbashi (their leader) wanted the American money but not the American leadership.

I studied Russian for 8 years before moving to Russia, but I learned to speak fluent Russian in Moscow. Two of my four children attended Moscow Public Schools. I witnessed the rise of democratization in Moscow under Yeltsin, then it’s demise. In it’s ashes rose a ruthless, murderous dictator - Vladimir Putin. Putin, who speaks fluent German, spent his formative KGB spy years in fascist East Germany. In my book called From Democracy to Democrazy, I demonstrate how German fascism transported to Russia via Putin - and now is found in the United States via Donald Trump. I lived in Russia when Trump visited, and witnessed his entrapment then his conversion process. I know this, because I too went through the wining and dining KGB transmutation exercise - only I circumvented the allurement.

Trump on the other hand was far more susceptible. He desperately needed money, since Americans banks refused to loan him more money. He had declared six bankruptcies. He was also a sucker for beautiful women and constant flattery - all tools used by Russians to entrap a foreigner to work for Russia.

On page 129 of From Democracy to Democrazy, I wrote “Let’s put the pieces of the puzzle together. The blind loyalty of millions of Americans to Donald Trump is the elusive piece of the puzzle that evaded my understanding. How could so many Americans believe Trump’s lies, his fanatical speeches, his constant remarks full of hatred, his degradation of immigrants (in our country founded entirely on immigration), and his crazy conspiracy stories?” On the next two pages after this quote, I do a line by line comparison of this debasement process that went from Germany, to Russia, to the United States. I repeat this timeline and comparison on pages 172 -173. From Democracy to Democrazy (by Graham) is found on Amazon.

In the 1930’s, our country faced the “longest and deepest downturn in the history of the United States - the Great Depression.” (www.federalreservehistory.org) “Millions of out-of-work Americans were evicted from their homes and plunged into just the kind of despair that had made it so easy for a charismatic leader like Hitler (or Trump) to point to scapegoats. The 1930’s introduced several American fascists like Father Charles Coughlin. (Ibid, Smithsonian article). In Hitler’s case, the whipping boy’s (victims) were all Jews. Today, in the 2020’s, Trump’s scapegoats are immigrants. The philosophy, the simulation, the transcription, and the facsimile is identical to the historical man who embodied fascism (Hitler) - only today his counterpart was born in the United States. In Bob Woodward’s new book called War, he cites General Milley who said “Trump is a fascist to the core and that no one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump.” (www.msnbc.com)

Bob Woodward’s book is comparative to the book written by Sinclair Lewis in the 1930’s called It Can’t Happen Here - a novel about a fascist takeover in America. Since Donald Trump was elected, IT CAN AND WILL PROBABLY HAPPEN HERE!

Elizabeth Graham, www.democrazy2020.org