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"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)
The clock ticks down. Will he still be in the U.S. when it strikes noon on January 20, 2021?
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Introduction
As I said at the beginning of my previous four columns for OpEdNews on this particular subject, as we come to the (now ignominious) end his Presidency, what originally was planned to be a four-part series of listings of my columns published on "Trump and Trumpism" during this period, with a brief comment on each one, has become a five-part series. That is because in 2020 of the total of 55 columns I published on OpEdNews, 41 of them were Trump-related. So, I split the 2020 set in two. 22 were in the previous column in this set, 19 in this one.
Referring to Trump, I say "proto-fascist" because of course Trump, try as he might, did not achieve creating even a modified version of fascism at the governmental level. (And of course, I am not dealing here with the Trump/Giuliani/Cruz/Hawley coup attempt in detail.) But it has been clear for quite some time that that is what he and the forces behind him were aiming for. And his behavior in his attempt to overthrow the election Joe Biden, at first amateurish and scattershot to be sure, then turning to violence (which as of this date may not be over), indicates that authoritarianism is exactly what he has had in mind. Just imagine (perish the thought, actually) what we might be facing if a) the votes were closer in the swing states, b) the Republican judges who ruled against him and not followed the law and had been total Trumpist ideologues (in the Giuliani/Cruz/Hawley mold), c) he had had capable legal counsel, and d) Pence had decided to try to go along with theft of the election. Oh my!
It is fascinating that in the introduction to the previous installment in this series I said: "as of this is writing (Dec. 29, 2020) he is encouraging pro-Trump in-person forces (literally) to show up in Washington on Jan. 6 to "protest" the official counting of the Electoral Votes in the Congress. It is impossible to tell at his time what Trump has in mind, calling out potentially armed protesters." Well now we know. I have published two columns directly on the events of Jan. 6, one putting them in the context of the German/Nazi Reichstag Fire and Enabling Act which made Hitler Dictator, the other about the centrality of racism to the events of the day and surrounding time.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been rightfully confirmed as President and Vice-President. As of this writing, Trump is still yelling a screaming (although thanks to the very correct decisions of Twitter, Facebook, et al, private companies with no "free-speech" obligations), we no longer have to listen to them. But, assuming that Trump stays in the country (and he may not), depending very much on how he is and/or is not prosecuted for his many crimes (Federal, state, and local*), he may well be a major fixture in U.S. politics for some time to come. And of course, now that he hasn't made it to the role of First Fascist Dictator for the U.S., there are many Republicans more than ready to stand in in his place. That list begins with Ted Cruz (from whom the fascist-wizard Steve Bannon --- and he is a real wizard, not like the one in "The Wizard of Oz" --- originally came to Trump, along with Kellyanne Conway). This all depends, of course, in which direction the dominant sector of the U.S. capitalist ruling class wants to go. (Interestingly enough, there are significant indications that they are not ready to do so, at least at this time.) Obviously, this is a subject with which I will be dealing down the road.
And so now, for the 2020 list, here are the second 22 of the 44 Trump-related columns that I posted in this space in 2020.
23. "Why Trump Wants to Still be President at 12:01PM on Jan. 20, 2021 --- Personal." Among other things, he would like to continue working on the Dictator-Project, and he wold like to say out of jail.
24. "Trump Reveals His 2020 Platform." In response to the Geroge Floyd murder and the resultant mass demonstrations, he returns to racism as THE central focus of what he is running on. Click Here.
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