[Note from Steve: This post begins a series of articles, bipartisan in spirit—if such a thing exists with GOP brown-nosers in control—that analyze mistakes the “Founding Fathers” made in writing the Constitution, that revered but flawed “law of the land.” Why are these errors so meaningful now? Because American fascists have discovered them and are using them to destroy American democracy!]
Preface
Let me start this series by mentioning a New Year’s resolution. Here’s some motivation: Both Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, those famous poets and singers (Donald Jackass Trump probably mistakenly took the former’s “This Land is Your Land” too literally!), carried around guitars with “This machine kills fascists!” written on them. That should be a strong hint about my number one political resolution for 2025: Wage a verbal battle against fascism everywhere I can, but especially in the US, where such a fight is so badly needed right now! Artists (and fiction writers are artists!) can use their art as swords to fight the good fights, and that’s what I plan to do.
My machine is my laptop, of course. (I once played a guitar back in college; changed to that interesting Colombian instrument, the tiple, when I went to live in Colombia; and then started playing a full eighty-eight-key electronic keyboard, but I’m no Guthrie or Dylan!)
Okay, I didn’t wait until 2025 to go after fascism in my fiction writing, but the re-election of Narcissus le Grand has certainly motivated me to up my game…as it should, right? As far back as my very first novel (Full Medical, 2006), my stories have had anti-fascist themes. (True, that first novel was dedicated to a relative, a 9/11 victim, but terrorism is just extreme fascism. And Trump is a terrorist at heart, as January 6, 2021 showed.) And I’d listen to no writing coach or MBA prof who’d ever accuse me of being too ideological in my fiction. As Madeleine Albright stated in her 2018 non-fiction book, Fascism: A Warning, “Fascism is not an ideological system but rather a strategy for taking and holding onto power.” (I’d only add “wielding” to that description.) So, going after fascism doesn’t represent playing politics on my part. Indeed, if you consider the political spectrum, fascism is that point where the two ends curl around and meet, cancelling politics and trumpeting autocracy (DJT pun intended).
We must all do our part in fighting fascism. We can’t just laugh about the antics of that orange devil and then proceed to watch games on ESPN while snacking on whatever’s bad for us, washed down by alcoholic drinks of varying lethality. We should be responsible adults, not a “f&^%ing moron” like Donald Jackass Trump (Rex Tillerson’s words, not mine, by the way). I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t continue to battle fascism with my stories, killing fascists with my machine.
I can’t pretend to be an expert on affairs of state like Madeleine Albright or a Constitutional scholar like Jamie Raskin (the first making old Kissinger seem like an incompetent ass – he was and a fascist one to boot, not unlike Netanyahu now – and the second more learned than any fascist judge currently seated on SCOTUS). I’m just an ex-scientist who always wanted to be a storyteller and has managed to write a few tales. What I portray in many of these stories is that fascism is a clear and present danger for our nation and world today. This worldwide mental contagion can’t be vanquished by any mRNA vaccine. (Of course, RFK Jr. will ban those anyway.)
Fascism didn’t end with the surrender of Germany and Japan in World War Two; it also didn’t go away with the USSR, which Putin wants to bring back. It’s here right now with men like Iran’s Ayatollah, North Korea’s Kim, Israel’s Netanyahu. Russia’s Putin, America’s Trump, China’s Xi, and many other lesser-known and evil autocrats, women like Marie Pen also among them.
Here in the US, fascists have learned to find flaws in our Constitution and use them to their advantage. For the most part, one can consider Project 2025 to be a guidebook on how to use those flaws to create an Orwellian state in the US where a select few SOBs like Trump and his family and friends and other rich MAGA maniacs, can become even richer and all hope ends for everyone else.
These few posts will discuss the flaws in the Constitution the Founding Fathers saddled us with. Taken as a whole, they didn’t do so badly for being inept politicians with aristocratic and racist leanings. Other countries are much worse off and are likely to succumb to fascism even sooner.
There are many dangers lurking for the US and the world. One clear one is that fascists covet what other fascists have. If this gets to the point of “If I can’t have it, no one else can,” we could really be in big trouble. (That’s the way Narcissus le Grand thinks, by the way, because he’s a psychotic sociopath, as an esteemed panel of mental health professionals determined years ago.) Right now, Putin’s stockpile of nuclear weapons is bigger than Trump’s. It might even be larger than Kim, Netanyahu, Trump, and Xi’s combined. Putin could easily resort to nuclear blackmail; he’s already come close! So could Trump.
It used to be that the US was admired by many (and reviled by some like China and Russia!) for being the light of democracy in the world. With the second election of Donald Jackass Trump, that light is flickering and about to go out. We should always be ready to rekindle it. One thing we can do is to recognize the flaws in our Constitution that Narcissus le Grand and his fellow fascist sycophants have discovered and use. We might not be able to help other countries; but if we could help protect America from our own fascists, we’d at least accomplish something.
I only offer you my honest opinions in this series. Take them as you will.
Next week: The Electoral College.