REPRISE: Forget bipartisanship. The task before us is to extirpate the fascist threat, and to defeat all the fascists

T - 13 days

It feels like the Tsunami warning system has gone off and is flashing red lights. But because this tsunami is political in nature, the warning time is measured in days not hours.

While the warning sirens are blazing, it seems appropriate to republish a column from January, 2021.

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Forget bipartisanship. The task before us is to extirpate the fascist threat, and to defeat all the fascists

Originally published in The Trenchant Observer, February 16, 2021. Reprinted in The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021 (2024), Chapter 90, pp.347-349. The book is available in both print and Kindle or ePub editions from both Amazon and IngramSpark (see below).

Sometimes it is too hard to look an existential threat directly in the eye. Sometimes it is too hard to call out by its rightful name a phenomenon which we see clearly before our very eyes.

Today that existential threat in America is the threat of fascism, represented by the Republican Party and the 35 million or more Americans who still support their fascist Leader, even after he has led an attempted coup d'état which culminated in the Capitol Insurrection on January 6, 2021.

74 million people voted for the Leader, some seven million fewer than those who voted for Joe Biden. So the estimate of 35 million fascist supporters could be low.

Human beings have a natural desire to avoid looking at hard realities, because a clear-eyed understanding of hard truths could place extraordinarily hard demands on these human beings--to do something, to deal with those hard realities, and to act to avert disaster or at least to make things better. Republican responses to climate change illustrate this point.

That is the situation we find ourselves in now. We live in a country filled with fascists, who still exhibit cult-like adulation of and obeisance to their fascist Leader.

In Europe, in the 1920's and 1930's, political leaders looked away for too long from what was immediately before their eyes, making the mistake of believing that they could work with Mussolini and Hitler, and their minions. The Munich Pact in October 1938 was the result of one such effort. Some Jewish leaders in 1933 believed they could work with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

In their brief efforts at bipartisanship, it quickly became apparent which partisan party would gain the upper hand. Too late, they came to understand that they had lost their freedom, having fallen into the hands of violent and ruthless partisans, who were fascists.

In the United States, in 2021, is it possible to work in a "bipartisan" manner with the fascist Republican Party of the fascist Leader Donald Trump?

Mistakes could be made by Democrats if they fail to recognize the nature of the threat they face. For example, they could make great mistakes if they were to think that they are dealing with the party of Everett Dirksen or Bob Dole, when in fact they are dealing with the American equivalent of a European fascist party in Italy or Germany in the 1920's and 1930's.

Democrats and supporters of democracy should never choose to work in a "bipartisan" manner with the fascists.

Rather, they should work with them only when 1) they are forced to in order to achieve some important strategic goal; and 2) in order to wean individual fascists away from their allegiance to their fascist party, Leader, or goals.

Both sides will pursue strategic goals:

The fascists will pursue the goal of obtaining and keeping power, tolerating violence if necessary, and with no regard for law or facts if they block their quest for power.

The strategic goal of the democrats will be to defend the Constitution and the Rule of Law, and to do so above all by destroying the fascists and the fascist threat that would do away with both altogether.

Is "bipartisanship" between democrats and fascists possible?

Only occasionally, without losing sight of the strategic goal, which for democrats is to destroy the fascists and the fascist threat.

See also “Unity with fascists? NEVER!” The Trenchant Observer, January 26, 2021

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Definition of "fascist":

1) Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers:

: fascist /ˈfæʃɪst/(sometimes capital)

n

1. an adherent or practitioner of fascism

2. any person regarded as having right-wing authoritarian views

adj

Also: fascistic /fəˈʃɪstɪk/

characteristic of or relating to fascism

2) WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2020

fas•cist (fash′ist),

n.

1. a person who believes in or sympathizes with fascism.

2. (often cap.) a member of a fascist movement or party.

3. a person who is dictatorial or has extreme right-wing views.

adj.

Also, fa•scis•tic (fash′ist), of or like fascism or fascists.

fa•scis′ti•cal•ly, adv.

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James Rowles is a former Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and professor of international law at other universities.

He studied the history of Nazi Germany at Stanford, and has studied and worked on human rights, judicial reform, and access to justice projects in many countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and in Afghanistan and Russia. At Harvard Law School, he taught a course on “Law, Human Rights, and the Struggle for Democracy in Latin America”.

At the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the OAS, he worked on human rights cases involving forced disappearances, executions, and torture in a number of authoritarian countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Recent Books by the Author

The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021 (2024). Available on Amazon and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.

Don’t Be Stupid. Pay Attention, Damn It! Advice for Undecided Voters and Voters Leaning Toward Trump (2024). Available on Amazon and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.

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