REVISED: Will Americans Wake Up Before It's Too Late?
BACKGROUND
1) James Rowles, “What can we do? How can we stop the fascist coup that is underway?” Trenchant Observations, February 2, 2025.
2)James Rowles, “Techno-Fascism in Trumpworld: Let me out of here!” Trenchant Observations, January 15, 2025.
I guess this is how fascism triumphs.
People are overwhelmed. They don’t know what to do. They don’t know what they can do. They feel impotent. They become resigned. They acquiesce.
Once the fascists seize control over all the levers of power, and people begin to feel the effects of living under a fascist regime where there is no rule of law and the arbitrary exercise of state power becomes the order of the day, they may begin to wake up.
By then it is usually too late to reverse the situation.
Judging from the experience of Germany in the 1930;s, many among them may “flip” and embrace the fascist movement, which gives them the feeling of belonging to a movement, and a movement that gives them permission to express their feelings of resentment, and to themselves commit abuses against others following impulses from the darkest regions of their hearts.
People who have lived a life in freedom may experiences the lack of freedom and dictatorial repression for the first time. This will come as a rude awakening.
See James Rowles, “Lessons from the Ukraine War--On Freedom,” Trenchant Observations, September 20, 2023.
For now, they may look the other way when Russian barbarism replaces the freedom they once knew of people living under Russian occupation in Crimea and in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaprorhrhizia, and Kherson provinces in Ukraine. They may be all too ready to sell out Ukraine in Donald Trump’s effort to achieve peace in Ukraine—in a new iteration of Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement when he ceded the Sudetenland to Adolf Hitler and Germany in the infamous Munich Pact of September 1938.
They may not realize until too late that the new “peace for our time” is illusory and that the freedom of Ukrainians under Russian occupation is being traded for an empty promise whose consequences may affect them personally for the rest of their lives.
Will they wake up in time to stop the seizure of power by Trump and his fascist Republican co-conspirators?
Will they wake up before pro-Russian President Donald Trump and pro-Russian American fascists complete their betrayal of Ukraine, international law, and the U.N. Charter-based international legal order?
Who knows? As of today, the signs are not encouraging.
Sadly, America is no longer the" shining”city on a hill”people around the world have looked to for inspiration, a shining model of democracy, a country which fought two world wars in the 20th century to resist aggression, and World War II to defeat fascism in Nazi Germany.
People acquiesce.
Yet there is anther way.
We must not lose our faith in Democracy and the Rule of Law.
What can we do?
What can you do?
You can contribute to the Restore American Democracy Fund, to sustain the efforts of those who like this writer are fighting, every day, to keep the flame of freedom and democracy burning in the minds of readers, and through them others.
Contribute now. Here. And to others who are already fighting fascism in the United States and to defeat Russia in Ukraine, thereby upholding international law and the U.N. Chartrer-based international legal order (sometimes referred to as “the rules-based international order”).
Join the movement.
Contribute to the Restore American Democracy Fund on GoFundMe, here.
NOTE: The GoFundMe appeal entitled “Restore American Democracy Fund - Support Engaged Writers,” was “PAUSED” by GoFundMe while their compliance team reviewed its content. GOOD NEWS! They have approved the content and told me donations may now be accepted, which was not possible while the appeal was paused.
However, they have not restored the new text of the description of the appeal, although they did update the title. This should be sorted out in the next few days.
The revised text of the description is substantially the same as the text of this article.
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James Rowles is a former Lecturer on Law at Harv 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
James P. Rowles, 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.
James P. Rowles, 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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There is a new title for GoFundMe appeal as explained above—”Restore American Democracy Fund - Support Engaged Writers”.
The new description, however, is still pending. It is substantially the same as the text of this article.
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