US Army Document from 1945 Spells Out Threat of Fascism

In case there was any doubt what Trumpism really is about

During World War 2 the entire Western world mobilized to defeat the threat of fascism represented by Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan. At the time, however, few people in this country were familiar with the word and the War Department, which became the DOD, needed to inform its soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines about what fascism represented, how to recognize it, and why were fighting against it.

And that document is just as important now as it was then. Because once you read it through you will fully understand the threat that Trump represents.

It’s not a long read but it’s well worth it. Here’s the full version in plain text:

https://archive.org/stream/ArmyTalkOrientationFactSheet64-Fascism/Fascism64_djvu.txt

Some key quotes:

Fascism is government by the few and for the few. The objective is seizure and control of the economic, political, social, and cultural life of the state. Why? The democratic way of life interferes with their methods and desires for: (1) conducting business; (2) living with their fellow men; (3) having the final say in matters concerning others, as well as themselves. The basic principles of democracy stand in the way of their desires; hence — democracy must go! Anyone who is not a member of their inner gang has to do what he's told. They permit no civil liberties, no equality before the law. They make their own rules and change them when they choose. If you don't like it, it's "T.S." (tough shit).

If that does not perfectly describe Trump and his billionaire oligarchs who are attempting to create a system of government by the few and for the few then I don’t know what does. We have a democratic way of life that they believe is interfering with their methods and desires. Take Elon Musk, for example. Has anyone stopped to consider why he is supporting Trump? What does Musk stand to gain from a Trump Presidency?

Turns out a lot.

Under the Biden administration, Elon Musk felt that a lot of these regulatory agencies are staffed with people who are keeping a close eye over corporate misbehavior. His companies have been investigated or fined by different government agencies, whether it’s the Labor Board, OSHA, the SEC, or the Department of Transportation, and Elon Musk sees this as unfair. Even if he acknowledges that his companies didn’t follow safety regulations, he’ll be like, well, those safety measures are stupid, anyway. I think I know best. I run my company. I am an expert in these fields. The government is just clunky and slowing us down.

One of the things that he proposed during the Trump interview was some sort of government efficiency commission. And Trump was kind of like, oh, yeah, that’s a good idea … and maybe you can help run it. Essentially, that kind of commission would slash the budgets of a lot of regulatory agencies.

Trump and Musk are sort of framing that as creating a government that’s more sensible and efficient about the budget, but really, it could also potentially serve as a way to flush the budgets of agencies that have been coming after his companies. If he has Trump’s ear, you know, he could say, “Well, maybe if you want to appoint a new person to the Labor Board, it should be someone more friendly to businesses, rather than to workers.” That’s a potential kind of alliance that they could form.

Does that make Elon Musk a fascist? Is water wet?

Furthermore:

They maintain themselves in power by use of force combined with propaganda based on primitive ideas of "blood" and "race," by skillful manipulation of fear and hate, and by false promise of security. The propaganda glorifies war and insists it is smart and "realistic" to be pitiless and violent.

It’s not by mistake that Trump insists immigrants are “poisoning the blood of America”. That Haitians are “eating cats and dogs”. That immigrant gangs are “taking over small towns” like Aurora Colorado. None of it is true, of course. And there is not a single shred of evidence that any of this is happening, yet these lies are used to justify mass deportations and mass incarceration of immigrants.

The document then goes on to describe the rise of fascism and the horrors that it perpetrated upon its own citizens and the citizens of the nations it conquered. Then it asks the all important question:

Can It Happen Here?

Some Americans would give an emphatic "No" to the question "Can fascism come to America after it has been defeated abroad?" They would say that Americans are too smart, that they are sold on the democratic way of life, that they wouldn't permit any group to put fascism over in America. Fascism, some might say, is something peculiar that you find only among people who like swastikas, who like to listen to speeches from balconies in Rome, or who like to think that their emperor is god. Their reaction might be that it is something "foreign" that Americans would recognize in a minute, like the goose-step. They might feel that we'd laugh it out of existence in a hurry.

And answers:

Most of the people in America like to be good neighbors. But, at various times and places in our history, we have had sorry instances of mob sadism, lynchings, vigilantism, terror, and suppression of civil liberties. We have had our hooded gangs, Black Legions, Silver Shirts, and racial and religious bigots. All of them, in the name of Americanism, have used undemocratic methods and doctrines which experience has shown can be properly identified as "fascist."

It can definitely be argued that the entire program of Jim Crow in the South was a fascist program, and that the Confederacy was a fascist ideal. How else to describe an official government program of inequality?

It continues:

Can We Spot It?

An American fascist seeking power would not proclaim that he is a fascist. Fascism always camouflages its plans and purposes. Hitler made demagogic appeals to all groups and swore: "Neither I nor anybody in the National Socialist Party advocates proceeding by anything but Constitutional methods." Any fascist attempt to gain power in America would not use the exact Hitler pattern. It would work under the guise of "super-patriotism" and "super-Americanism." Fascist leaders are neither stupid nor naive. They know that they must hand out a line that "sells." Huey Long is said to have remarked that if fascism came to America, it would be on a program of "Americanism.”

And that is exactly what Trump is selling. His promise is to “Make America Great Again” as if America wasn’t great already. His version of America is a dark, dystopian hellscape where roving bands of armed immigrants are murdering Americans, raping women, eating cats and dogs, where the economy has been destroyed by Democrats, where children go to school as boys and come home with COMPLETE GENDER SURGERY as girls. His version of America is EXACTLY how a fascist would describe the country and NONE OF IT IS TRUE.

The top three Generals who worked with Trump LITERALLY called him a fascist. The Right is currently freaking out about it yet what else to call a man who pits Americans against each other, who divides this country into “Us” and “Them”, who labels Democrats and the Free Press “The enemy within”? Who paints the country in apocalyptic terms despite the fact that we have a post-Covid economic recovery that is the envy of the world? Who routinely attacks and demonizes sexual minorities, people of color, and women?

You call that man a fascist. And coincidentally that fascist is holding a hate rally right now at Madison Square Gardens, where a Nazi hate rally was held in 1939. And it is as hateful and racist as you can imagine.

Make America Hate Again. That is Trump’s final message nine days before the election.