Fascism Is An Underestimated Threat To US Democracy 🇺🇸
- The American Experiment in democracy is being tested to its outward limit. Opinion by John Geyman, Common Dreams, Dec. 30, 2024.
The word fascism is a relatively new term that has joined the political discussion in the United States as the 2024 election campaigns heat up. As an ultra-nationalist, anti-democratic, far-right movement, it is being driven by Donald Trump, the former president, now the leading Republican presidential candidate running on an anti-government fascist platform. This article brings a brief historical and current perspective to what now seriously threatens democracy in this country.
The population of the U.S. has been steadily diversifying to the point that we are now a multicultural and multiracial society. The total white population has shrunk for the first time in its history. The U.S. is projected to become “minority white” at 49.7% by 2045. Increasing corruption of our political system has been a major factor in leading us to rising oligarchy and authoritarianism in this country. The Citizens United ruling in 2010 unleashed an unlimited amount of money into election campaigns from billionaires as they turned their wealth into political power.
Since then, billionaire contributions have increased sharply whereby the ultra-wealthy buy access to legislators and influence over tax policies in each election. - The GOP “freedoms”—to control (eg. bodily autonomy of women), to exploit, to censor, and to menace—are the polar opposites of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s four freedoms as part of the New Deal—freedom of speech and expression, freedom to worship God in individual ways, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear—all building blocks of a free society. -
These are some of the ways in which Big Money interests undermine representative government and majority rule: GOP-led gerrymandering has been carried out in many states whereby voting districts are redrawn to control election results in their favor. Large corporations have sponsored voter suppression bills in 12 states. Local election workers have been intimidated, even receiving death threats, as happened in Arizona leading up to the 2022 midterms. Election deniers have been installing loyalists in states’ secretary of state positions with the goal to change election results. Corporate media tread lightly on the threat and consequences of fascism in this country for fear of losing advertising revenue.
These are further threats to American democracy:...
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/fascism-threat-us-democracy
- John Geyman, M.D., professor emeritus of family medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and author of 23 books on health policy, reform, and threats to sense of community and democracy in this country. His current and soon-to-be-released book is Corporate Power and Oligarchy: How Our Democracy Can Prevail Over Authoritarianism and Fascism.