CARTOON: The Greatest Friend Of Fascism

Democratic Party is following in the dangerous steps of an earlier fascist era.

(Editor’s Note: Above quote from ‘Black Women Support The Democratic Party, But Does The Party Support Them?’ See below.)

Cartoons by Mark Taylor / DeMOCKracy.ink

Democracy and the First Amendment? Hah! Wake up, Bozo, you live in a different country now.

By Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy/ink (1/17/24)

The greatest ally Adolf Hitler and his nasty little gang of thugs, social misfits and sociopaths had were the squabbling liberals and leftists of assorted parties and factions juggling for power 1930s Weimar Republic. As the left bickered, the Great Depression exacerbated the punishing demands of the Treaty of Versailles and inflation tore across the country, throwing vast swaths of Germans into unemployment and poverty.

The government was completely ineffective, corrupted and tied up in sweaty knots of self-absorbed, paralyzed partisanship. Meanwhile, the misery deepened. Sound familiar?

Into the national vacuum appeared Adolf Hitler, a ne'er-do-well vagabond artist and antisemitic agitator. His explosive rants of Jewish conspiracy, racist rants of national purity mixed with idealized macho idealization of Nordic warrior myth resonated with desperate Germans looking for their next meal and some assurance of security for their families. The message that they could pin their problems on Jews and other minorities in their midst was an added bonus and channel for their anger.

It is beyond ironic that the primary minority group targeted by the Nazis and the nation that played a major supportive role for the Russian defeat of the Third Reich now march in lockstep with the same fascist mindset conducting their own genocide.

As powerfully detailed in India Walton’s essay below, the Biden administration has fallen far short of 2020 campaign promises and supposed ideals, letting many pledges like a national health program evaporate into obscurity and a raise in the minimum wage abandoned at a whisper of resistance. All of it adding to misery and uncertainty for growing numbers.

Road to war and genocide

Most disturbing has been a disastrous foreign policy, beginning with the war in Ukraine, which could have been avoided but for sabotage of a mutuall- agreed peace treaty between Kyiv and Moscow by Biden and Nato, resulting in almost a million casualties on both sides and Ukraine impoverished. Soon after, Biden followed through on one promise, and there was the single largest act of eco-terrorism with destruction of the Nord Stream gas line, which has crippled Europe.

Then came October 7th with the loss of some 1,200 (about a third killed by the Israeli Defense Force) and some 240 kidnapped by Hamas and the brutal ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Despite multiple warnings, Israel had withdrawn most of their troops from the area. Every day American-supplied bombs drop on Gaza — coordinated with US military intelligence — and the number of innocents torn apart, killed, crippled and traumatized grows steadily by the day.

On the observance of the 100th day of the genocide, Biden issued a statement observing the Israelis killed on that day but made no mention of the cascading death and casualty toll of Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank, where Israeli troops and gangs of American and Israeli-armed settlers have killed hundreds.

‘Bibi’ Netanyahu has told self-proclaimed Zionist ‘Genocide” Joe that “this is your war too” and upset about our military recruiting problems.

Those who dare speak out against the U.S./Israeli genocide are silenced, disappeared from social media, fired from jobs and college students barred from many companies while the corporate media is as compliant to official lies as Pravda in the days of Stalin. And then there are the 83 journalist and media workers who have been killed, with some of their families targeted in their homes with U.S. missiles.

Democracy and the First Amendment? Hah! Wake up, Bozo, you live in a different country now.

Beyond irony

It is all casual cruelty worthy of Hitler himself. It is beyond ironic that the primary minority group targeted by the Nazis and the nation that played a major supportive role for the Russian defeat of the Third Reich now march in lockstep with the same fascist mindset conducting their own genocide. The fact that the march is led by a president of the party that was once known for FDR progressivism is grotesque salt in oozing wounds.

Meanwhile, as billions in weapons and financial support drain off to Ukraine and Israel, here in the United States inflation haunts the grocery aisles, homelessness increases, student debt cripples young people, guns are the leading cause of death for children, our infrastructure degrades by the day and the parasitic billionaire class has doubled, even tripled their wealth as their taxes have gone down. Is there any wonder so many look to the hate-spewing, revenge-promising Orange Man?

And most disturbing — especially given the U.S./Israeli genocide — both parties are catapulting off the same corporatist fascist cliff.

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Black Women Support The Democratic Party, But Does The Party Support Them?

By India Walton
Truthout (1/9/24)

Despite being the most dedicated voting base in the Democratic Party, Black women overwhelmingly experience inequities in health care, economic mobility, housing security, environmental pollution… the list goes on. Activists and organizers have strived to educate, register and mobilize voters in hopes that someday not only will we see equal representation at all levels of government, but also that the policies implemented will reflect the needs of the most vulnerable in our communities.

With the Democratic primaries for president looming, there seems to be very little conversation about the failure of the current administration to do much to deliver a United States that works for us all. The end of pandemic relief programs in housing, health care, income and food assistance has exposed the sobering truth about our country’s unwillingness to pass legislation that benefits the most vulnerable among us.

The federal minimum wage remains stagnant, the Dobbs decision has eviscerated our reproductive rights, student debt payments have resumed and the continued erosion of environmental protections makes me worry that there will be no habitable place in which my future grandchildren can grow up.

Progressives want a candidate that we are excited to organize for and who will stand up for us. (My dream is that a champion will emerge from the ranks of the labor movement.) However, on many issues, especially of significance to Black women, the priorities of both parties seem to be more similar than those of everyday, working-class voters.

Recently, hip-hop artist Cardi B took to social media to express what many women of color feel: Our president is sending billions of dollars overseas to fund the murder of women and children while continuing to cut funding for vital services like education, libraries and housing for those in need.

Working class left holding the bag

With Joe Biden’s incumbency in hand, it appears that the urgency of the 2020 election campaign has dissipated. The ability to move the current administration on progressive issues has waned. But many of the very people who ensured victory for the Democrats in 2020 and have supported the party throughout recent history are clear that a second term of this status quo presidency does not serve them. The fact of the matter is that our two-party system is unduly influenced by corporate interests, and the working class is left holding the bag. Moreover, the Democrats’ belief that voters, including Black women, will continue to choose the lesser of two evils may doom them. If the party fails to energize apathetic and disappointed working-class voters, a second Trump presidency is quite foreseeable.

Debate is important and as old as democracy itself. With increasing authoritarian rhetoric and insurrections attempting to invalidate elections, not only is circumventing debate anti-democratic, it’s downright dangerous. Not only does the electorate deserve real choices, but we should hear directly and extensively from candidates — and that can happen in public debates. A series of Democratic debates before the primary elections at least would offer the incumbent an opportunity to explain his lackluster performance and recommit to his campaign promises of 2020. At best, debates could introduce voters to new ideas and serious challenges to the status quo. Canceling primaries and pretending that there is no contention among Democrats is a risky strategy for the party’s leaders to be pursuing. …

Read the rest

“A second Trump presidency and the slippery slope toward a fascist regime seems more likely than not.”

(India Walton, currently the senior strategist for RootsAction.org, is a longtime community activist who emerged in 2021 as a powerful presence in the progressive movement after a stunning Democratic primary victory over a 16-year incumbent mayor of Buffalo.)