Sep 24, 2020

The Appeal of Fascism

By Matthew R. Bishop / filmsforaction.org
The Appeal of Fascism

The Appeal of Fascism

Matthew R. Bishop - September 24th, 2020

 

As I ponder the imminent demise of our republic, I have arrived inadvertently at the answer to a question I did not mean to ask: Why has fascism so easily taken over what we once believed to be a resolute republic well along its way to becoming a true democracy?

The answer is that fascism is easy.

It comes naturally, and without demanding so much as democracy demands. Democracy, you see, actually requires very much of the citizen, and it places this enormous burden upon the citizen. Democracy requires the citizen to behave in very ethical and logical ways. Fascism does not. Democracy requires that the citizen cares about people other than himself. Fascism does not. Democracy requires that the citizen have some concept of where he is in the progress of history—which requires the citizen to know both where he has been, and also where he is going. Fascism is antihistorical, and it places no historical requirements upon the citizen.

At the end of the day, democracy is, in fact, an extremely demanding ideology—it is always asking the citizen to learn, always asking the citizen to understand, always asking the citizen to make the most responsible and altruistic decisions that any actor can make. It is overwhelming for many citizens. If the aspiring fascist can quickly remove these burdens from the shoulders of the citizen, the fascist will find a zealous following, cult-like in its eagerness, its blindness, and its devotion to its leader—because the leader has told these people that they need not carry these heavy burdens any further.

People are very eager to be told what to do, how to act, how to think, and how to behave. The fascist says that you do not need to worry about which news stories are true, because I will tell you what to believe. The fascist says that you do not need to worry about what is right or what is wrong—it is wrong if I say it is wrong, and right if I say it is right. The fascist tells you who to love, who to hate, and who to hurt. The fascist removes the weights of moral decisionmaking entirely, and takes freedom away from the citizen—but in fact the citizen hands freedom over eagerly and on his own accord, because freedom, as it turns out, is a very demaning civic duty, which comes with a long list of civic responsibilities that the ordinary citizen has no interest in being burdened with.

Democracy requires highly ethical, educated, and intelligent citizens. Moreover, it requires these citizens to have meaningful political debates between themselves and in larger groups. It also requires that citizens keep their knowledge up-to-date. It is not enough to read a lot of books. To truly know what is happening in one’s country, a citizen must also follow a diversity of credible news sources in foreign affairs, economics, public opinion, current political events, and so on, so that book-knowledge can be updated with more recent news-knowledge.

This is an enormous commitment to ask of a citizen who, let’s say, has no natural interest in politics, ethics, history, philosophy, law, or any other relevant subject. Such a citizen is eager to lay down this burden. If too many citizens become like this, then the whole democracy becomes frail and brittle—eventually to the point where the aspiring fascist can walk up, grab the democracy, and snap it in half—or into a dozen smaller pieces. It’s easy, not because the fascist was so strong, but because the democracy was so weak. It had just been waiting to break this entire time.

These are disturbing reflections, because of course they prompt the question: Can democracy work at all?

My argument is that it can, and that all of the above observations, while correct for a minority of citizens, cannot be assumed as applicable to the majority—especially when a true majority system has never even been attempted in this country in the first place.

Moreover, there is a reason why citizens are so eager to lay down these burdens of a democracy, and that reason is that we do not live in a democracy. Why should the citizen have to carry such weights when they amount to nothing, in the end? Our system does not reward the citizen. It does not even respond to the basic needs of the citizen. So why must the citizen go on carrying such a heavy load for a system which does not even acknowledge that the citizen exists?

The reason why this country is failing is not because democracy is a failed system. It is because America is not now, and never has been, a true democracy. To resolve these fatal flaws in our system, we must evolve into a true democracy.

America’s universities are still ranked #1 in the world. Our people are highly educated, thoughtful, and reflective. In general, they would make good citizens, to the point where a man like Donald Trump would never actually win an election in a real American democracy. Approximately 24% of Americans voted for a violent far-right conspiracy theorist in 2016. 25% of Americans, on the other hand, voted for a normal centrist candidate. Because we do not live in a democracy, the loser won.

Of course, the other side of the issue is that 49% of Americans did not vote. That, again, is largely a result of the fact that voting really does not matter in a majority of states for a majority of citizens. This is because we do not have a popular election system. There is no incentive for the citizen to vote, because most votes, most of the time, and in most places, actually do not matter. So do you really blame the citizen for not caring? Why should the citizen care?

The only way the citizen will learn to care is if this country evolves into a true democracy, where the voice of every citizen matters.

What does it mean to evolve into a true democracy? For one thing, we need to abolish both the Electoral College and the U.S. Senate. The Senate is a minority powerhouse where far-right voices impose their will over the moderate desires of the American majority. It is the least representative body of Congress, but the most powerful. The Senate is now a weapon of the extreme far-right, elected by a tiny minority of voters, which is used to suppress the pro-democracy sentiments of the entire American people, and to deny us the obligations that our government owes to the governed. The Senate must be eradicated.

The Electoral College, for the very same reasons, must go—2 of the 3 previous Presidents took power after losing the national popular vote. It is unlikely that Americans will accept another unelected President as legitimate. In a worst-case scenario, a sustained armed conflict erupts after two Presidents both claim legitimacy and the right to rule. The Electoral College is a glaring liability in our system, and it already needed to be abolished a very long time ago.

A number of other major pro-democracy reforms—outlawing gerrymandering, overturning Citizens United, and so on—must follow quickly on the heels of these larger systemic revisions, in order to guarantee the equal rights of the citizen to every American.

When a citizen loses faith in government, it becomes easier to lay down the burdens of democracy—because why carry these burdens if it makes no difference in the end? Invariably, fascism wins in this scenario, if given enough time. If our government does not address these grave systemic errors—immediately— then we are likely to see fascism continue to rise in popularity over time. Fascism will appeal not only to the right, but also to the left. The middle will disappear. Conflict will begin.

We cannot expect our citizens to behave as if they live in a democracy. We cannot expect them to defend the illusion of a democracy which never existed in the first place. The reason why they rally around a fascist is because the illusion is already broken, and they know that the system does not work. They are correct. The system does not work.

America needs a new system, or else it cannot survive what comes next. We need a true democracy, and we need it now.

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