Fascism: What it is and how to fight it, part 2

The following is the second in a series of articles loosely based on a talk given at a Workers World Party membership meeting on Jan. 21. Read Part 1 at www.workers.org/2011/us/fascism_0203/

Given the inflamed political climate in Arizona and the spread of right-wing politics nationally, the ruling class had a major task trying to keep public opinion from drawing a natural connection between the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, with its accompanying massacre, and Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the rising generation of ultrarightists.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Loughner’s Internet communications were used to show that he was disturbed. Any connection to the political right was denied, thus exonerating the hate-mongering racists and reactionaries. Attention was redirected to a lone individual on the grounds that there was no connection between Loughner and any rightist organization or politician.

The real Palin-Loughner connection

However, the connection between the attempted assassination of an establishment politician like Giffords and the ultraright was obvious. The connection was that Loughner was actually doing what the right wing had been publicly flirting with and openly suggesting.

Sarah Palin put rifle-scope crosshairs on a map targeting election districts, including that of Giffords. The slogan Palin propounded was “lock and load.” What could be clearer?

Sharron Angle, who ran against Harry Reid in Nevada, talked about “Second Amendment solutions” to deal with political opponents. The Second Amendment to the Constitution declares the right to bear arms.

Giffords’ opponent in the election, Jesse Kelly, invited his supporters to participate in firing off M-16 rounds at a firing range as part of his campaign. What could be clearer?

Those who claim that there was no political motivation have to answer the following question: More than 500,000 people live in Tucson. Why did Loughner decide to assassinate Giffords?

When disturbed persons go on a shooting rampage, it is usually either random or is directed against others who they feel have aggrieved them. Loughner was recently expelled from college, rejected by the armed forces and arrested by the police. Yet no one who actually impeded his life was targeted.

He did have one encounter with Giffords in 2007, when he attended one of her community meetings. According to a young woman who went to the meeting with him, he asked Giffords a question. After the meeting he told his friend that Giffords was “stupid” and referred to her as a “baby killer.” Giffords has supported reproductive rights. This information was aired on CNN on the day of the massacre. It was then taken off the news, never to be referred to again.

So Loughner ignored his numerous recent personal grievances and acted on a long-standing political grievance. He chose to kill someone who had done nothing to impede his life; someone he had met three years before and had called a “baby killer.” Furthermore, he may have had other political grievances of a similar nature. We do not know.

Whatever the extent of his psychological disability, he had the same grievance that the ultraright has. He carried out in a violent and bloody deed what the ultraright has been repeatedly suggesting in words.

That is the undeniable connection between Loughner and the ultraright.

Why does all this matter?

Tea Party racists spit on Rep. John Lewis

Let us recall the period of the early debate over the health care bill and the Town Hall meetings held by the candidates. This was before the Tea Party, but the types who ultimately became the rank and file of that group were mobilized to attend those rallies. They launched verbal assaults on establishment, bourgeois politicians; some of the ultraright even came with guns.

During the debate, John Lewis — an African-American member of Congress from Georgia and a former civil rights activist — was spit on while going into the U.S. Capitol building, as was another Black legislator and a gay congressperson, by a racist Tea Party mob while Capitol police looked on.

The ranks of the ultraright and the fascists — and there is usually a very thin line between the two — are filled with violent racists, and haters of women’s rights, LGBTQ rights and unions. They are out to organize reactionary assaults upon the masses whenever the opportunity arises. The ruling class uses them in this way.

Why fascists hate bourgeois democracy

They not only want to directly attack the masses but seek the destruction of all bourgeois democratic institutions, precisely because they offer legal and constitutional protections to the workers, the oppressed and progressive sections of society. The far right is particularly enraged that the electoral process could have led to the election of an African American as president. This has inflamed the racist drive towards fascism.

That is why the fascists direct their threats, violence and intimidation not only at the masses but also at the bourgeois establishment, which wants to carry out exploitation and oppression within the confines of, and under cover of, capitalist democracy.

Letting the ultraright off the hook

The crux of the issue in the Arizona massacre should not have been Loughner himself, seen in isolation and distanced from the menacing political environment created by the right. Attention should have zeroed in on Palin, Angle, Kelly, Limbaugh, Beck and countless other right-wing riffraff and — equally important — on their corporate backers.

But instead, President Barack Obama delivered a talk, very eloquent and heartrending, at the University of Arizona memorial for the victims in which he dwelt on the enormous personal tragedy and called for civility. He was accompanied by Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, both of whom recited passages from the Bible. Aside from a vague phrase or two at the very end of Obama’s talk about divisive rhetoric, the ultraright was left completely off the hook.

The question remains then, why did the very capitalist establishment under attack try to cover up for the ultraright and the fascists?

Goldstein is author of the book “Low-Wage Capitalism,” a Marxist analysis of globalization and its effects on the U.S. working class. He has also written numerous articles and spoken frequently on the present economic crisis. For further information visit www.lowwagecapitalism.com.