Brownshirts

History may not repeat itself but it definitely has some favorite themes it re-visits from time to time. A big favorite is a nation's cleansing of "the enemy within". At his patriotic 4th of July Spectacle, complete with displays of air power, Trump and Co. turned the dial way up on the culture war, but very specifically targeted "the Left". In his version, it is we who are totalitarian and we who wish to revise history. Of course, the whole "cancel culture" absurdity is true, is reactionary, and plays right into the hands of the neo-fascists Trump is dog whistling to. And yes, we would like to revise history curriculum as it is taught in schools so that it more closely reflected empirical research. Let's talk about Andrew Jackson!

But that was all bluster TV shit. The scary, barely veiled threat was actually to Bernie socialists and the movements that are talking about real structural change. History has plenty of examples of this bloody tactic enabling demagogues to hold onto power. And he probably could rouse a little militia of patriot brownshirts to start patrolling the campuses and progressive enclaves. No shortage of deplorables out there. Even the good white citizens of South Dakota who cheered at his race and red baiting had their deplorable on. It is not hard to imagine (read a little Hannah Arendt) these folks scratching their heads a few years from now and asking: How could such horrors have taken place? What the heck got into us?

The signalling Trump (and S.Dakota's perky little governor- keep your eye on that one) did round "desecrating monuments" was particularly pernicious- he is obviously getting desperate and his instinct has always been to go low. But I suspect he is digging a hole he won't get out of. The covid and police shooting took all the wind from his sails. History is also moving in some other directions and rousting the Klan or holding hearings of the House Committee on Un-American Activities is not really a plan.