{"id":30833,"date":"2024-01-01T19:08:37","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T03:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=30833"},"modified":"2024-01-01T19:08:38","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T03:08:38","slug":"fascism-is-an-underestimated-threat-to-us-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/01\/01\/fascism-is-an-underestimated-threat-to-us-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Fascism Is an Underestimated Threat to US Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Supporters<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump fight with riot police outside the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo: Roberto Schmidt \/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American Experiment in democracy is being tested to its outward limit.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

JOHN GEYMAN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dec 30, 2023 Common Dreams<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a> for the first time in its history. The U.S. is projected to become \u201cminority white\u201d at 49.7% by 2045.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a><\/em>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GOP \u201cfreedoms\u201d\u2014to control (eg. bodily autonomy of women), to exploit, to censor, and to menace\u2014are the polar opposites of Franklin Delano Roosevelt\u2019s four freedoms as part of the New Deal\u2014freedom of speech and expression, freedom to worship God in individual ways, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear\u2014all building blocks of a free society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are some of the ways in which Big Money interests undermine representative government and majority rule:<\/p>\n\n\n\n