The Party Told You to Reject The Evidence of Your Eyes and Ears
It Was Their Final, Most Essential Command (George Orwell/1984)
The shiny new year has lost its shine. Within hours after the ball dropped in Times Square announcing 2026, POTUS criminally invaded the sovereign country of Venezuela and kidnapped its corrupt dictator and his wife. Innocent people were killed in this brazen act, including 80 year old Rosa Elene González, but you have to search to find that news.
As we tried to make sense of this senseless attack by the hands of the Mad King we learned of the brutal, state sanctioned killing of a young mother in Minneapolis. Renee Nicole Good was protecting her neighbors from an army of masked thugs operating as ICE agents. Her six year old son had left his stuffed animal in the front seat of their car after being dropped off from school that morning, and their family dog was sitting in the back as the canine companion to the morning routine. Renee Good’s last words, as she smiled at her soon to be assassin were, “That’s fine dude, I’m not mad at you.” Within hours of her killing, the propaganda machine of the regime had tried and convicted Renee Nicole Good of being a ‘domestic terrorist’. She was armed with a whistle and good intentions, they were armed with guns, hate and lies.
It’s going to be a long year.
Did You Know:
Our beloved country has crossed a perilous threshold. The wannabe dictator masquerading as a President and his Fox News star-studded Cabinet are drunk on the power that the 2024 election handed them. This moment has been a long time in the making. A toxic political climate, the tsunami of misinformation and foreign interference in the 2024 election and a series of self-inflicted wounds by the national Democratic party supercharged the arrival this man-child as the 47th president of our country. The warnings about the rise of fascist authoritarianism in our local, state and federal governments are no longer warnings, we are being invaded from within. That’s how most democracies fall. The wolf has entered the fold and is “showing his teeth and talons.”
In a recent Letters From An American post by Heather Cox Richardson, she shares a compelling historical account of how our government taught its soldiers about fascism during WWII. She explains that beginning in 1943, the War Department published a series of pamphlets for U.S. Army personnel who were stationed in the European theatre. The pamphlets were titled Army Talks, and were designed to help the personnel become better informed men and women, and therefore better soldiers. On March 24, 1945, the topic of the week was fascism.
Her entire post is worth reading. For the way weary, I will just summarize her account of that document. Here is what our Department of War warned us about in 1945.
Fascism is not the easiest thing to identify and analyze, nor once in power is it easy to destroy.
It is government by the few for the few.
Its objective is the seizure and control of the economic, political, social and cultural life of the state.
The basic principals of democracy stand in the way of the fascist desires, so they fight to destroy democracy.
They permit no civil liberties, no equality before the law.
Fascism treats women as mere breeders. Children, kitchen and the church was the Nazi slogan for women.
Fascists maintain power by the use of force combined with propaganda based on the primitive idea of blood and race by skillful manipulation of fear and hate and the false promise of security.
In place of international cooperation, the fascists seek to substitute a perverted sort of ultra-nationalism which tells their people that they are the only people in the world who count. With this goes hatred and suspicion toward the people of all other nations.
Americans should not be fooled into thinking that fascism could not come to America. After all we once laughed Hitler off as a harmless little clown with a funny mustache.
Fascists label as communists everyone who refuses to support them. (Our home grown fascists are calling protestors who are exercising their First Amendment Right domestic terrorists and gangs of wine moms.)
The only way to stop the rise of fascism in the United States is by making our democracy work and by actively cooperating to preserve world peace and security.
Yes, my friends, fascism can happen here. It is happening in front of our eyes.
Why It Matters:
It’s going to get worse. The regime is weaponizing the military and are recruiting scores of untrained right wing MAGA loyalists to serve as ICE agents to be deployed in our cities and neighborhoods. The ‘enemy’ changes by the hour. The target of their hatred and violence includes our neighbors whom they refer to in dehumanizing language as “illegal aliens”, or our Somalian neighbors who are being falsely accused by right wing conspiracists of eating cats and dogs in Ohio and engaging in Medicaid fraud in childcare centers in Minneapolis. These outrageous accusations are inflammatory and dangerous. They have now aimed their guns and tear gas on suburban moms in minivans who are watching out for their neighbors brandishing only their whistles and compassion.
The more informed we are, the better citizens we are. Believing our eyes and ears is a radical act of resistance.
What We Must Do:
There are still remnants of democratic guardrails to reverse this tidal wave of evil. Congress does have the power to rein in this reign of terror.
Call you elected representatives in Congress and demand a full investigation into the shootings that have occurred by ICE agents. 5 Calls is an easily downloaded app that will give you a script and find your Congress representatives for you. Indivisible National also has a tool that will connect you to your representatives and give you a script for calling or emailing.
Join an ICE Out for Good neighborhood protest near you, if there isn’t one, organize one. It’s simple. Send out an email or a text to five of your best friends, pick a street corner or overpass and show up for Renee and the 32 others who have died in torturous detention centers across the country. Blow whistles, hold up your handmade signs and stand in solidarity for your neighbors.
We must all fully understand that we are in fascist takeover by our own government. We have to believe what we are seeing and hearing, and help others see it as well. Share the original version of the Army Talk pamphlet on fascism. Have a thoughtful conversation about what it says and what it means for us in this moment. There is even a discussion guide on page 6 of the pamphlet that is completely appropriate for today. (This archived pamphlet can be downloaded into a PDF, click on the three dots on the left side of the screen)
There’s more we can do as we approach the primary elections and the midterms. We will keep you informed and engaged.
Stay resilient. Stay strong. Stay connected. Believe what you see and hear. The regime is lying.
Seeing and believing,
Debbie and the H4D Team
Thank you for this excellent article. Indeed we are in the throes of fascism and authoritarianism. I call the nabobs from hell daily. I am emailing regularly. I also plan snail mail, just because... Hit them in every media. I use 5 Call. It is marvelous!
Thank you for putting so much together. I suggest, however, the tests for fascism by this regime came when Trump came down the golden escalator, falsely called Mexicans rapists, etc
And won the election.