Fascism Watch — Is Free Speech Dying?

I’m having an ongoing argument with my son Justin. No, I’m not referring to the argument we’ve been having about what he gets in my will and how soon it can be probated. This argument relates to whether or not we, as a country, are on a rocket-ship to fascism.

The issue is that although Justin thinks Trump is a horrific and preposterous president, he finds my daily rants about how we’ll all be in camps soon (and no, not the camps where you drink bug juice and make lanyards) to be somewhat overblown and hyperbolic.

Justin argues that while Trump’s policies are awful and damaging, they aren’t fundamentally altering our system of government. “He hasn’t arrested Hillary yet. And you are still allowed to write about what a schmuck he is on Facebook. The Democrat won the Wisconsin Supreme Court election and apparently will be allowed to take office. This is hardly Germany in 1938”.

Justin is a genius. But on this (and the will thing), he’s wrong.

The problem is that before Germany got to be Germany in 1938, it first had to be Germany in 1933, and 34, etc. Before the concentration camps, there had to be the burning of the Reichstag, the Nuremberg Laws, Kristallnacht, etc. In other words, Fascism came quickly, but incrementally to Germany, and the same is happening here.

You can’t breathe a sigh of relief about democracy because we can still make fun of Dear Leader Trump on SNL, or because an occassional Federal District Court rules that Trump can’t shoot immigrants out of cannons into alligator infested swamps without a hearing.

The real question is “What is the trajectory”? Is Trump doing things that undermine core principals of democracy and the rule of law? Is he getting away with them? Are people fighting back effectively or capitulating? Are we ratcheting up our tolerance of authoritarianism?

So, in this context, let’s look at how things are going. Spoiler alert: Not Great. I’m going to do a series of articles examining each of the major pillars (no, not the things people from Arkansas rest their heads on each night) of our democracy.

Today: FREE SPEECH

The right to speak freely is a core prerequisite to a democracy. And I am free to say that! Because of free speech. See how it all comes full circle?

Donald Trump has repeatedly assures us that he is in favor of free speech. “People say to me all the time, ‘Sir, nobody loves the First Amendment more than you’”. I imagine these are the same people who tell him “Sir, you are the least racist person I know”.

But just yesterday (as I write this), Trump posted that because TV news show 60 minutes ran an accuate story about how people from Greenland don’t particularly want to be taken over by the US, they should “have their license pulled” and should pay “substantial penalties” for their “unlawful and illegal behavior”.

Nobody who “loves the First Amendment” wants news shows shut down for disagreeing with the President. That goes without saying. But I said it! Because I can! (OK, you probably get the idea).

This is not the first time that Trump’s almost erotic adoration of free speech has been tested. Just in the past few weeks he’s said that the entire networks of CNN, and MSNBC are also “illegal”. He said that Saturday Night Live should be taken off the air for making fun of him and that Rachel Maddow “shouldn’t be allowed” to broadcast.

But he has not just complained about speech, he’s taken action. He banned the Associated Press from covering the President in-person because they won’t call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America”. I’m told it’s because, despite their best efforts, they were unable to do so with a straight face.

In one of his most aggressive moves, he has ordered his Justice Department to criminally investigate two former members of his administration for saying that the 2020 election was not stolen. Which it wasn’t. Oh…Shit! Am I going to Leavenworth?

Trump has also taken to revoking the visas of college students who have allegedly said uncool things. I say “allegedly” because I like to show off my vocabulary. And also because the administration has not presented, and they argue have no obligation to present any actual evidence that the unfortunate college students committed any crime or were involved with any illegal organization.

Some of these college students were snatched off the street without warning, shoved into an unmarked van and immediately flown down to a prison in Louisiana. You know, democracy stuff.

The President also threatened the funding of any college that allows “illegal protests”, which is something Putin also did. And if Ol’ Vlad’s example is predictive, then “illegal protests” soon morph into “all protests” except for those extolling the virtues of our Dear Leader.

And it’s not only Trump that you can’t criticize. He has also said that those who say unflattering things about the judges he appoints should be charged with treason and possibly sentenced to death.

All of this is only a partial list of Trump’s assault on free expression. I know it sounds crazy. But I’m almost beginning to think Donald Trump isn’t actually the biggest living lover of the First Amendment after all.

We live in a time when a frightening number of democracies are transitioning to anti-democratic, authoritarian states. Russia, Ukraine and Turkey are only three of the more prominent examples.

And the sad fact is, the first democratic bulwark to go is free speech. That repression is what allows all of the other repressions to follow. If we can’t point out what our leaders are doing wrong, then anything they do becomes right. And the end of free debate means the actions of those in authority are undebatable.

Donald Trump clearly views power the way Christopher Walken views cowbell. He’s got a fever! And the only prescription is more of it. Long-standing institutions won’t protect us. Ask the Germans about their respected institutions of democracy in the 1930s. The only way to stop restrictions on our speech is to keep speaking, keep calling out, keep debating and writing and organizing, even if it requires some risk and sacrifice. Because history shows, once freedom of speech is gone, it’s almost impossible to get it back.