To the editor:<\/p>\n
Beginning in 1943, our War Department published a series of pamphlets for U.S. Army personnel in the European theater titled\u00a0Army Talks.\u00a0The series was designed to help soldiers understand why we were at war with Hitler\u2019s Germany and how being better-informed would help them be better soldiers.\u00a0On March 24, 1945, the topic for the week was \u201cFASCISM.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pamphlet began by acknowledging that fascism is not easy to identify and explain, \u201cnor once in power is it easy to destroy\u201d \u2014 but the future of the world depends upon as many of us as possible understanding the cause and practices of fascism in order to prevent it from taking over our own government.<\/p>\n
The pamphlet defines fascism as \u201cgovernment by the few and for the few.\u00a0The objective is seizure and control of the economic, political, social and cultural life of the state.\u201d\u00a0The basic principles of democracy stand in the way of fascist goals and, therefore, democracy must be eliminated.\u00a0\u201cFascists permit no civil liberties, no equality before the law.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fascists maintain themselves in power through the skillful use of fear and hate; anyone who dares defy them is singled out for brutal retribution.\u00a0Their propaganda, \u201cbased on primitive ideas of blood and race,\u201d is divisive and glorifies the fascist agenda as the only path to peace and prosperity.\u00a0The fundamental principle of democracy, faith in the common sense of the people, is the direct opposite of the fascist principle of rule by an elite few.<\/p>\n
The pamphlet states that Americans should not be lulled into thinking fascism could not come to the USA.\u00a0 \u201cThey would try to gain power under the guise of super-patriotism and super-Americanism.\u201d\u00a0They would use three techniques, the pamphlet explains.\u00a0 First, they would pit religious, racial and economic groups against one another to break down national unity.\u00a0 Part of that effort to divide and conquer would be a \u201cwell-planned hate campaign against minority races, religions, and other groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
Second, they would deny the need for international cooperation.\u00a0 Suspicion, even hatred for people from foreign countries, especially countries with non-white populations, is encouraged. Cooperation with other countries is replaced by an \u201cultra-nationalism which tells people that they are the only people who count.\u201d<\/p>\n
Third, \u201cfascists insist that the world has but two choices: either fascism or communism, and they label as \u201ccommunists\u201d everyone who refuses to support them.\u201d\u00a0 It is \u201cvitally important\u201d to learn to spot native fascists, \u201ceven though they adopt names and slogans with popular appeal, drape themselves with the American flag, and attempt to carry out their program in the name of the democracy they are trying to destroy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0The pamphlet states that the only way to stop fascism from rising in the United States \u201cis by making our democracy work and by actively cooperating to preserve world peace and security.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The warning contained in this pamphlet from 1945 has proved prescient.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As we enter the second year of the second Trump presidency, while no one in the administration would admit to being a fascist, their goals and strategies for achieving them are pure fascism.<\/p>\n
Trump thrives on chaos and divisiveness; while he pits us against each other, undermines our democratic institutions, and grabs more and more power for himself, he drapes himself in the flag and claims to be saving democracy.\u00a0 He governs using fear and intimidation, scapegoating minority groups and vowing retribution on all who oppose him.\u00a0 He has nothing but contempt for our European allies and nothing but admiration for strongmen like Putin and Hungary\u2019s far right Victor Orban.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Now Trump is talking about annexing Greenland, with other countries in our hemisphere in his sights.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Does this remind us of Hitler\u2019s invasion of Austria and the Rhineland as he began World War II?\u00a0 <\/p>\n
But who has the courage to stand up to Trump and say, ENOUGH! <\/p>\n
Ray Clasen<\/p>\n
Cape Coral<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: Beginning in 1943, our War Department published a series of pamphlets for U.S. Army personnel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":{"0":"post-138352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}