My readers, I write to you from the USA – the country that was once so full of promise. The country which, from 1892 to 1954, welcomed over 12 million immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, who believed in the American Dream – The Land of the Free. Now the possibilities for a life of freedom and prosperity are dissolving before our very eyes into one of tyranny and barbarism. Capitalism dovetailed with Christian Nationalism rules the day, and is here to stay.
Perhaps you took a deep breath in with my words, “here to stay”. The Trump administration has done yet another ‘dress rehearsal’. Not more of Mussolini style ‘black shirts’ in the streets of American cities, who daily torment, bully, shoot American protesters and undocumented immigrants. No, this latest dress rehearsal is that of seizing voter ballots and records in Georgia from the 2020 presidential election. As fantastic as this reads, I truly feel that this is just a precursor to do the same across the US in order to ‘manage‘ the upcoming November mid-terms.
Say farewell to fair elections and universal suffrage in the once United States. Sadly, I do not jest.
Under attack
Likely you have become aware of the recent unconscionable executions of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents working for Border Patrol and ICE.
Two journalists have recently been arrested by the Trump administration. Georgia Fort and Don Lemon were taken into custody for their news reporting of a protest at a church in St Paul, Minnesota. Previously, both reporters would have been protected under the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution, which offers freedom of speech and freedom of the press. However, these are fascist autocratic days, and laws once guaranteed in the Constitution no longer afford protection of rights.
One cannot say Americans were not forewarned about the dangers of re-electing Donald Trump as President with his blueprint of Project 2025. Nonetheless, over 77 million people voted for Trump in 2024, thus awarding him the necessary electoral college votes to win the election.
In the most recent FOX poll, Trump’s job performance approval remains at 44% across the nation, with Republicans giving him 85% and MAGA-identifying Republicans giving him 97%. The recent New York Times poll has Trump at 40% overall approval. Now one would think, after all that has transpired, Trump would have a far lower popularity. Clearly this is not the case.
History repeats
The 1908 novel, The Iron Heel by American novelist, journalist and activist Jack London, is a dystopian story. It lays bare how a wealthy oligarchy seizes power and suppresses a democratic socialist movement. Sounds prophetic, does it not?
We must not forget that what we are seeing today is not the first dance with fascism in the US. In the 1920s to 1940s, fascism was on the rise, inspired by Mussolini and Hitler. The movement ultimately failed, but was heavily backed by US industrialist capitalists of the time, including Henry Ford and Fred Koch. Even IBM, under the leadership of Thomas J. Watson, supplied the Nazi government with punched card technology (Hollerith machines) that was used to track populations, including Jews.
Far earlier, the Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation and discrimination, restricting access to voting rights and mandating inferior services for some. And let us not forget the Electoral College, created by the Founding Fathers, has racist origins.
So, once again, fascist ideology has risen here in the US, with Trump playing the role of the figurehead and backed by the billionaire class of today. History repeats itself until the lesson is learned.
Fight, fight, fight?
As a rule, a morning cup of tea and enjoying the sights of my gentle country life, such as a passing Amish buggy going clippity clop in my hamlet here in upstate New York, restores my spirits. Regrettably, this is not the case today.
Thorny a reality as it is, I must concede that I am feeling the loss of the country. The Scotch Irish McElroy branch of my family courageously fought against the occupying British tyranny in the American Revolution. I can only hope that I too have that same fortitude to shine with the courage they did in these threatening times.
I have serious doubts that the US, even after Trump’s demise, will revert to any semblance of a Constitutional Republic without a renaissance of the courage that inspired my ancestors to take up arms and fight. But with Palantir’s surveillance technology in the ascendency, and Tesla’s robots in the hands of a wealthy elite with political influence, will it be a fair fight?
Although I have in the past had mixed feelings about the 2nd Amendment – the right to bear arms – it now appears that this right might be our government’s Achilles heel. Certainly, Trump and his administration received substantial pushback from their public comments condemning the right to bear arms in the Alex Pretti execution. While our government may be able to run roughshod over the 1st Amendment, perhaps the National Rifle Association will prove too great an adversary to quell.
Truth be told, even pre-MAGA, my country has long been divided over issues of race, women’s rights, immigration, sexual identity and religion – not just this century, but for hundreds of years. So, perhaps the rise of fascism here was inevitable. Now, like a cold, it will need to run its course. When the revolution comes, a new path for America must be taken: one of democratic socialism. Yet, I fear we will simply repeat the past.
So, while I bid you adieu, my British cousins, be wary of those that give false promise. Liberty is easily lost and very hard to regain.
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