USA under presidency of a know-nothing, neo-fascist, racist, sexist, mobbed-up narcissist!!

[Peter Lemkin]

Just finished a much better book - providing analysis of the problems in the USA [and World]; the lightning move toward fascism; how the Democrats of today in the USA are NOT the solution to the 'problem'; and yet proposing not only an analysis, but a plan to build a resistance movement - and even some hope... The book is called American Nightmare. It is written by Henry A. Giroux. I suggest it highly with no caveats. Face it. We are in DARK TIMES, with few of the 'tunnels' having any seeming light at their ends....... It will take a complete change - not any small or incremental ones - and this is frightening to most...but the alternative is looming now....out and out state Fascism, authoritarianism, police-state, oligarchy, universal spying, constant war, hate and class/race/gender inequality and division...a return to Feudalism or even earlier forms. Your/our choices are limited, I'm afraid.....

"Instead of simply reacting to the horrors and misery produced by capitalism, it is crucial
to call for its end, while supporting the formation of a democratic socialism that gives voice to
and unifies the needs and actions of those who have been left out of the discourse of
democracy under the financial elite. The need here is for a language of both critique and
possibility, a rigorous analysis of the diverse forces of oppression and a discourse of educated
hope. Such a task is both political and pedagogical. Not only must existing relations of power be
called into question and their authority to govern society be denied, but notions of neoliberal
"common-sense" learning must be disconnected from democratic forms of political agency and
civic literacy." ... "Resistance is no longer an option: it is now a matter of life or death. The lights are going out
on democracy across the globe, and the time to wake up from this nightmare is now. There are
no guarantees in politics, but this is not a cause for retreat. No politics that matters is without
hopea hope forged in an educated awareness of history and the possibilities for real
intervention and social change. This is not simply a call for a third political party. Progressives
need to create a new politics and new social and political formations. The time for mounting
resistance through a range of single-issue movements is over. Nothing is more important now
than to bring such movements together as part of a broad-based political formation.
Those who believe in a radical democracy must find a way to make this nation ungovernable
by the powers that currently claim governing authority. Small-scale defiance and local actions
are important, but there is a more urgent need to educate and mobilize through a
comprehensive vision and politics that is capable of generating massive teach-ins all over the
United States so as to enable a collective struggle aimed at producing powerful events such as
a nationwide boycott, sit-ins, and a general strike in order to bring the country to a halt. The
promise of such resistance must be rooted in the creation of a new political movement of
democratic socialists, one whose power is grounded in the organization of novel political
formations, unions, educators, workers, young people, religious groups, and others who
constitute a popular progressive base. There will be no resistance without a vision of a new
society and new mechanisms of resistance. In this instance, effective resistance involves
cutting off power to the financial elite, religious fundamentalists, and neoconservative
warmongers. In doing so, it gives birth to a social wakefulness and a politics of ungovernability.
Hopefully, in that wakefulness, a resurgent act of witnessing and moral outrage will grow and
provide the basis for a new kind of politics, a fierce wind of resistance, and a struggle too
powerful to be defeated: democracy in exile. Proto-fascist conditions are with us again. Fortunately,Trump's arrogance as a champion of such forces is not going entirely unchecked as the great
collective power of resistance to his regime deepens. Mass actions are taking place with
renewed urgency every day. Facing the challenge of fascism will not be easy, but Americans
are marching, protesting, and organizing in record-breaking numbers. Hopefully, mass
indignation will evolve into a worldwide movement whose power will be on the side of justice not
impunity, bridges not walls, dignity not disrespect, kindness not cruelty. The American
nightmare is not something happening somewhere else to someone else. It's happening here,
to us. The time to wake up is now. To quote James Baldwin's letter to Angela Davis:
Some of us, white and black, know how great a price has already been paid to bring into
existence a new consciousness, a new people, an unprecedented nation. If we know, and
do nothing, we are worse than the murderers hired in our name. If we know, then we must
fight for your life as though it were our ownwhich it isand render impassable with our
bodies the corridor to the gas chamber. For, if they take you in the morning, they will be
coming for us that night.
In the end, there is no democracy without informed citizens, no justice without a language
critical of injustice, and no change without a broad-based movement of collective resistance."