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Teri Kanefield (atty, UC/Berkeley) : How fascists come to power: by creating crisis and spectacle
And what has Trump done? He's created a crisis around the issue of undocumented immigrants, and the spectacle of the wall. And he's used the spectacle to declare a National Emergency.
An emergency which has suddenly given him dozens of new emergency powers.
https://terikanefield-blog.com/governing-by-crisis-spectacle-and-sadopopulism/
Thus the task of the oligarchs is to preserve the status quo, which means preserving their own wealth and power.
6/ But you can’t tell the people THAT. So you tell them a good story.
You tell them the oligarchs are “redeemers.”
A leader comes to power by creating “mystical connection” with the nation and the people.
They earn loyalty by protecting the people from enemies.
7/ The fascist way to power is to promise to restore the nation to its mythic greatness.
OK, so if leaders don’t govern in the usual sense (devising policy to better the lives of the citizens) what do they do all day?
They create crisis and spectacle!
6/ But you can’t tell the people THAT. So you tell them a good story.
You tell them the oligarchs are “redeemers.”
A leader comes to power by creating “mystical connection” with the nation and the people.
They earn loyalty by protecting the people from enemies.
7/ The fascist way to power is to promise to restore the nation to its mythic greatness.
OK, so if leaders don’t govern in the usual sense (devising policy to better the lives of the citizens) what do they do all day?
They create crisis and spectacle!
10/ Putin couldn’t have found a more perfect tool: Trump is a natural at identifying enemies, creating spectacle, and lurching from one crisis to another.
11/ Each time Trump creates crisis or spectacle, a chorus of voices (from the left) insist that he’s screwing up, that he’s emotionally brittle, that any moment he’ll bring about his own ruin. They laugh at his idiocy. Maybe he isn’t screwing up at all.
12/ Perhaps he is governing according to the manifesto for how to establish and maintain fascism.
13/ Trump & Team fully understand the Putin-Ilyin method. How do I know? Because Steve Bannon coined the phrase “flood the zone.”
11/ Each time Trump creates crisis or spectacle, a chorus of voices (from the left) insist that he’s screwing up, that he’s emotionally brittle, that any moment he’ll bring about his own ruin. They laugh at his idiocy. Maybe he isn’t screwing up at all.
12/ Perhaps he is governing according to the manifesto for how to establish and maintain fascism.
13/ Trump & Team fully understand the Putin-Ilyin method. How do I know? Because Steve Bannon coined the phrase “flood the zone.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/
Unknown to most Americans, a parallel legal regime allows the president to sidestep many of the constraints that normally apply. The moment the president declares a “national emergency”—a decision that is entirely within his discretion—more than 100 special provisions become available to him. While many of these tee up reasonable responses to genuine emergencies, some appear dangerously suited to a leader bent on amassing or retaining power. For instance, the president can, with the flick of his pen, activate laws allowing him to shut down many kinds of electronic communications inside the United States or freeze Americans’ bank accounts. Other powers are available even without a declaration of emergency, including laws that allow the president to deploy troops inside the country to subdue domestic unrest.
This edifice of extraordinary powers has historically rested on the assumption that the president will act in the country’s best interest when using them. With a handful of noteworthy exceptions, this assumption has held up. But what if a president, backed into a corner and facing electoral defeat or impeachment, were to declare an emergency for the sake of holding on to power? In that scenario, our laws and institutions might not save us from a presidential power grab. They might be what takes us down.
14 replies
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we're not allowed to do that here. We're not supposed to go there, here.
