This is How Fascism Begins

     "This is a historic day for Tennessee but it is also a very dark day for Tennessee because it will signal to the nation that there is no democracy in this state. It will signal to the nation that if it can happen here in Tennessee, it's coming to your state next. And that is why the nation is watching what we do here."  -TN Rep. Justin Jones.

     As if we haven't already gotten unmistakable indications that fascist authoritarianism is on the rise, in case you were still shaking your head and muttering, "No, it can't happen here", think of what happened today in Nashville, TN.

     In the wake of three Democratic lawmakers' peaceful protest of gun violence, Republicans simply held votes tonight in the state Capitol. Two black men, Justin Pearson, Justin Jones and a woman, Gloria Johnson, were on the brink of expulsion from the TN House. In the end, only the black men were expelled.

     This is what fascists do in the wake of a challenge to their authoritarian rule- They respond with expulsion or worse when black men and woman get all uppity. You would think, in a functional democracy, that those in the majority would welcome the chance to have a robust debate about a topic as worthy as gun control. And these three legislators, in the wake of the Covenant school shooting that claimed six innocent lives, thought then and there was a time to make a stand.

     But this is how white men in a backward, backwater state react when their majority is threatened. Look what happened to Colin Kaepernick when he took a knee or Curt Flood when he protested what used to be legalized slavery in MLB. It was the end of their careers. The 1968 Mexico City Olympics, anyone?

     But this marks a new low in the rebranded version of the American Nazi Party. Unlike Kaepernick and Flood, Pearson and Jones are elected officials. By expelling them from the TN lower chamber, they're setting in motion two unnecessary primaries and general elections, four in all, that will cost TN taxpayers more money than they should have to spend.

     Now, we're talking about disenfranchisement, not only of the hundreds of thousands of voters who put them in those seats but that of two lawmakers.

     Fascism, in other words. Glorified mob rule, only with Brooks Brothers suits and ties.

     This kind of thuggery in Nashville has been going on for years and years. US Rep. Steve Cohen gave a telephone interview on Nicolle Wallace's show and said that in the 25 years he was in the state legislature, he was once expelled from the chamber because he didn't wear a tie. It happened on the last day of the legislative session and that machine Democrats, working in concert with Republicans, refused to bring up his six progressive bills for a vote.

 

     So now, we're talking not just disenfranchisement and fascism but the variety tinged with racism. Remember, the only two House members who were expelled in Nashville today were black men. The third, a white woman, avoided a similar fate. That's because Republicans know that women, as with virtually everywhere else, make up most of the voters in TN. Black people do not.

     Now, technically, the three lawmakers did break House rules of decorum but the Republican response was plainly disproportionate. They could have voted to censure or reprimand them but they immediately moved for expulsion. After all, if a group of 11 rogue Republicans can simply walk away from their duties and go to another state while on the run to childishly avoid voting on a climate change bill, surely three lawmakers in Tennessee can stage a conscientious demonstration in favor of saving young lives, right?

     And again, as Rep. Justin Jones said, "It will signal to the nation that if it can happen here in Tennessee, it's coming to your state next." And you don't have to look very far south to see the evidence of that, namely Florida's and Ron DeSantis' smokeless book burnings, drag queen story hour jihads and the anti-abortion/anti-women laws that are cropping up in places like Idaho.

     This is how fascism starts. The people in 1933 Germany, if they weren't dead today, could tell us all about the object lesson of what happens when you don't stand up to fascism. The very aggression of such a toxic movement is in and of itself mission creep on steroids. The first step in those years was to purge the legislative body of opponents of National Socialism, then the judiciary, then the press until we finally had the death camps that murdered millions of human beings.

     Are we on that road, where the streets of America are snowed with human ashes? God, I'd sure hate to think so. But I hate even more the very thought of real, patriotic Americans, those who still believe in democracy, passively watching this steady march toward full-blown fascism and saying and doing nothing about it.

     That's why Republicans are obviously unconcerned who's watching.