Lawrence S. Wittner: Are you OK with your country going fascist?

Recently, many opinion polls indicate that Donald Trump―a convicted criminal, a pathological liar, and the latest in a long string of rightwing demagogues―is likelier than not to be elected President of the United States.

I was born and raised during World War II, a time when fascist armies seemed on the verge of conquering the world, and perhaps this accounts for my feeling of alarm at the current revival of rightwing extremism in the United States and elsewhere.

This alarm seems justified today not only because of the hate-filled rhetoric and program of the latest crop of would-be führers, but because of their popularity. Indeed, their popular appeal is deeply disturbing and contrary to what many of us expected in the aftermath of the crushing defeat and discrediting of fascism in 1945.

So, as I contemplate the current political struggle over the future of the United States, I wonder about the apparent views of many of my fellow-Americans.

• Do you really approve of Donald Trump’s constant incitement of hatred, cruelty, and violence?
• Is his frequent spouting of racist slurs all right with you?
• Do you consider his plan to seize and deport between 15 million and 20 million immigrants acceptable?
• Are restrictions on women’s rights―including the right to their bodily autonomy―agreeable to you?
• Are you content with the growing interference with free elections, including legislation restricting the right to vote?
• Are you ready to replace civil liberties and the rule of law with a police state?
• Do you really believe that the escalating climate catastrophe is a hoax and not worth addressing?
• Do you favor Project 2025’s call for destruction of labor unions and workers’ rights?
• Do you really want to provide the super-rich and their giant corporations with additional tax breaks?
• Are you opposed to legislation to reduce the epidemic of gun violence in our schools and communities?
• Do you support massive cuts in federal funding for health, education, and welfare, including the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education?
• Are you content with vast increases in military spending?
• Are you indifferent to the plight of European democracies struggling to defend themselves against military conquest by Vladimir Putin’s increasingly authoritarian Russia?
• Do you favor the continued slaughter of Palestinians and oppose a just settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
• Are you enthusiastic about scrapping nuclear arms control and disarmament treaties, threatening nuclear war, and preparing to wage it?

I confess that it’s tempting to say that, if you truly approve of these oppressive practices and policies, maybe you deserve to live with them and the violent rightwing dystopia they will bring. But something within me―some shred of hope, perhaps, about human nature―says that maybe you’re really not comfortable with them after all.

And if you’re not comfortable with them, then it’s time to open your eyes, rouse yourselves, and vote as if the future of the United States and the world depends on it. Because it does!

Dr. Lawrence Wittner, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is Professor of History emeritus at SUNY/Albany and the author of Confronting the Bomb (Stanford University Press).