“The really dangerous American fascist ... is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power... They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective, toward which all their deceit is directed, is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.” — Henry Wallace, April 9, 1944
Henry Wallace was vice-president of the United States from 1941-1945, during most of World War II. He saw fascism up close and knew what it did to those countries that embraced it. He would be alarmed at what happened on Nov. 8, but he predicted it perfectly.
President-elect Donald Trump ran an anti-media, anti-Constitution campaign. He has a record of cheating small businesses. He lies at every opportunity. Because of this, I can guarantee a few things that will happen after Trump takes office om January.
The border wall won’t be built (and that’s good!), so Mexico won’t be paying for it.
Brutality and violent hate crimes, currently on the rise, will increase. White supremacists will gain power. Already, school children are being harassed and bullied by classmates. Teachers call this the “Trump effect.”
Millions of people will lose their health insurance, as Obamacare is repealed with nothing to replace it. Refusals due to pre-existing conditions, bankruptcies due to medical bills, and other pre-Obamacare problems will re-emerge.
Russia will gain an unprecedented amount of influence over U.S. policy, due to Trump’s admiration for Russian president Putin and Trump’s debts to Russian oligarchs.
The world will view America with fear, not respect. It took President Obama years to rebuild the world’s trust. Trump will destroy that trust.
Trump’s tax policies, if they are passed, will increase the deficit enormously. Trump won’t bring jobs back from other countries and unemployment will go up. If he starts a trade war, we will be in recession within a few years.
And Trump will blame everyone else, including Obama. He has never taken responsibility for anything he has done wrong, including the legal charges currently against him, and he won’t now.
If Trump wants to prove he is actually capable of being presidential, there are several things he must do. They shouldn’t be hard, since Obama has already accomplished them or made a strong beginning:
First and foremost, Trump must safeguard the Constitutional rights of everyone in America, including women, the disabled, African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, Native Americans, and every other group he has vilified. He must put his own ego aside.
Second, Trump must protect the First Amendment for everyone. This includes not suing or jailing everyone he doesn’t like.
Third, he must create at least 1.5 million net new jobs every year. Obama did this, so Trump should have no problem. He must also keep unemployment below 5 percent.
Fourth, he must destroy ISIS without costing innocent civilian lives or the lives of American troops. He must also prevent any more terrorist attacks on American soil.
Fifth, he must honor the treaties we have signed until Congress has a chance to revisit them, if necessary.
There is a lot more, of course, but if President Trump can do these things, we just might survive the next four years.
Trump has failed many times; he can now change that record. Republicans will control Congress, the White House, and soon, the Supreme Court. They have the chance to give us the paradise they promised. Or they can plunge us back into the morass GW Bush created, which Obama had to fix. Republicans have shown many times they don’t know how to govern. This is their chance to prove that wrong.
I would love more than anything to be proven wrong. Clip this column, laminate it, store it somewhere. In a few years, take it out and see if I was wrong. I hope with all my heart that I am. I am so afraid I am not.
Jeanette Strong, whose column appears every other week, is a Nevada Press Association award-winning columnist. She may be reached at news@lahontanvalleynews.com.
