From Democracy to Dictatorship
[ A presentation based on the book by James Wiggins]
Vincent S. D’Agati PhD
• In spite of his defeat, some 70.0 million people voted for Trump in the
2020 Election. That is close to 50% of eligible voters.
• Throughout the Trump Administration we have seen that he has had
almost total support of the Republican Party.
• Today we a celebrating the Biden/Harris victory in this Presidential
Election; however, the events and conditions that lead to so many
people supporting Trump will not go away.
• For the new Administration and the Democratic Party and Democrats
throughout the Country, the work to undo those events and
conditions has just begun.
• For the new President and Democrats to be successful in maintaining
the USA as a Democratic Republic an effective strategy that addreses
the root causes of Trump’s success with so many Americans must be
designed.
• That strategy must be defined in terms that most Americans will
understand and accept into their minds for it to become a reality.
• The short 5-page summary document that was prepared: From
Democracy to Dictatorship that is based on short book by James
Wiggins with that same title, will now be addressed.
• Due to time constraints and that our session today is a celebration of
our victory, not for a long discussion on democracy, fascism and
dictatorship, I will be brief.
• From Democracy to Dictatorship focuses mainly on the events and
conditions experienced by Germany in the 1930’s that led to a fascist
government and the Nazi dictatorship.
• When one reviews those events and conditions, one realizes that
many of the same events and conditions are not only happening in
today’s USA but that the Trump Administration knowingly or
unknowingly has either been taking advantage of to strengthen its
hand or actually, creating them.
• Briefly some of the characteristics of the fascist regime are:
• “Fascist leaders were always outsiders who broke the usual rules, which in a
time of crisis when the old Rightist/Leftist dogmas didn’t appear to be
working, was part of their attraction.”
• “As opposed to a unified national policy platform, the Nazi’s relied on
passions and stirring up emotions. This nationalism was of a very specific
type, one whose members were defined by ethnicity rather than by jointly
held values.”
• “Fascists were consumed with ‘a sense of overwhelming crisis’ and a ‘dread
decline’. Paranoia was their oxygen, drawing zeal from their ‘conspiratorial
view of history. [We must ‘Make America Great Again’]
• “Xenophobia – literally, the ‘irrational dislike or fear of foreigners’ – was their
stance before the world, and so was basis for their foreign policy”
• Briefly some of the characteristics of the fascist regime are:
• “Shared hatreds rather than shared principles were often the glue binding
together followers from across regions and economic classes.”
• “It was the Leader (il Duce, der Führer) whose native instincts, who’s personal
‘charisma,’ not intellect or experience, made him fit to lead the nation.”
• “…Nazi Germany was not characterized by oppressive law, but by a
‘permanent state of lawlessness,’ a defiance of all law and legality.”
• ”Nazi Germany was laissez-faire run amok, with selfish interests unchecked by
government regulation, but in fact unchecked by any rule of law or any
inhibition of ethics.”
• “Hitler’s primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit
fault or wrong; blame [your enemy] for everything that goes wrong.”
• Why have so many Republican Senators, Congressmen, Governors,
State Legislators, Attorney Generals and Citizens demonstrated such
loyalty to a person who is so disrespectful of our Democratic
principles and even one who considers himself ‘above the law?’
• Some of those answers may be found in a book entitled, Democracy
in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for
America by Nancy MacLean.
• Just to quote ‘About This Book from its Kindle version:
”Behind today’s headlines of billionaires taking over our government is a secretive political
establishment with a long, deep, and troubling roots. The capitalist radical right has been
working not simply to change who rules, but to fundamentally alter the rules of democratic
governance. But billionaires did not launch this movement; a white intellectual in the
embattled Jim Crow South did. Democracy in Chains names its true architect – the Nobel
Prize-winning political economist James McGill Buchanan – and dissects the operation he
and his colleagues designed over six decades to alter every branch of government to
disempower the majority.”
“Corporate donors and their right-wing foundations were only too eager to support
Buchanan’s work in teaching others (legislators, judges, and other public officials0 how to
divide America into “makers” (e.g. entrepreneurs') and “takers” (e.g. social security
recipients). And when a multibillionaire on a messianic mission to rewrite the social
contract of the modern world, Charles Koch, discovered Buchanan, he created a vast
relentless, and multi-armed machine to carry out Buchanan’s strategy.”
Consequently, to address the root causes as to why 70.0
million U.S. Citizens voted for Trump in 2020 and why on
the weekend of December 12, 2020 there are so many
protesters that are upset with the Supreme Court’s decision
not to overturn the democratic election results based on a
lawsuit from the Attorney General from Texas; this will take
a very carefully thought-out strategy that all Democrats will
need to execute over the next four years to prevent Trump
II.
