Can Donald Trump turn his defeats into popular resistance on the basis of a “big lie”?

Three high-level historians on the democratic crisis in the United States: A look at the history of fascism in Europe and racism in America clarifies what is happening now.

In the avalanche of columns and commentary on the mind-boggling events in Washington – a defeated president inciting his supporters to storm the Capitol, Accused and an upcoming Senate trial – three illuminating pieces from renowned American historians stand out: Timothy Snyder, David Blight and Eric Foner. Hundreds of historians already published on Monday a petition calling for the impeachment of Donald Trump for violating the Constitution and his presidential oath. The list of signatories continues to grow.

In all three articles, the authors make historical connections, look at the future of Trumpism, and Foner suggests a way to permanently exclude Trump from politics, even without impeachment.

Confederatievlag

The three historians note with horror that the history of the American Civil War (1860-1865) was visible in the Capitol on January 6 at the ‘confederate flag‘, the former banner of the rebel southern states of slavery which had brought right-wing extremists to the center of power in the Union.

Timothy Snyder rose to fame with his book Bloodlands, on the bloody history of the mass murders committed by the Nazis and Stalin’s Soviet Union in Eastern Europe. A connoisseur of American history of slavery and its struggle against it, David Blight has written an acclaimed biography of 19th century black leader, activist and writer Frederick Douglas. Eric Foner is considered, among others, to be the expert on the short period of black emancipation after the American Civil War (1861-1865), known as the Reconstruction, on which he wrote his most recent book, The second foundation.

Snyder’s try for it magazine The New York Times is full of thought-provoking phrases. “Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump was our post-truth president.” And: “ It was already clear to me in October, and I also wrote in the press, that Trump was seeking a coup with his behavior, not because the present repeats the past, but because the past illuminate the present. ”

For the past four years, historians have debated whether “fascism” was an appropriate characterization of Trump’s policies, Snyder writes, but it’s all about seeing similarities. Looks like trumps’fake news‘in his attack on the free press doesn’t sound much like the’Lying press‘Nazis? Trump also created his for his staunch supporters. bubble, in which the lies are meant to be true. With his thousands of little lies every day, he was able to mistake his opponents for liars while his followers continued to believe in him, writes Snyder. “Yet, as long as he couldn’t lie a really big lie, a fantasy that created an alternate reality that people live and die in, his pre-fascism just wasn’t the real deal.”

Gamers and circuit breakers

Whether that happens after all depends largely on Republicans, who all allowed this escalation to happen. He divides Republicans into two categories: the ‘players‘, who let Trump do his thing (Mitch McConnell) because they see it as a game to keep power, and the’circuit breakerswho are prepared to follow Trump in an undemocratic path, and even after the Capitol invasion, voted for the results of the contest (Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley). The “ thugs ” and right-wing extremist groups could form a Trumpist, anti-democratic, racist and populist “ resistance movement ” in the years to come. With his stubborn insistence that he won the election, that they were rigged and stolen, Trump now has “ a big lie, ” Snyder thinks: “ Not as big as’ the Jews run the world ”, but quite large. ”

David Blight moves in The New York Times a parallel between this great lie of “ unjust loss ” and the “Lost causeFrom the southern slave states, the “Confederate States”, which lost the civil war but restored their norms and values ​​of racial segregation through a network of laws. Lost cause ideologues insisted that the Confederacy did not fight to maintain slavery and was never defeated there, Blight writes. It was a lie in search of a story. The horrible slave plantations were presented as harmonious communities where everyone knew their place. The noble party had lost, in this regard, but took revenge by reversing the emancipation of the black population during the reconstruction after 1877. Revanchism led to more misery, writes Blight, as the Nazis used the humiliating defeat of Germany in World War I to mobilize the population against the Jews and the left elite.

Necessary myths

It remains to be seen whether Trump and his supporters will be able to mobilize a countermovement as old as the lost cause of white supremacist thinkers, Blight admits, but over the past four years the necessary “ myths ” have been difficult. at work. He cites as horrors: “ Christians who feel threatened ”, “ corrupt cities full of brown and black people manipulated by the progressive elite ”, “ socialists who subject you to a strong state ”, “ ‘left-wing media that crush family values’ ‘universities and schools that teach you to hate America’. Powerful ideas, says Blight. Maybe Trumpism will die “like the bad TV show it always has been,” but after the Trumpists attack on Capitol Hill, it’s more likely: “They’re coming back.”

Eric Foner states in an article in The Washington Post advice on how to prevent Trump himself from being in power again: through one of the three Reconstruction Age Amendments, number 14, section 3. A resolution to exclude individuals for Unconstitutional behavior requires only simple majorities in the House and Senate, not the two-thirds majority in the Senate required in the impeachment process. This same law, once intended to thwart former Southern military leaders and politicians, should be turned against Trump, writes Foner, whose book The second foundation about these amendments. A long nose to this white extremist who dragged the Confederation flag in the Capitol.