This cute little HS project I worked on with Mary a few years ago got me thinking about the foundational conflict of America, which ended tyranny by creating a viable democracy. But underneath this bright beginning brewed a dark underbelly of racism, xenophobia and patriarchal despotism, just waiting for its chance to rise. Lincoln sparked this dark force into action with the civil war, and after the south’s bitter defeat, forced it back underground, where the resentments only metastasized.
Ever since then these people have been plotting and planning, from Jim Crow to American fascism in the 30s and 40s, which again was forced back under ground by our entry into WWII. The civil rights movement drove it further under ground. It seemed almost to disappear. But it was just buried deeper in our psyche.
It tried to clean itself up with Reagan, make itself more populist and benign. But the underbelly of hate and resentment continued to brew, underneath. It lay dormant even as the Heritage Foundation continued to modify its plan for a grand reemergence. The election of a black man, Obama, set off a dark response. Whites felt viscerally threatened.
Trump provided the opportunity they were looking for. He wasn’t part of this centuries old planning. He was the product of it. But he was no mastermind. The Heritage Foundation people found him and determined he would be the perfect vessel. They flattered and wooed him and lay out a platform, Project 2025, that appealed to his natural racist, xenophobic tendencies. Incidentally, in 2015 Dillon Roof’s manifesto predicted the rise of white supremacy. What seemed to me absurd only 10 years ago has come to fruition.
January 6, 2021 tested the waters. Now, this is the moment these people have been preparing for for over two centuries. A fascist hybrid. We are witnessing a coup, something our forefathers tried to warn us about. With freedom of speech comes the danger of extremist ideas like fascism and communism to rise to the surface. The fascists seem to have won.
Democracy has fallen into the hands of a petty despot. The heritage people know he will die soon and are planning the next and final phase that will make Hitler’s Reich look like a quaint warm up act. Vance is their man. He will sign the orders they put in front of him. Imagine having the most powerful military force behind their dark agenda. It will take a generation or two to stop this next phase. Many millions will likely die trying.