THE FASCISTS ARE COMING! THE FASCISTS ARE COMING!
ON APRIL 18, 1775—250 years ago tomorrow—silversmith, American patriot, and folk hero Paul Revere, along with other riders and members of the rebellious Sons of Liberty, were tasked with alerting the colonists in the Massachusetts countryside that British troops were heading to Lexington and Concord. Revere’s specific mission was to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock—said to be the two most wanted men in Massachusetts—that the British were moving to capture them, as well as to seize patriot arms and ammunition. Revere and the other riders were to spread the alarm through the night to ensure that the Minutemen and militias were prepared to offer resistance.
The ensuing battles in Lexington and Concord marked the start of the American Revolutionary War. And Revere’s contributions—including his ride—were critical to preventing our being British citizens today.
John Singleton Copley, Portrait of Paul Revere. c. 1768–1770, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
But I can’t help wondering if, in this critical moment in the destruction of the American democracy our Founders created, it might have been better had we continued as colonies. At this exact tick of time, which would I prefer—to enjoy the benefits of Canadian citizenship, or to be part of an authoritarian regime here in the United States? Which would you choose?
“The British are coming! The British are coming!” is the warning we all think Paul Revere shouted, but that’s not actually correct—those words were taken from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem Paul Revere’s Ride. What Revere called out on his important mission was, “The Regulars are coming out!”
According to American Battlefield Trust:
The phrase “the British are coming,” would have been confusing to locals, who still considered themselves British. Everyone knew what “the Regulars are coming out” meant, and as Revere passed through, more alarm riders rode out, signal guns fired, church bells rang, all alerting the countryside to the coming threat. As the alarm spread, Minutemen grabbed their weapons and headed for town greens, followed by the rest of the Militia.
Paul Revere’s heroic actions led to an entire “intelligence and alarm system to keep watch on the British military.” If those patriotic revolutionaries could devise a sophisticated intelligence and alarm system for their times, where are our counterparts today? With technology as an endless frontier, isn’t there a way to harness some of it to offer warning and protection to the vulnerable among us—which is to say, most of us?
SO MANY OF us are sounding the alarm, but the forces against us are great—as we saw in the fascist photo op with Trump and El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. By the way, Bukele wasn’t dressed in a suit and tie, the very same offense for which Veep J.D. Vance gave Ukraine’s lionhearted President Zelensky inappropriate rude hell. Jon Stewart characterized Bukele’s look as “Miami club promoter.”
Trump is usually acting the strongman, conveying the unmistakable message that he has the absolute power to do anything he wants to anyone he wants, whenever he wants. But when it comes to getting back American citizen Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to a maximum prison hellhole/concentration camp in El Salvador because of an “administrative error,” the president affects a shlumpy no-can-do stance. As for President Bukele, he said in the televised meeting that he couldn’t return a “terrorist” to the United States.
But, of course, Garcia wasn’t a terrorist. And while Trump was hosting Bukele at the White House, the President of the United States could’ve simply informed his autocratic buddy that he was going to send a jet to pick Garcia up, and to get the poor man on the plane. As far as we can tell, Trump has made no such order or ask, even though the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Garcia be returned. On April 15th, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis told Justice Department lawyers that she was ordering expedited discovery "specifically to determine whether you are fighting the court order, my court orders, whether you intend to abide by the court orders." She also said, “It is a fact now, of this record: every day he (Garcia) is detained in CECOT is a day of irreparable harm."
So far, it looks like the El Salvadoran President is being a good Central American neighbor to Trump, helping him destroy the American rule of law. If I were a cartoonist, I’d be drawing a graphic novel about this authoritarian duo and their vicious ill will.
Here’s part of what Timothy Snyder said about where we are now, which he calls incipient state terror. I recommend you read his whole piece.
If citizens endorse the idea that people named by authorities as “criminals” or “terrorists” have no right to due process, then they are accepting that they themselves have no right to due process. It is due process, and due process alone, that allows you to demonstrate that you are a citizen. Without it, the masked men in the black vans can simply claim that you are a foreign terrorist and disappear you.
MORE ABOUT NAYIB BUKELE
Before Bukele's visit, the U.S. State Department changed its travel advisory rating for El Salvador to Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions — effectively rating it as safer for travel than countries like France and the United Kingdom, which currently have a Level 2 rating.
That tells you something about who and what are important to Trump. The countries that are not important are our historic allies, with whom we have been through thick and thin together championing human rights and democracy.
Another tidbit: Bukele calls himself, “the world’s coolest dictator.” Oh-kay. One might think Trump would be jealous. And from Wikipedia, which summed up Bukele’s history most concisely:
El Salvador has experienced democratic backsliding under Bukele, as he has dismantled democratic institutions, curtailed political and civil liberties, and attacked independent media and the political opposition. Bukele has been described as an authoritarian and autocrat. In February 2020, Bukele ordered 40 soldiers into the Legislative Assembly building to intimidate lawmakers into approving a US$109 million loan for the Territorial Control Plan. After Nuevas Ideas won a supermajority in the 2021 legislative election, Bukele's allies in the legislature voted to replace the attorney general and all five justices of the Supreme Court of Justice's Constitutional Chamber. Bukele has attacked journalists and news outlets on social media, drawing allegations of press censorship. Before Bukele's presidency, he considered himself a member of the radical left, but Bukele has since not identified with any political ideology. Political analysts have described him as a populist and a conservative. Bukele has high job approval ratings in El Salvador and is popular throughout Latin America.
NEWS FROM EUROPE
My friend Ralph, who lives in Berlin and Paris, educated me today about one of the ways Germany remembers the Jews who were disappeared and killed during the Holocaust. He made this video to show me. I thought it one of the most intimate, artistic acts that any country could do to honor their dead, and I mean the unfairly dead, the disappeared and the murdered.
Video by Ralph Loeffler
I admire how the artist Gunter Demnig designed these memorials. Imagine walking down the street and happening upon bright brass plates nestled in gray cobblestones in front of the homes where the victims of Nazism last voluntarily lived. The persecuted and murdered individuals are commemorated with the introductory words HERE LIVED, with their names and other info about them engraved on the plates. To stumble across these plates, to be startled by the realization that these people were ripped from these homes, injects the horror of what happened with a remembrance that holds dignity, power, and beauty. Also, seeing the pictures of the murdered and realizing the reverence and love that is honoring them now is a poignant counterpoint to their agony.
This art monument is called STOLPERSTEINE, a word that means “stumbling stone.” It is a project that keeps alive the memory of the expulsion of Jews, Sinti and Roma, politically persecuted people, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and euthanasia victims under National Socialism.
The STOLPERSTEINE represent an art project that was, from the very beginning, designed to provide a lasting and continuous remembrance and continues to do so. The project was intended to be carried out over several years, allowing future generations to engage in the process of remembrance. Through the extended period of laying the stones in various locations, the project enables close cooperation between survivors and relatives on one side, and historical societies, foundations, homeowners, residents, municipalities, as well as students on the other. Together, they all dedicate themselves to the memory of the victims of National Socialism. Due to these many different social interactions, the art memorial STOLPERSTEINE becomes a so-called SOCIAL SCULPTURE.
Our STOLPERSTEINE have so far been laid in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, and Hungary.
What this all means is that we must keep banging our drums loudly about Kilmar Abrego Garcia and others, so they can’t be forgotten—and so we can’t be ignored. How can we all do this? In conversations both online and off. As the Lincoln Project did, on billboards, ads, newspapers, and magazines—all in prominent places—boldly, repeatedly, continuously. Journalists must keep talking about them, writing about them. Posts on Social Media.
We can’t allow our fellow citizens to be disappeared and forgotten. We could be next.
ONE LAST NOTE: Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin space flight was mission accomplished. He sent up his fiancée Lauren Sanchez and a star-studded group of women in a space-size PR move, the jokes about Katy Perry notwithstanding. The problem for me was that last I checked, Bezos was a collaborator in Trump’s fascist takeover, as is Sanchez. Remember them in chatty Billionaire’s Row at Trump’s inauguration with Sanchez in her boob-exposed pantsuit? Remember the $40 million Bezos paid Melania for her story?
Oprah sang the praises of best friend Gayle King taking the flight, and that’s fine. What a good friend, right? No doubt, she and others had good intentions. But Jeff Bezos used each and every one of those female celebrities and their celebrity significant others to act like he was doing something for women. He was only doing it for himself, and we know where he stands on everything now. It. Is. Not. With. Any. Of. Us.
Here's Stephen Colbert’s take on that Blue Origin trip.
This may have been a step forward for Bezos’ Blue Origins, but it was a step backward for women. Like Harvard, they should have said no. Every single thing we do now—or we don’t do now—matters.
Please send any questions or comments our community can address and respond to.
Peace. We are one.
A Few Of My Favorite Social Media Posts And Memes Of The Week:
The first two are a posted article in the “Financial Times.”
Excellent essay - I am saddened that it is so appropriate for these times. But, the reality is there starring us in the face and must be faced squarely with resistance.
Thank you for another thoughtful piece describing exactly where we are. Brava!