Asians are the perfect examples to prove that smaller in stature does not reflect a smaller value. The perennial perception that physical strength or bigger shape deserves a higher rung in society has been perpetuated by the bullies to get an advantage without showing anything worth better to justify their superiority. The ability to kill has been the only justification.
The American democratic society has worked hard to reach the idealistic promised land where each person is free and independent, and each person is respected for who they are. It has nurtured men to be free and thinking for themselves and proved that the disdain, disrespect and dismissiveness of anyone of different appearances are contrived and the people’s prejudicial perception or discrimination is man-created to suit their selfish and nearsighted interest.
Germany in 1932 was politically similar to the U.S. in 2016. Hitler gained political power through election. How did he do it? By dangling the menace of the Jews taking over Germany just like the specter of immigrants’ potential taking over of American society spread by MAGA Republicans. But once in power, Hitler resorted to plotting and decrees, or in other words executive orders, to suppress his opponents, cling to power, and make his authority absolute.
The same intimidation tactics are used by MAGA against its political opponents. The striking revelation by a Republican U.S. Senator, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a rare occurrence in Republican politics (a candid admission by a Republican politician against his own party), that the FBI warned him about credible death threats when he was considering voting against the confirmation of Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary. Eventually, he voted to confirm the nomination. According to Vanity Fair, he suggested that if anyone wanted to understand President Trump, they should read “Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go To Work” (A spokesman for the senator denied the story).
Too many similarities between MAGA politics and other dictatorial regimes should alarm non-MAGA Americans. America has made progress in making Democracy stronger and beneficial to all. But manipulators and opportunists have tried to convince the American people otherwise and worked feverously to undermine Democracy. The immigration issue has created an environment readily exploited by these cloudy water fishermen, who dislike Democracy probably because its institutions are based on the idea that all men are created equal; they prefer aristocracy, oligarchy, or a dictatorship of some kind.
In any dictatorial regime, indoctrination is of paramount importance. The Soviet Union established The Young Pioneers to train children and Komsomol to whip young Russian adults into disciplined cadres taking order from the Communist party with no question asked.
Hitler and Germany’s Nazi did the same with organizations such as The Hitler Youth and The League of German Girls, which were composed of several different divisions for young boy, young adults, and girls. Their mission was to train the Germans to obey the Fuhrer and be loyal to him (does it sound familiar?) as the savior of Germany.
In our country at the present time, these anti-democracy opportunists exhort young people not to pursue college studies, which of course include liberal arts, the branch of education that is designed to expand the minds of young people to think and consider other ideas besides what their elders tell them. They offer money to people under 22 years old to quit college.
Why? – The stated reason is that college education does not guaranty success in real life. But a program such as this guaranties that young people are not subject to a more rounded education offered by colleges and universities’ liberal arts departments, the kind of education that, according to MAGA, subjects them to “woke” ideas or “woke” thinking. In short, they give powerful incentive ($100,000) for young Americans not to learn or think for themselves, just take order and obey. They want to produce generations of worker bees.
The weakness of Democracy seems to lie at its foundation. When people are free and thinking, they naturally entertain doubts when presented with an idea or an issue and take time to think and debate even when the issue is of an emergency nature. They are also more tolerant of different or opposing ideas. When faced with the intolerant MAGA’s massive energy created by its obeying and single-minded members, Democracy has little chance without an effective support mechanism. When MAGA whips up the frenzy of immigrants invading the country and foreigners destroying American traditional values, even people who favor Democracy are swayed and set aside the potential danger of losing it all.
A Democratic strategist predicted that support for Trump, Musk, and MAGA ideology would suffer a “massive collapse” within the next month or so. How did he know? Because the bond market has gone up. It reminds us of ancient generals reading the tea leaves before going to battle. He urged his fellow Democrats to lay back. A sign that the country’s economic and financial factors do not support the president’s agenda is good news for the Democrats, but waiting is not by itself a very effective strategy. They do not seem to have thought of an antidote to fight against the anti-democratic forces let alone coming up with one.
Borrowing the experiments of the Soviet Communists and Germany’s Nazi, MAGA tolerates no dissenter, so their energy is concentrated and bullet-like. It has found an ideology to forge a monolith within the Republican Party: White Supremacism, or in lay term: racism. The fact that MAGA successfully maneuvered to stack the Supreme Court with justices who readily side with it to affirm an expanded executive power, tantamount to a dictator’s, indicates that it has played a long game, and the scheme had been hatched a long while ago.
The chaotic immigration policy gave MAGA a perfect scapegoat to seize power and to reach the ultimate goal of White Supremacy. The rude conduct of American leaders in Europe from criticizing its leaders to outright support of its extremist elements makes us wonder if there is a plan in all this such to export MAGA’s “How to Conquer” playbook to Europe to create an international movement to turn Europe into a collective of white nations governed by strongmen or oligarchs?
If such plan in the work, Russia will no longer be needed as a whipping boy and Ukraine will just be an unimportant and politically irrelevant piece of land in the continent. The collateral damage caused by such a plan will be the long campaign to convince people to respect other people as they are. The spectacle in the Oval Office where the President of the United States and his Vice President berating and dressing down the head of another state, the President of Ukraine seems to confirm a tremendous setback in the fight against the bullies of the world and for equality among human beings of different races, nationalities, genders, and stations in life.
JOHN P. LE PHONG
(This article is posted on X, Facebook, and thelephongjournal.com)
