The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #171697   Message #4153629
Posted By: Steve Shaw
25-Sep-22 - 10:10 AM
Thread Name: BS: The U.S. and the Holocaust
Subject: RE: BS: The U.S. and the Holocaust
I don't think that most people who voted for Trump are white supremacists. Clearly there are fringe organisations on the far right that will jump aboard if they see that they won't immediately be kicked straight back over the side. They find a mouthpiece in the mainstream, often displaying false decency and false moderation, but there are plenty of stern voices opposing them. Ever since WW2 there have been fringe neofascist groups in European countries. There have always been people in Spain who would have Franco back in a heartbeat. Germany and Austria have endured far-right factions almost forever. We're very likely looking at Italy electing a far-right leader today. France has had the Le Pens, we've had the NF or the BNP and other such nasties, and there's that idiot in Hungary, and Poland doesn't exactly have a Mr Nice-guy either. They will always appeal to the disaffected, but that doesn't make the disaffected fascists or white supremacists. The biggest and best weapons we have are democracy and the rule of law. The EU insists on its members abiding fully with those concepts as well as with rules on human rights and justice systems, and those dodgy leaders or would-be leaders must abide by them. We've had dire threats about the ascendancy of the extreme right ever since the end of WW2, but countries that hang on fiercely to democratic values will generally prevail. The biggest current enemy of democracy is populism. Populism depends on appeals to the lowest instincts of people and relies on their political ignorance. Tens of thousands of people in the UK who had supported decent Labour values all their lives voted for Boris Johnson last time fer chrissake. You had a not dissimilar problem when Trump came to prominence. I'm fairly confident that our system will eventually see off the populists (though we could do with a better leader). We look at the US two years after Trump tried to start an insurrection and some of us are appalled by your paralysis. What happens in your country in the next months or years may well define the future direction of the world. It's as important as that.