For rich "liberals" in America-it's the messenger of fascism they loath and not fascism's message.

It was nearly midnight a few days ago when my phone rang. At the other end was someone I've known since my time at university, in the 1980s.

His voice was thick with drink, weariness and desperation. The tone of his words sounded like he was going through a dark tea time of the soul. It was exacerbated by drinking a bottle of wine that cost the equivalent of my weekly grocery budget.

Photo by Jonathan Simcoe on Unsplash

For the better part of the last twenty years, he's lived in the US because it's a society that "values money making."

He asked, "Did your Dad see this coming?

I mean Trump, fascism, and what's been happening in 2024."

I was polite because I liked him for the good times we shared when young. But I thought, did you ever truly listen to what my dad had to say or me, for that matter. For the last ten years of my father's life, he used the phrase Don't Let My Past be your future in books, essays, speeches, interviews and podcasts.

What did he think that meant?

My dad's warnings were straight forward-if nations don't repair their social safety net through wealth taxation-fascism and economic collapse for the ordinary worker was nigh?

Probably, none of what my dad said when alive registered with the person on the phone with me that night.

He still believes America is an imperfect Republic struggling to improve itself. It is what happens when your knowledge and talking points about the World's mightiest neoliberal Empire in the 21st century come from PBS documentaries and MSNBC editorials.

Empires don't ruminate about how to make themselves existentially good; they plot, scheme and manipulate to expand, exploit and dominate their citizens, allies and economic rival nations.

He was able to convince himself- the way rich people who want to believe they are liberal do- that politics in the USA were a series of swings and roundabouts from Ronald Reagan's presidency to Donald Trump's rather than democracy’s death march towards fascism.  

That is how neoliberalism corrupts everything it touches because it allows those who are financially successful to believe that their good life is proof that the system works, and so democracy must be functioning.

It's a lie- of course- but rich people don't want to dig too far beneath the surface because their living is lush and pleasurable. Their earthly rewards must have a purpose. Many- even the atheists among the well-to-do- put it down to the divine attributes of merit rather than payback for preserving a corrupt system, in a very unfair world order.

Wealthy people believe that they made a choice to be rich, and so others- made a choice to be poor.

That's why it is impossible to convince them of the merits of taxation to preserve democracy except when it is at the most minute level of personal sacrifice.

The person on the phone with me confessed his fears about the possibility of societal breakdown across America after the November presidential election.

He doesn't get out much beyond the gated environs of his entitled life because the breakdown of society occurred a long time ago in America and every other Western country that lives under its umbrella of strength through consumerism.

Rarely venturing away from his gated community, he believes that by supporting the Democratic Party, he stands for the defence of liberalism. It's a horse that bolted from the Democratic Party stables. a long time ago. It happened when Bill Clinton created a political party machine that has more interest in enriching wall street rather than main street.

So, my friend from university confuses being against Trump as being an anti-fascist. It's cosplay to believe you are anti-fascist if you support low corporate taxes, less taxation for top-income earners, don't object to America's imperial wars abroad, think governments must be more draconian against migrants, believe a rise in the minimum wage wrecks an economy, find homelessness is a choice rather than a by-product of capitalism run amok. It's fascism's messenger you have the problem with- not the message of fascism.

Our phone call ended with him fretting about surviving under another Trump administration.

It made me laugh because as he has wealth, he should survive the shape of things to come- a damn sight better than I will or most of you will. We are the ones who get strung up on lamp posts because the rich will always make concessions to preserve their money.

Your subscriptions are so important to my personal survival because like so many others who struggle to keep afloat, my survival is a precarious daily undertaking. The fight to keep going was made worse- thanks to getting cancer along with lung disease and other co- morbidities which makes life more difficult to combat in these cost of living crisis times. So if you can join with a paid subscription which is just 3.50 a month or a yearly subscription or a gift subscription. I am offering a 20% reduction in a yearly subscription to ensure my prescriptions can be purchased tomorrow. Three new subscribers covers that cost. I promise the content is good, relevant and thoughtful. But if you can’t it all good too because I appreciate we are in the same boat. Take Care, John