A Duty to Warn America: A Face-off with a Future of Fascism?

Thomas Drake

German American Bund parade on East 86th St., New York City, October 30, 1937. / World-Telegram photo. Public Domain.

Is it a time of historical reckoning for America, in this social media dominated age, riddled by lots of gaslighting hyperbole and rabbit-holed halls full of meme-filled mirrored walls?

Is it just a caricatured stage play of days long political games with a crazy old man on one side telling people the country is like a garbage can occupied by enemies and overrun by immigrants and a place to dump on democracy — poisoning the blood and streams of America while appealing to the pro-bros disassociated from society?

And on the other side is a cheerleading ms congeniality, projecting a why-can’t-we-all-just-get-along plan focused on the dominion of democracy, while joyfully rationalizing an America high on its own shining city beamed from a mythical hill on the other?

It seems too many are living in a co-dependent alternative reality, addicted to an endless array of attention deficit disordered soap opera dramas, pitting Americans against each other.

Caricatures, stereotypes and the tossing around of pejoratives and projection are very much in abundance this election season, but behind some of them are disturbing realities.

For example, those who accuse others of Trump Derangement Syndrome, are in reality, really allergic to the truth and any evidence of holding Trump accountable and responsible.

Trump is clearly painting a very dark future that exists outside the bounds of law and civic decency who also clearly and willfully violated his oath as President with impunity to not preserve, not protect and not defend the Constitution, when he attempted to unlawfully remain in power.

So what’s really going on?

There is an insidious and insipid mind space war of memes and manipulation to accept without question a whole landscape of lies — and to denigrate and dismiss anyone who desists, resists or speaks out against those who distrust objective truth — despite what one sees with their own eyes.

What we are seeing is a reinventing of reality through a concerted and concentrated effort, by various disinformation and agitprop operations (both foreign and domestic), to own the climate of public opinion, occupy their minds and generate coded cognitive response patterns that suspend reason and deconstruct objective reality.

This is meant to trigger an induced subconscious switch to accept the replacement of grounded rationality with reconstructed irrationality — through base reactive emotion and dissociative counter-narrative mind virus manipulation.

Trumpism is a particularly virulent and toxic form of a neo-fascist, true believer fueled, cult-like, authoritarian, populist political movement bent on disabling and dismembering the rule of law, abandoning democracy and subverting the Constitutional Republic.

In other words, based on their own words and the blueprint written down in Project 2025, Trumpism, with all its compulsive narcissism and various confederate acolytes and nativist nationalist demands — possesses the express intent of turning America into an Orwellian Fourth Reich of AmeriKa, allergic to the unblinking eyes of history — while embracing a whole litany of lies, hate-infused tropes, racism, lawlessness, vindictiveness, ritual revenge and retribution and the urging of violence as well as calling out individual names and creating lists of ‘enemies from within’ to target and attack.

What’s at stake is NOT the false dichotomy and faux equivalency divisions of left right, liberal conservative or democrat republican — too often centered on disinformation and diversion. The mantra that is cast is do not believe the truth, but do embrace the lethality of lies — a stunning departure from widely accepted norms of plain civil decency, civic democracy and just basic humanity.

And when lies are surrogates for the truth, truth dies.

What’s REALLY at stake is the very heart, character and continuing promise of the Great American Experiment — replaced by the prospect of an AmeriCon on America with a retrograde rewriting of history and the full, no guard third rail unleashing of an autocratic klepto-chaoscracy — that sells out and sells off what is left of America.

This virulent neo-fascist form of raw, unchecked power is intended to control and suppress the lives and liberties of people it unilaterally decides are threats or even declared as internal enemies of the state resisting or speaking out against the abuse of unconsented authority and the dismantling of democracy.

It’s We the People who are on trial.

So we must stop and ask the really hard look-in-the-mirror question: What future do the majority of We the People want to keep?

Why? When looking out either the front window or the rear view mirror of history, objects of concern accelerating toward you that may create harm or injury ARE actually closer than they appear.

I, for one, do not want to see the arc of American history burn out upon the funeral pyre of fear and phobia even with all its faults and original sins — including slavery, atrocities against indigenous peoples, forcing native Americans onto reservations, blatant racism and discrimination against immigrants, the shame of internment camps during wartime, the exceptionalism of manifest destiny, rank militarism and the raft of tragic foreign misadventures for starters.

Yes, America is also a contradiction and and a paradox at the same time.

But do we really want to see the ugly specter of fascism with its confederate-laced flags of vendetta and violence flying high above the remains of democracy’s ashes — as much as some DO want to see it all burn down and slide into the whirlpool of soft tyranny with zero tolerance for opposing opinions and dissent or those daring to speak truth about abuse of power?

America continues to face serious problems and serious challenges and remains a very imperfect Union — including inadequate governance, failures in public safety and widespread political and corporate corruption — that are all too very real. Yet America also needs the most serious of people to help face and solve them.

Better to turn out and defend an imperfect Union and rededicate ourselves to the work of further unifying and forming a “more perfect Union” for the common good rather than tuning out and supporting division and disunion that could further disunite and end the dream of the Great American Experiment and turn it into a dystopian nightmare.

Who are the rest of the defending avengers and protectors of democracy?

It is us.

We really do not want to make fascism favorable or in fashion in America again and do so at our own peril.

History awaits the verdict.

The deafening bells of history are clanging very loudly in my ears.

I am reminded yet again of a quote from Benjamin Franklin that provides a stark relief in terms of what is at stake in America.

Elizabeth Willing Powel, a quite prominent woman from Philadelphia during the founding years of the US (yet erased from most histories), and based on the journal notes of delegate James McHenry of Maryland, purportedly asked Franklin, as the Constitutional Convention concluded, “What have we got — a republic or a monarchy?”

Franklin replied, “A republic — if you can keep it.”

Benjamin Franklin advocated for the rights of the individual and considered democracy and liberty as foundational cornerstones of the Great American Experiment.

I really don’t want to see or experience the remains of the Republic and democracy burn out in front of me by the spreading fire of fascism and authoritarianism — or as Padme said in Star Wars, “So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause.”

As for me?

I have Obi Wan on repeat exclaiming, “Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic, to democracy!” after Anakin angrily asserted to Obi Wan that he, Anakin, brought “…peace, freedom, justice and security…” to his new empire.

For further reading check out this deeply insightful and thought provoking article on the huge challenges democracy faces from the pathological forces hellbent on ruling America through raw power and authoritarianism.

It is time to heal, renew and recreate democracy in America — and to the Republic for which it stands.

What future do we want to keep?

Thomas Drake is a former senior executive at the National Security Agency.