Fascism is alive and well in America, today. In some sense, it has managed to survive during the last century in the proletariat neighborhoods of rural towns where you could find Christmas decorations on houses in August. These same happy homes might have old tires and the engine blocks or transmissions of decrepit cars as flower planters in their front yard. The postman might notice a confederate battle flag hanging on the living room wall as he passed each day delivering the mail. There were few occasions to fly the swastika in public, but today those things we associate with National Socialism are becoming once again chic. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who hops spastically across the stage like someone with St. Vitus Dance, enjoys sharing a Nazis salute to the MAGA crowd on the eve of a new era in America. Not to be undone by his bitter rival, Steve Bannon has been sighted at a recent CPAC convention doing the same historical Heil!

Let me call your attention to the feature photo (above):

A letter to Time Magazine (Nov. 12, 1945), written by Lieutenant Earle A. Cleveland, discusses the emotional state of the depicted woman in the feature photo above (third from left):

“The sobbing woman with arm outstretched in Nazi salute has been consistently interpreted as a symbol of forced obedience to the German conquerors of Czechoslovakia … The picture was snapped by a German press photographer and first appeared in the National Socialist newspaper, “Völkischer Beobachter,” in the fall of 1938, shortly after the Sudeten ‘Anschluss.’ The Nazi explanation was that here were portrayed the intense emotions of joy which swept the Sudeten Germans as Hitler crossed the Czech border at Asch and drove through the streets of the nearby ancient city of Eger [the German name for Cheb], 99% of whose inhabitants were ardently pro-Nazi Sudeten Germans at the time.”

The woman on the far left is a true believer. She has drunk the Kool-Aid and is fully onboard with her narcissistic leader, no matter what he does. Her Führer could shoot someone on Fünfte Allee (Fifth Avenue) and get away with it. In fact, Hitler could kill 263,000 Czechs in her country and could–he did–get away with it! But as far as the woman on the far left was concerned, fascism was cool. She felt important, like exciting things were about to happen, starting with a drop in the cost of a dozen eggs at the market, perhaps. Or, maybe those diseased, deranged Ausländers would be dragged off the streets and sent somewhere where she didn’t have to see them. Somewhere where they couldn’t poison any German blood or eat anyone’s dachshund? Perhaps Madagascar? Or, they could join the Palestinians from Gaza in Somalia for all she cared.

The woman in the middle is clearly able to contain her enthusiasm (if she has any.) She looks to me like she doesn’t know what to think, maybe she is apprehensive or uncertain, but my wife Deena reminds me that I am neuro-atypical and neuro-atypical people have trouble reading faces, though I seem to know instinctively whether I’m in trouble when I look at my wonderful wife on other occasions [laut lachen.]

Woman number three: The Nazi–perhaps Alfred Rosenberg–writing in the “Völkischer Beobachter,” which was the official Nazis newspaper wanted to spin a very difficult narrative to his advantage. He said she was so grateful that the NSDAP party won the last election and was on the road to making Germany great again that her tears were actually tears of joy. Do you buy that? Keep in mind that while the photo was being taken, the better part of a German division was goosestepping down her street. Hopefully she wasn’t a troublemaker. Hopefully her enthusiastic neighbors did not report her to the Gestapo on some trumped up charges. Hopefully, she wasn’t Jüdisch. Hopefully.

It’s hard make sense of everything that’s happening unless you understand there is a historical precedent for it, and the last country to embrace fascism suffered greatly. German widows and their children were systematically raped and forced to bear Russian children. Many people starved or died of cold in the winter of 1945. Their nation was cursed around the world for the next three generations. Is that what we want for the U.S.?

Even little things can be (should be) red flags. Fascist régimes love to rename cities, mountains and geographical features and landmarks. For example, the Germans renaming St. Goarshausen on the eastern shore of the Rhine to Oberwesen or the Soviets renaming Königsberg to Kaliningrad, though the latter example is admittedly a bit of a stretch. Totalitarian régimes do this to emphasize their ultra-national fervor while at the same time denigrating weaker countries who cannot protest.

Sometime later this year, perhaps sooner than later, our budding fascist administration will find a pretense to seize emergency powers and restrict our fundamental Constitution liberties in the name of liberty or some other specious reason. Peaceful, patriotic people who have been critical of the current administration may find themselves under threat of arrest. This is how things like this usually play out in history. Hopefully, history does not repeat itself this time, though it usually does.