Guest Post: The New Fascists, by Jim McCoy

In Ancient Rome a lictor, a bodyguard to a Roman magistrate (judge), would carry a fasce. It was a bundle of sticks sometimes with an axehead attached and a symbol of power over life and death. Mess with the lictor or his magistrate and he would use it to deadly effect. In Italy it remained a symbol of power for centuries. The fasce inspired respect and fear wherever it was shown. It was considered to be a statement of intent to use force against whoever opposed the bearer and/or his movement. It was adopted by the movement of one Benito Mussolini. It is where the word “Fascist” originates.

The Fascist party used reprehensible tactics to get their leadership elected to power. They were known to beat people, to stand outside of voting areas and refuse entry to anyone not of their party and in some cases to actually beat people with fasces. It was a terrifying time to be an Italian of an opposition party. Fights were common. The Fascists would attack individuals and then claim it was the victim's fault. They would attack and break up political rallies and blame the opposition. Sound familiar? It should. Let's fast forward a few decades and cross an ocean.

The history of this country is being re-written by the Left. Men like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington have been defamed for not following twenty-first century morals in the eighteenth century.  Confederate monuments have been defaced. The works of Mark Twain have been re-written in more “acceptable form”.  The Nazis rewrote history too. The political party that calls us fascists is the one using the fascistic tactics.

A few nights ago, a Donald Trump rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago was cancelled because  of the violence of  Black Lives Matter activists and Bernie Sanders supporters. I'm nowhere near a supporter of the Donald but that doesn't make this right. These are flat out fascist tactics. They're the same tactics used by the Fascist party and that other Fascist government, the Nazis. I'm not joking. I'm not exaggerating. We are looking at the possibility of a government that rules through fear, intimidation and the jailing of its enemies. Say what you want about Trump's politics I haven't heard a single word about his followers busting up anyone else's rallies. No one has forced Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton to postpone one of their gatherings. This only happens when someone disagrees with the Left.

It's worth remembering that when the Nazis first opened their concentration camps they weren't intended for Jews. The Holocaust came later. The original inhabitants of the camps were political prisoners – people who disagreed with the Nazis. That's why the gates that led into Auschwitz were engraved with the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work will set you free). The Jews that went there were never intended to leave. Nor were the Gypsies. The original inmates, the political prisoner, could work their way out. Service to the Party was all that mattered.

Now we're looking at a situation where free speech is effectively banned on college campuses and segregation is once again becoming the norm. You can call them “safe spaces” if you so desire. This is a free country after all. The bottom line is that when you tell someone they can't enter into a space because of their race/religion/gender/etc they are being segregated. How many Klan members would have claimed that it wasn't safe to let black people into their part of town in 1960? How is this any different? Answer: It's not.

You can call it sensitivity if you wish but when a person is banned from speaking at an event because they have “offensive ideas” that's censorship. When a college professor threatens student journalists with physical violence because she thinks they might write something she disagrees with  you've got a problem, especially when she is a member of the Communications Department and ought to be encouraging the rights of people to express themselves.  This is a member of the faculty at a government run institution stopping free expression and expecting to get away with it. For those out there who claim that the First Amendment only applies to the government I'll say this again: This was a GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE in her PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT working AGAINST THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS of others merely because she disagreed with what she thought they would probably say. She was charged with assault. That's good. The fact that she has not been charged with civil rights violations is a problem as that was the worse of the two offenses. That's the one she deserves punishment for.

I myself sat in a classroom and was threatened with expulsion for stating something a professor disagreed with. It was Wayne State University. I was a graduate student in the History Department. I was taking a seminar class on recent American history with a “justice” theme. We were discussing the educational system and the importance of diversity. In walked one Kidada Williams, professor of history at the school. She boldly stated that diversity was one hundred percent necessary and then spoke in praise of Historically Black Colleges. What I made clear to her that day was that if a degree from a non-diverse school has no value then a degree from a Historically Black College has no value because there is no diversity there. Historically Black Colleges not only have student bodies that are over ninety percent members of one race, they brag about it. That's about as far from diversity as it is humanly possible to get. I then inquired as to whether she would prefer to admit that diversity was not the only thing that gave value to an education or admit that there was no value in a degree from a Historically Black College. She threatened me with expulsion. The reason? I “offended” her. She was going to have me expelled for not following the party line. I said something she didn't like. It was like being a university student in Munich in 1935.

This is the environment that the Left is trying to encourage in this country. We're headed toward a culture of violence and fear. If things don't change it won't be safe to speak your mind here soon, at least if you don't agree with the Left. Will there be re-education camps? I doubt it. The future I foresee is more like the one the Kidada Williams's of the world want: One where anyone who verbalizes the wrong opinions will be denied access to society and the benefits of citizenship ala equal protection of the law.

Think about it. Even the Huffington Post, a liberal publication if there ever was one, admits that evidence of an IRS conspiracy against the Tea Party exists.  This isn't about the Tea Party or their platform specifically. It's about the fact that a government agency used its power to actively influence a political election by denying tax free status to organizations that were entitled to it under the law. Granted, a few people have been fired but have there been any prosecutions? Abuse of power and corruption by a public official are both illegal. Why has the government not followed its own laws in this case? Maybe, just maybe, could it be that it's because the Tea Party isn't part of the liberal movement? I think it is.

Let's face it people: Those of us on the right are under assault in both the legal and physical senses. Whether it's professors threatening to use force to stop journalists or assaults at a Trump rally (and for the record I'm a Cruz supporter) the Left is threatening the physical safety of those they disagree with. Whether it's firing the Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran from his government position for writing something the Left didn't like or stopping the opposition from forming its own political organizations the law doesn't protect Conservatives.

So what can we do? I'm not sure. Voting doesn't seem to be the answer. The vast majority of the Republican Party are closer to the Democrats of the nineties in their voting patterns than they are to what a real conservative would want. The term RINO (Republican in Name Only) no longer fits. If anything Ted Cruz is the RINO because he's a real conservative. The problem in many ways is the judicial system and federal law enforcement. The FBI is part of the Department of Justice. The head of the Department of Justice is the Attorney General. The Attorney General reports directly to the president. Who really believes that one of the president's allies is going to be prosecuted for anything?

Yes, you can prosecute one lowly professor who was dumb enough to be caught on camera threatening people, but Lois Lerner is still running around loose. Edward Snowden is living in exile but Hillary Clinton is running for president. Kelvin Cochran still doesn't have his job back. Things are getting worse. The First Amendment has been ignored and the courts aren't enforcing it. Appointment to the bench in most federal positions is for life. The outlook is bleak.

I guess our only real alternative is the four boxes: The soap box, the ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box. The fact that the majority of the major news networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, etc.) are very heavy in their liberal bias isn't going to help when we bust out the soap box. The ballot box doesn't seem to be working. Even when we elect someone who says they'll stand up to this crap they don't. The jury box? Where is the evidence that the court system is willing to even hear these cases?  I really don't want to resort to the cartridge box. It would be worse this time than it was last time and there's no evidence that we could avoid a dictatorship this time around. So, I guess it's the soap box for now and we try to scream loud enough that the liberal media has to cover us.

I do know this: I won't be intimidated. I won't back down. Neither should you. If another liberal professor threatens you with “some muscle” maybe it's time to show up with some of your own. If a city fires you for being a Christian it's in your best interests and the interests of the country as a whole to not only sue to get your job back but to do your best to bankrupt the city in the process. Money is a language that this government is very well fluent in. Taking it from them is the only thing that could make them respond. If the Left can use protest to make the courts listen, why can't we?

It's going to be rough moving forward but this is a fight we can't be afraid of.  This is a fight over the soul of our country. Do we want to be a free people? Are we willing to risk “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor?” If not we may as well pack it in now. This is going to be the fight of our lives and hopefully our childrens' lives as well. It's not going to be over quickly unless we give up. It's well past time to make our voices heard and to stop putting up with this crap. Who is with me?

(Jim McCoy is the author of this article. He is also the proprietor of Jimbo's Science Fiction and Fantasy Reviews at http://jimbossffreviews.blogspot.com)