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The GOP’s Blitzkrieg of Hate on Peaceful, Innocent People — And Why It’s Fascism

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Sorry guys, that’s it. I guess I can’t write about Ron DeStalin — sorry, I meant DeSantis — anymore. Maybe you didn’t hear, but Florida Republicans want to pass a bill that makes anyone…blogging…about…them…well, they have to “register” with the state. If that sounds absurd, funny, sinister, and a little bit, well Gestapo, that’s because it’s very much all those things.

I’m kidding when I say I can’t write about DeStalin anymore. I don’t know if the law applies to me, or only people who live in Florida. They’d like it to apply to everyone in the world, I’m sure, though. Still, this is a case of a very old principle at work. 

The fascists are telling us all who they really are. In fact, they’re telling us everything we need to know: what kind of society they want, how they plan to get it, and even what they hope to do with the rest of us, who are hated subhumans. But are we listening? Or still a little bit in denial?

A law against…blogging. LOL. On it’s own, that’s just…dorky. But this hardly comes in a vacuum. Consider just how fast this wave of American fascism is accelerating. The circle of targets is expanding now at light speed. Who’s not a target of laws restricting basic freedoms now in Florida? Women are, kids are, the LGBTQ are, minorities are, and now it’s…lol…people who write about the GOP.

See how that acceleration follows the classic principle. First the fascists target the most vulnerable in society, and then work their way “up.” So it’s gone from immigrants to the LGBTQ and women to kids to…now…well, even right down to everyone and anyone who has anything to say about the GOP online. Sorry, the Gestapo would like to keep a file on you.

You’re about point out how this is unconstitutional, prima facie, as it obviously is — hello, the First Amendment. True, but also…well, this is how fascism works. It doesn’t just break the law, it perverts the law. The Nazis were masters of this. They didn’t break the law to annihilate the Jews, they changed it so doing was not just perfectly legal, but something you were obligated to do.

So moments like this are trial balloons. They’re not jokes and they’re not stunts. What they are is practice. Sure, this particular variant of the bill might not pass muster. But the fascists don’t give up. They just try again and again until, at last, something gives. That something usually gives because they stack the courts, and corrode the justice system from the inside. They tried for half a century to get rid of Roe — and eventually, with the help of a Supreme Court so corrupt it’d make a banana republic blush, they succeeded.

That is exactly what the idea is here, as it is with all these laws. It’s not just just about bloggers or kids or books. It’s about a strategy. That strategy is blitzkrieg. Again, a classic fascist maneuver. See how hard and fast these laws and bills are coming? You can scarcely catch your breath before there’s another one. The very same day news broke of the “we’re going to keep a file on you if you write about us” bill, news also broke of a bill to give women the death penaltyfor the crime of…miscarriages.

The point is to overwhelm the system, society, institutions. Sure, maybe all these bills won’t pass. But a few just might. And where they do, they set precedents. Those precedents are like cracks in a dam, that open whole fissures, and eventually — the deluge. This crackpot legislator, tomorrow, can point to that precedent, in that state. This lunatic lawyer can use to it to appeal, when a court strikes down some law.

The idea here is to accelerate. Propose a thousand crackpot bills. Pass maybe three. But those three become precedents, footholds, spearheads, for nine. And those nine become fifty. And those fifty become…and so it goes. This is a classic form of destabilizing democracy, loved by fanatics and extremists, who’ve failed at using hard power — open violence, like Jan 6th. They resort to a kind of blitzkrieg from the ground up, where a top down approach — storming Congress — failed. Accelerate the breakdown of democracy. Just one crackpot bill passes — and the precedent is set for another hundred.

This is profoundly dangerous stuff. I’m going to quote you some of Florida’s bill, but instead of reading the word “blogger,” just substitute anything else that Republicans hate for that word. Jew. Gay. Trans. Kid. Book. Doesn’t matter. And it’ll become immediately apparent to you just how dangerous a precedent this really sets.

“If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state office…the blogger must register” with the Florida Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics. Failure to do so would result in fines, beginning at $25 per day.

Let’s take one small step further, in the direction the lunatics want. “If a Jew posts to a website or app about an elected officer…” Or how about: “if a child posts to a website about an elected officer…” Or maybe: “If a gay person talks about being gay online, that person must…” How about “if a woman talks about women’s healthcare online, she must register…”