Know the past to understand the present. Antonio Gramsci, ( 1891-1937), was a formidable Italian Marxist philosopher, writer and politician. Mussolini’s Fascist government imprisoned him after a fake trial. The prosecutor said: ‘For twenty years, we must stop his brain from working’. They couldn’t do that. In prison he wrote notebooks full of wisdom and knowledge.
Severely ill, and denied medical care, he died aged only 46. Today, Italy’s leader is Georgia Meloni of the Brothers of Italy party, which Mussolini’s granddaughter, Rachelle, considers too right wing.
Gramsci believed Fascism thrives in periods of flux and uncertainties: ‘The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born. In this interregnum, a great variety of morbid symptoms appear’ Trump is one of those morbid symptoms. He is at the top of his game. But history cycles move. He will come down. America can then deep cleanse its corrupt body and soul.
I hope I live to see that day. But for now, it’s a political horror show. Trump, super-narcissist and felon, has already pardoned violent, white supremacists. What do you think they will do next? He wants to deny the birthright of US born babies, to outlaw equality measures, to nail all those who oppose him, to intimidate the legal system and state authorities, to destabilize the world, grab land, to clear out Mexicans at the border as if they are vermin despoiling ‘clean’ America.
See how billionaires and other powerful Americans, including tech bros, turn petitioning supplicants, bend their knees before Him. See how many Christians see Him as God’s rep on earth. See how institutions, including Ivy League unis and top schools bow to his will. See how democracy is used as an alibi to praise and defend the grotesque man, whose tax and business affairs remain opaque, who thinks it is OK to ‘grab pussies’ and who, in 2023, was found by a New York jury to have ‘forcefully penetrated a woman digitally’. That woman was the writer E. Jean Carroll. Other females have accused him of bad sexual behaviour.
Millions of Americans are manifestly dismayed and enraged. They will resist the man and his acolytes. Some of his executive orders are already facing legal challenges; protesters have come out. Michelle Obama was a no show at the inauguration.
Among the bravest of them, is the heroic Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, who led the post-inauguration interfaith prayer service last Tuesday, attended by the President, the VP, and their wives. In a steady voice she spoke about contempt ‘fuelling ‘political campaigns and social media’ and warned it was’… a dangerous way to lead a country.’ She asked the President to have mercy on migrants, gay, lesbian an transgender people. Melania was seen sniggering. Trump looked menacing. He has, since, trashed the Bishop. For in this democracy which purports to lead the free world, the Leader expects to be revered, always and by all.
The next four years Trump will radicalize and fragment America. How does the world deal with the morbid symptom? More pertinently, how do we?
Some, like Ian Cowie, a British investor, excitedly advises us in the Sunday Times, to ‘make most of Trump’ and invest in weapons, space and oil, because, you know, Trump has vowed to ‘drill baby drill’. These amoral capitalists, turned on by Trump, should go live there. Such migrants are always welcome.
Many influential and ordinary people in the UK remain steadfastly pro-American. Twice already, on TV shows, fellow panellists have told me off for hating Trump. One waxed lyrical about the ‘special relationship’ and the President’s ‘star quality’. Most Britons, thankfully, are not mindlessly loyal. Yes, Starmer will have to find a way to do business with the President. But we are not, as Trump, and his half-demon, half sprite, bestie Musk seem to believe, a satellite US state.
Thankfully, we have public figures who understand what Trump’s victory could mean for surviving liberal democracies. In The Observer last Sunday, mayor Sadiq Khan highlighted the AfD party in Germany, National Rally in France and Mr Trump in the US and other far righters who use democracy to get into power: ‘We should be in no doubt, this is a perilous moment. The spectre of a resurgent fascism haunts the west.’ Right wingers were, as ever, outraged; Labour’s bully boys made him tone down his words. They forget that Trump, during his last presidency, assailed Khan, London’s elected mayor.
In this interregnum, when too many are genuflecting to resurgent fascists, I hope many more stand up for the post-war principles set down by Churchill and others who defeated Hitler ( an elected leader). Liberal democracies are often disappointing, sometimes treacherous. But the alternatives will lead the world to hell. Stay on the right side of history.
Published in the I Newspaper, 23rd January 2025