There has always been fascism in America. Those who believed they were superior, and had the right to choose which other humans, also had rights.
These movements are fostered and fester most especially, in churches of racial segregation. They may not be explicitly segregated churches of course, but they are deeply segregated nonetheless. If you walk into a church and most of the congregation has descended from the European continent, there’s a good chance you’ll be receiving a sermon, in the holiness of conquest.
The prophetic words of Dr. King in the Letter from Birmingham Jail are often quoted, and it is worth emphasizing that while his strongest words were reserved for what he called “the white moderate”, the entire letter was written in response to White Pastors, who had written him a letter from white churches, pleading for Order. Segregated churches, perpetuating a theology of separation.
If you go to a segregated church and have not yet been honest with yourself about it, there’s no better time than now. You may experience the power of community and collective worship there, but your congregation is likely learning more about separation, than about Jesus. More about the history of colonizers, than the radical movements of revolutionary love, which drove both the civil rights movement, and the abolitionist movement. The power of a liberated church can be a wonder to behold, but the power of segregated churches is truly terrifying to witness. Perhaps most frightening, is how many continue to pretend it’s not happening. That you’re not being taught a theology of supremacy, where everyone who follows your logo is saved, and every other living being on earth is a heathen destined to hell. It is a shameful distortion of Creator. A painful deception of Creation.
We know you do not see yourselves. Just as the Plantations protected europeans to laugh and dine, while others suffered and labored, much of our modern society does the same. Those outside the segregated circle, know all about the truths of life on this land. Those within, are protected.
Protected from the costs. Protected from the consequences. Protected from all the other perspectives. And drowned in a mythology of supremacy so dense, so thick, it often takes generations to cleanse.
We see your structures of power. Filled to the brim with people of a single hempishere, claiming a holy mission to conquer at all costs. Holding hands high and claiming God, as preachers shout superiority.
There has always been prayer on this land. Always been worship. Always been ceremony. Always been a deep spiritual understanding. Always been vast theologies.
And colonizers spent centuries working to destroy it. To erase it. To eradicate it. To murder it out of existence.
It was only in the 1970’s that Indigenous Ceremonies were made legal in the United States. Before then, medicine people were hunted and chased, starved and beaten, targeted and imprisoned. And today, a candidate and movement threatens the same, all over again.
When Donald Trump first ran for President in 2016, more than 90% of Black Women voted against him. They knew who he was. Who he is. They know racial supremacy. They know religious segregation. They know european fascism.
The only people confused in significant numbers, are Christians of European descent. Without white Christians, there is no trump movement. There is no MAGA. It is in your name, with your structures and your scriptures and your symbols, that he has built this power. It your responsibility above all others, to call this grave evil what it is.
American fascism.
Fascism must be combatted at all costs. We have long been fascist toward the non-european world. The overthrowing of democratically elected leaders has been a mainstay of American politics, for nearly a century. Dozens of countries have suffered this fate, and been left with the generational consequences. We have always been fascist toward indigenous peoples. Even after five centuries, it is still today, those with the least financial resources in the western hemisphere, standing most bravely, and most persistently, for a future with clean water and healthy lands. A future of interdependence, rather than dominion.
The suffering is unconscionable. All across America, there is suffering. In the reservations, in the city streets, in the suburbs, on the farms and ranches. We are propagated ceaselessly with physic pollution, and straddled with debts and tax obligations, that demand perpetual labor. Every obstacle is built, to keep communities from living together generationally, and from sustaining themselves with the earth in a good way.
To pretend any of this gets better, by removing the rights of our fellow people, is a grave theater. When we remove rights from trans people, as republicans are working to do in every corner of this land, we are all less free. When we remove rights from women, as republicans are doing across America, we are all less free. When we remove rights for those with non-dominant religions, as the fascist forces of american segregation have always worked to do, we are all less free.
Are women free? This seems to be a question the vast majority of Americans have settled in their minds. The only folks still unsure, are white Christians. Why is that? I ask this question directly. Is it because you care so deeply about the unborn, you're willing to work in opposition to all other movements for life, in order to protect them? Or is it because the larger agenda is colonial conquest through division, and this is the most consistently effective way to keep white women feeling righteous, as they oppose all other women.
If you find yourself still struggling to understand why abortion rights are so fundamental to freedom, please ask yourself this ever so simple question. Ask it over and over until you’ve arrived at your own conclusion.
Are women free ?
Are Women, Free ?
Are. Women. Free
If you do not believe women should be free as human beings, at least be honest with yourself and acknowledge it is fascism. You are welcoming the full vicious power of state violence, into the most sacred decisions of a persons life. To hear the modern Republican Party claiming to stand for freedom, is a uniquely hysterical nonsense. But fascist movements have always drowned in their own deceptions. Today it is mechanized and engineered, and shared at mass scale.
Unfreedom is best met with more freedom. My own response to rising violence has often been to create, and to support artists. I was honored to participate this year, in making a piece for Independents. More than 40% of Americans now see themselves as Independent, and I have long been one of them. For this gargantuan potential to grow, I believe we must support Rank Choice Voting. It is among the few legal paths, to more options for everyone.
Fair Vote and Represent Us, are working to see Rank Choice Voting implemented in all states. This change, would fundamentally transform elections in America. Both organizations are worth looking further into, and finding ways to support wherever you live.
This year the Independent candidate with the greatest chance of winning, was RFK Jr. His father was one of my early heroes, and I have long admired his work with the Waterkeepers alliance. His victories against Monsonto are singular, and his speech in Chicago called ”Our environmental destiny”, was a powerful articulation of a worldview, which guided his younger years.
When he visited Standing Rock, I appreciated the respect he showed Lakota people, and the disregard he showed the police, with high powered artillery. For these reasons, when he chose to run, I decided to do what I could, to support that run. One of the results was a beautiful film called the Power of Three by Bobby Bailey, and one which conveys some profound truths in this time. I am proud to have supported the film, and those early days of the campaign.
But much like the trajectory of RFK Jr.’s work with the water, what began with such promise, seems to have been hijacked, by a force antithetical to his articulated path.
I don’t know the particulars of why he chose to endorse trump in this election. I do know it is a shameful abdication of his commitment to environmental stewardship, to his words regarding the rights of indigenous peoples, to his words regarding the rights of women, and to his words regarding the right to vote.
I dream of an Independent movement, big enough to welcome those that supported RFK Jr., as well as the brilliant souls of Dr. Cornell West and Dr. Melina Abdullah. I dream of an independent movement willing to unite across all boundaries, to remove Citizens United, and fundamentally transform the corruption at the heart of our system.
In the meantime, we would be wise to trust the Senator who was an Independent for more years than anyone in history - the very special Bernie Sanders - and caucus with those struggling for more freedom, rather than less.
To see so many fellow human beings, seriously considering voting for a person who doesn’t honor elections, can often feel beyond comprehension. Is your hatred of the others so deep, you cannot see that you are using your power to harm? To destroy generations of labor, in establishing the right to vote? To directly hurt your neighbors? When trump was elected, we watched neighborhoods where immigrants lived, become active conflict zones. We saw ICE get unleashed on civilians. On grandmothers. On children. We watched the protections for supply chains evaporate. We watched protections for waters disintegrate. We saw movements targeted with vicious force. We saw activists disappeared, and homeland security be weaponized against citizens engaging in their fundamental right to assemble. We saw our communities get torn apart, as a conman demonized and demeaned our neighbors. This work is antithetical to freedom, just like the KKK, whose motto was also - make america great again.
There is a special kind of arrogance, in deciding to vote against more than 90% of Black Women in America. I’d wager that if we were all in a room together, and you had to actually see these women directly, look them in the eyes and hear from them, you would not use your vote with such careless disregard. You would not use your power to harm, and perpetuate oppression. You would learn to listen. To work in coalition. And you would learn to support, those who have always known the truths of this American project, even as so many of us are learning it for the first time.
If you don’t yet see that trump represents the power structure of the Confederacy, then I implore you to begin looking more honestly at America. Look beyond the boundaries of your county or race or religion. Learn to listen to those who share a different view, learn to pray with those who call Creator a different name, learn to love those who you do not understand, or were not raised to know. All are threatened by this cohort of primary color red and perpetual deception, as they cosplay a modern klan.
Many of the folks flirting with religious fascism, have no real sense of what they are advocating for, and would be deeply unhappy to live where it is implemented. This is especially true of those who live near modern cities, where music and culture and food all thrive, and are allowed their respective space. Their lives are abundantly and indisputably blessed, by the labor of immigrants and activists and artists and creators who came before, to demand and create a free society.
Over the last seven years, I’ve lived in the county where people voted for Trump, in higher numbers than anywhere else in the country. And for much of our history, this has not been a place where many Americans would want to live. The repression in places like Taylor County, where religious fundamentalism has long ruled the land, is everywhere you care to look. And the consequences in our daily lives, are vast.
Until recent history, live music and dancing were illegal, and strictly prohibited. And the physical structures of our town and region, were just as strictly segregated. Still today, this legacy of oppression lives on, in every inch of soil. While alcohol became legal in the 70’s, whenever there is booze and music and dancing today, there is almost inevitably violence. Just this last weekend, a young man lost his life amidst it.
Religious fascism works to control every aspect of your life. Who you can marry, who you can love, how you can dress, how you can think, how you can pray, how you can spend your money, how you can vote. The natural response to this lack of freedom, will always be generational rebellion.
This is a kind of oppression many Americans know little about. The segregated churches established this town as a “sanctuary city for the unborn” and even among war, I have rarely met women so deeply afraid of their neighbors.
Amidst the anger and pain of seeing your fundamental rights stripped away, and your community deputized against you, a different dream was shared, of what our small town could be. Yelled first into a microphone at a vigil for women’s rights, and later whispered among the common hearted, there are those who would see us instead become a Sanctuary City for Freedom. A place where all people are welcomed, all cultures are honored, and all expressions are given space to be.
In many ways, these have always been the competing visions for the United States. To some, it is a place for European Christians to thrive, and build their future generations. For others, it is a place where all human beings can learn to self govern, and live together.
A theocracy, intended for the people of a single hemisphere. Or a multiracial democracy, where all people have dignity.
These larger coalitions have been at war with one another, since long before our nations founding. And while candidates draw our attention, it is the larger goals of these coalitions for which we vote.
There are many in the Independent movement, who are infuriated with the Democratic Party. And there are good reasons to be. The party claims to be a big tent, and does it damndest to shut the doors of dissent. They have turned their backs on their base time and again, in hopes of pursuing the illusive moderate. It is a foolish strategy, and one would be forgiven in believing they often seem paid to fold.
But the larger coalition represented by the Democratic Party, represents the best of America, and who we should be fighting for. It is teachers and nurses and the rainbow coalition of our country. Until we have rank choice voting, this is where Independents ought to caucus, as we build power capable of winning elections and shifting systems.
Looming over each moment of every day this year, has been Gaza. The daily deaths, the daily suffering. The daily atrocities committed against Palestinians. Against children. Against families. The intentional targeting of journalists and doctors and peacekeepers and international aid workers and academics and artists and human rights reporters.
For me personally, I was motivated by a deep desire to vote for peace. To vote against the atrocities allowed by Joe Biden, and to never forget that it was Donald Trump who moved the United States embassy to Jerusalem and in doing so, brought the world to the brink.
I believed early in the campaign, that if RFK Jr. had found the courage to stand for peace, as his father had done, he could have changed history. Instead he capitulated, and we are left only with choices for war.
Is the democratic party the party of the war machine ? Of course. Is the republican party the party of the war machine ? Of course. Is the United States governments core function, war? Of course. Do people deserve more choices? Of course.
In a representative system, the Peace Coalition, would sweep elections. We would win from every corner of culture. Thus the infrastructure of profitable war, works to ensure there is never allowed to be such a coalition. Never allowed to be such votes.
Americans have never been allowed to vote for peace. Never been allowed to vote for the fundamental dismantling of the apparatus of profitable war. Never been allowed to have meaningful conversations about the true costs.
While the parties purport to represent these larger coalitions, they generally align in their wars with indigenous peoples, and their wars with other nations resources. “Two wings of the same bird,” is often said in Indian country, and the wisdom rings true.
There will come a day, when Americans will get to choose beyond the infrastructure of the colonial state, and join hands with our Indigenous relatives in the crafting of a new understanding. Until then, we are left with elections. And in the United States, we are always either voting for a multiracial democracy, or for racial and religious fascism. Everything else, is particulars.
The modern Republican Party exists chiefly, as an Imperial Party; to represent the infrastructure of war. They represent most especially, the financial systems, energy systems, manufacturing systems, political systems, and content systems, which allow this violent infrastructure to continue and grow.
Those who take their rage at the Democratic Party, and use it to support Republicans, do their cause grave harm. There is nothing to be found among racial fascism, beyond more racism and more fascism. It must be enveloped as the minority it is, and overwhelmed by the color and energy and vitality and unity, of our love for one another.
The power structure surrounding the Democratic Party also deserves to be dismantled, just as every police and ICE force in the country does. Until that day, keeping fascists out of power, building a powerful Independent Coalition, winning the right to rank choice voting, and doing all we can to protect our neighbors fundamental rights and the rights of Mother Earth, are worthy goals, and exist far beyond the scope of elections.
None of this will stop the genocide in Gaza. Surely not soon. Italy has just complied with the ICJ ruling, and issued an embargo in Israeli arms. It is another step. To see this imitated by an American administration, will require herculean shifts in power and resources. Boycotts. Protests. Divestment. These are all paths, in the kaleidoscope of need.
This year there were at least five parties who put forward a candidate for President, who all represented more options, for our nations relationship to war. None of them are working in coalition with one another, and none of them are viable in this election. If voting our conscience is as important as so many claim it to be, then we must work between elections and over far longer trajectories, to make those choices possible.
Kamala Harris has said she believes the relationship between the United States and Tribal Nations, is sacred. She used that word. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a presidential candidate use that word. Joe Biden just days ago, formally apologized for the Boarding Schools, which was a mass project of child theft, child trafficking, child abuse and torture, religious abuse, the destruction of languages, and which ultimately ended, in unmarked graves across America, holding generations of native children. This apology won’t solve everything or even much, but it is a historic step in a good direction.
Perhaps Vice President Harris’ finest moment as a Senator, was at the Brett Kavanagh hearing, where he explicitly and repeatedly lied under oath, and was then confirmed. So many in our generation, knew that day was the end. The end of freedoms we don’t have to fight and scrape for. The end of protest expressions we won’t suffer for. It is possible the Democrats could have done more that day, but I remember Kamala Harris as a ferocious truth teller in that moment. Facing a mockery of justice and law, precedent and integrity, she called it out for exactly what it was. I’ll not soon forget it. There may be many reasons to dislike her or the current administration, or to even hold them in disgust and contempt. For Palestine. For Lebanon. For Yemen. For the loss of Roe. For the unwillingness to fight for our freedoms, with the same reckless abandon as those who fight to take them away.
But on that day in that room, she told the truth. And generations of women will be depending on her to take those truths, and yield power to ensure they are honored.
I’ll be proud to vote for Kamala Harris. Not because I think the democratic primary was fair. Not because I think the Democratic Party is right about corporations. Or war. Or water. Or medicine. Not because I believe the genocide in Palestine deserves anything less than our full condemnation and resistance at any cost. But because on Tuesday I’ll have a choice I won’t have on Wednesday, and on that day I’ll choose the choice who will most strongly oppose the growing fascism of our time.
And for damn sure my ancestors who suffered and fled at the hands of Mussolini and Hitler, will be cheering us on. I suspect all our ancestors who have suffered from those who believed they had the right to remove their neighbors rights, will be as well.
Get out and vote crew. Just don’t for a moment, believe this is the revolution. We are the revolution. And we must get fully free. Peace and love y’all