Civic Engagement

Starts with Being Informed

Civic engagement fuels and strengthens our democracy.  That starts with well sourced information –an uninformed electorate is very easy to manipulate and control.  Well sourced information means factual and verifible. Here are my top three resources for a great starting point to getting informed.

“Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present” by Ruth Ben-Ghiat provides a rich overarching historical view of European fascism.

“Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson lays out a lengthy insightful perspective on how this hierarchical system has played out throughout history and still operates today.

“Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right” by Anne Nelson cracks open the political network of organizations and people who are controlling our democratic system and that includes our elected representatives.

The first two I have as audio books which allow me to relisten to them frequently.  The third is a paperback that I can mark-up and quickly refer to for sources on right wing organizations and the people running them.  This sort of information rarely makes it into mainstream news.  There are some exceptional investigative journalists that I also rely on to keep me abreast of this kind of information as well.  I’ll discuss those another time.

We are witnessing a global rise in far-right extremism. The rise of fascism leading up to WWII came about in part through the control of information flow to the people. Infamous for their propaganda skills, the Nazis captured the media apparatus which aided their rise to power and immediately after taking power launched a targeted campaign to clamp down on the educational institutions, professors and curriculums.  They created a propaganda funnel that allowed them to indoctrinate the masses. They had special youth programs to capture and shape their hearts and minds for the coming future mission.  “Strongmen” does a great job explaining how that all unfolded.

Rachel Maddow’s book “Prequel” and her Ultra Podcast (now in Season 2) are wonderful companions to read/listen to for more in-depth understanding about the rise of fascism at home and abroad.  She does this by highlighting the role of some of its more colorful characters.  Rachel is very adept at this technique of historical narrative storytelling that draws you in, captivates you, and you forget you’re learning history.

I like to start with history, it informs, warns and prepares us. Those who don’t learn from it are doomed to repeat it –a truism because it’s true.  Today we are witnessing a global rise in Christo-fascism that has echoes of the past.  We defeated it once, we’re commemorating the 80^th year of D-Day, marking our allied victory in WWII.  When we understand how tyrants like Mussolini and Hitler rose to power and see those elements playing out today, we have a duty to circumvent such a horrific repeat.

Christian Nationalism is the threat we face, and the goal is absolute power.  We are a Democratic Republic, government for the people and by the people.  It’s not perfect but the beauty is that we the people can continue to shape it and improve upon it –we’ve been doing that from its inception.  We have much work to do because some of our work has been undone like voting rights and Roe v. Wade.

Christian Nationalism is rooted in white supremacy and white supremacy is rooted in racism.  Caste does a great job of laying out the historical roots of this hierarchical ideology with examples of how it still plays out in our everyday life.  The gaslighting aspects of white supremacy would have you believe that racism has been eradicated and any rights and laws put in place to counter them in the past are no longer needed.  They would have you believe that they are so “oppressed” they now need laws to protect them and their rights.  They’ve stacked our courts and captured the judiciary across the country to make that happen. 

Caste also has a wonderful visual accompaniment in “Origins” a biographical film written and directed by Ava DuVernay. It focuses on the life of Isabel Wilkerson, as she writes the book. It depicts Wilkerson’s travels throughout Germany, India, and the United States to research the caste systems in each country's history. In German archives she discovers that the Nazis used some of America's racist laws to develop some of their own racist laws–Hitler said he used the Americans' extermination of Native Americans as a guide for his own extermination of Jewish people.

This brings me to Anne Nelson’s exceptional work in “Shadow Network.” She introduces us to the forces behind today’s movement and gives us an in-depth look into the people and organizations that sustain it, The Council for National Policy. It is the most powerful organization in the country that most people have never heard of.  They are the umbrella organization of this white Christian cabal intent on destroying our democracy.  Their vision is to replace democracy with an autocratic system based in Christian values with white Christian loyalists in charge --Christo-fascism.

For a visual cinematic source, check out “Bad Faith” a newly released documentary that does an excellent job of presenting through interviews and historical footage the threat of White Christian Nationalism we face.  As a Democratic Republic, We the People decide how we are governed. We do that by being informed and engaged.  We can’t allow our power, our voice or our vote to be taken. Let’s follow the advice from historian Timothy Synder author of “On Tyranny” tips for fighting fascism, numeral uno is “Do not obey in advance.”  It’s time we all get informed, empowered and engaged.