'Pugnacious', 'Rude' & 'Chauvinist' - Prescott dies, age 86

Described as pugnacious and combative, John Prescot, a former deputy prime minister in Tony Blair's Labour administration, has died aged 86. Prescott courted controversy during his tenure once punching a protester who threw an egg during an election campaign walk about. In November 2000 he faced accusations of rudeness towards women after France's environment minister accused him of chauvinism. Mme Voynet said, "Mr Prescott blames me for the failure of the Hague conference and ... adopted a standard macho attitude."

"According to Prescott, a woman is necessarily incompetent and can't physically last the course in such negotiations."

In the commons John Prescott criticised for putting two fingers up at the Conservatives during prime minister's questions in June 2005. At the time the deputy PM dismissed it as a misinterpreted gesture, yet exactly two years prior he was photographed flicking a V-sign at reporters outside No.10 Downing Street.

His rudeness wasn't confined to foreign ministers, the opposition and the press however. He criticised the then home secretary David Blunkett, accusing him of "arrogance" for berating his Cabinet colleagues.

Prescott was nicknamed 'Two Jags" due to having his own Jaguar as well as a ministerial one but was later dubbed Two Jabs after punching a farmer in 2001. This later changed to Two Shags after tabloid newspaper reports emerged of his sexual infidelity with his diary secretary, Tracey Temple, between 2002 and 2004.

The nicknames changed as further revelations and controversy continued. In 2006 he was known as John "no jobs" Prescott and ridiculed for clinging on to his salary, Jags, and grace-and-favour residence whilst his Whitehall super-ministry was scrapped.

Further controversies ensued after he was banned from driving, having been convicted of speeding at 105mph on the M1 in 1991, and banned again after a similar conviction in June 2015, thus earning him the new nickname "Two bans". In the latter case he had been caught by a police speed gun on the A15 at Scampton, in Lincolnshire doing 60mph in a 50mph limit.

Following his death, the current Labour prime minister Keir Starmer described Prescott as a "true giant" of the Labour movement and "a one-off". Former prime minister Gordon Brown described Lord Prescott as a "working class hero" and a "colossus and and titan of the Labour movement".

Prescott was not, in many people's eyes, a hero nor a one off. Accused of sexual assault, the philanderer and brutish thug revelled in his status as deputy PM and the wealth it brought, whilst taking advantage by claiming expenses for house renovations and even two new toilet seats. The nickname 'Two Bogs' did not catch on however.

Sources: BBC / BBC / Guardian / Independent / Mirror / Guardian / BBC / Independent / NBC / Wikipedia

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Fears of a fascist America after Trump landslide

While many - especially those who voted for him - deny that Trump is a fascist, the 47th president elect may potentially follow through with policies that could be considered fascist. Given the rhetoric and speeches he has made, there are many who fear that Trump could turn America into a fascist state.

The least worst scenario is that Trump's presidency will be authoritarian and leaning to the far-right. But there are some who are concerned he may try to establish an authoritarian dictatorship that won't relinquish power after four years.

Trump is likely to surround himself with advisers and generals that are loyal to him. As General Kelly recently stated in a New York Times article, Trump admired Hitler's having loyal generals and staff that carried out his orders without question.

He has also indicated that he has an admiration of leaders that are essentially dictators and even suggested he would like to follow in their footsteps. Of course it could be rhetoric. But it could be a statement of intent.

Scapegoats & enemies within

Hitler is of course known for his disposing of his political enemies and those he considered to be less than human, such as Jews, other ethnic groups, political radicals, such as communists, and homosexuals. These he sent to camps and later exterminated.

Trump has not spelled out an identical policy. However he has indicated that "on day one" he "will begin the largest deportation operation in American history" with use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

Trump has long used disparaging language concerning illegal immigrants, describing them as "rapists" and "drug dealers". In many ways this is little different from the Nazi propaganda of the 1930s that demonised the Jews and enabled Hitler to enact his genocide.

Trump has likened his mass deportation plan to the campaign carried out under President Dwight D Eisenhower in 1954. Known by the ethnic slur "Operation Wetback", hundreds of thousands of people with Mexican ancestry, including some US citizens, were rounded up and deported. Trump's ambition is potentially vastly more draconian. Trump has pledged to expel "maybe as many as 20 million" people from the US.

Trump has claimed that he would use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows for summary deportation of non-citizens from a foreign country with which the US is at war. In his rationale, he would use it "to target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil".

This policy, which sounds like something from the Nazi playbook, has been labelled "Operation Aurora" and would see the unleashing of "elite squads" of federal law enforcement officers to "hunt down, arrest and deport every last illegal alien gang member until there is not a single one left in this country". He has in addition called for the death penalty for "any migrant" who kills an American.

There will be some that will claim due process and law will prevent human rights breaches. But such policies are not too far removed from those carried out in the 1930s in Germany. Indeed, Trump has said removing undocumented immigrants from the country "will be a bloody story" echoing Adolf Hitler when he said undocumented immigrants were "poisoning the blood of the country" [Guardian].

Political enemies

It is not just immigrants Trump has in his sights. Some observers warn of a 'slide to authoritarianism' as Trump promises to crack down on critics and enact hardline policies.

He has suggested using the United States military against an "enemy from within". So who are these enemies? Trump has not been shy of naming some of them. Specifically, Trump has named current President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Barack Obama, Adam Schiff, senator-elect from California. former US Representative Liz Cheney as well as former House speaker Nancy Pelosi as targets for investigations. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/30/trump-threats-election-enemy-within

While he hasn't said they would be executed or incarcerated, one can only imagine his intentions given his fiery rhetoric. But it isn't just Democrats and political opponents Trump has cited. He has also insinuated coming after reporters, journalists, prosecutors, judges and anyone else who disagrees with him.

The list is extensive but amongst the names are Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Special Counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, Former FBI Director James Comey, Former Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz, Former Trump Attorney Michael Cohen, Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, up to 51 intelligence professionals for dismissing Hunter Biden's emails as Russian disinformation as well as Hunter Biden himself.

Most powerful US president

Prior to the election John Kelly, the Trump White House's longest-serving chief of staff,  has warned Trump would rule like a dictator and that he believed that the now 47th president met the definition of a fascist.

Having won the 2024 election Trump is set to become the most powerful person ever to hold the presidential office. Not only will he wield the awesome powers of the American executive, powers that, as conservatives used to complain, have grown over the decades, but he will do so with the fewest constraints of any former president, fewer even than in his own first term.

A court system that could not control Trump as a private individual will have even less control over him as president of the United States. Furthermore he will tip the scales in his favour as he appoints his own attorney general and other top officials at the Justice Department. The one check Congress has on a rogue president, namely, impeachment and conviction, has already proved all but impossible.

While he hasn't directly indicated a desire to be president for life, it is questionable as to whether the 22nd Amendment would be able to block him any more effectively from being president for life than the Supreme Court [Washington Post]. 

But what of a slide to a true dictatorship? Many have dismissed this as fanciful and far-fetched [The Atlantic].   

In the 1920s Italy, and in the 1930s Germany moved towards fascism. Both did so by subverting the democratic system that already existed and changed things over time in order to consolidate and establish absolute power over the state.

In simple terms Mussolini used intimidation tactics against voters, resulting in a landslide victory and a subsequent two-thirds majority in the 1924 election.  In the case of Hitler, he became the chancellor of Germany in 1933 following a series of electoral victories by the Nazi Party and soon after passed laws, such as the Enabling Act, allowing him to carry out his plans.

America has long considered itself the bastion of freedom and democracy. However, there have been concerns over the last century as to whether it too could become an authoritarian state.

Dorothy Thompson, a pioneering journalist who observed European fascism in the 1930s firsthand, began reporting on how far-right groups in the United States were aligning under a distorted patriotism, weaponizing democratic freedoms to further authoritarianism.

She warned that American fascism would always present itself as "true Americanism". In 1936, Thompson published a column titled "It Can Happen Here".

"Whom do they hate?" she asked. "Life, which has treated them badly. Who is to blame? Some scapegoat is to blame." These groups were determined "to exterminate anarchists, communists, Catholics, Negroes, and Jews; to restrict immigration and deport all undesirable aliens; to support and participate in lynch law; to arm its members for civil war… and eventually to establish a dictatorship in America." [New Statesman]

Parallels

At Trump's Madison Square Garden event, speakers called Puerto Ricans "garbage", insulted black Americans, Palestinians and Jewish people, and labelled Harris the "Antichrist". Elon Musk attended wearing a black MAGA hat evocative of Fraktur, a font popular with Nazi Germany, while Stephen Miller quoted one of the KKK's 1920s slogans, declaring that "America is for Americans only". The Trump campaign also reportedly played a verse of "Dixie", the popular anthem of the slaveholding Confederacy.

Some observers have also noted the parallels between the 1939 Nazi rally at the same location and the 2024 rally. Thompson, who attended the 1939 rally, observed that Sinclair Lewis's novel "It Can't Happen Here" had foreseen it "almost exactly", including the "Storm Troopers" poised to suppress "unruly elements".

The novel, published in 1935 describes the rise of Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a demagogue who is elected President of the United States, after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and "traditional" values. After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government via self-coup and imposes totalitarian rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force.

The last election

The 2024 election presented a choice between two visions of America. One offered the continuation of the nation's painful journey toward a pluralistic, multiracial democracy. The other choice which has seemingly been chosen by a huge proportion of the American people looks towards a "herrenvolk democracy" where democratic rights are restricted to the "master race".

Whilst Trump represents, for many, someone that is unhinged and makes crazy remarks concerning Haitians eating cats and dogs, for a large proportion of mainly white Americans who voted for him, Harris represented a direct challenge to a nostalgic view of power as the exclusive domain of white Christian men.

Many callers to UK radio shows on Wednesday suggested that Americans, especially men, weren't ready for a woman president. This is likely true. But her ethnic roots probably posed as much a barrier, especially amongst the red blooded white male Trump voter.

Born in California to Jamaican and Indian immigrant parents, Harris embodies the plural democracy Trump seeks to erase, but currently he only singles out the illegal immigrants - who happen not to be white.

Why has America chosen a 'fascist' over a moderate democrat? One black Harris voter speaking to the UK's Channel 4 News soon after the results came in, alluded to the sexist and racial divide. Asked why America did not vote for Kamala Harris, the voter told Washington Correspondent Siobhan Kennedy, "Number one, she's a woman. Secondly she's a black woman. America, still, is dealing with racial inequalities. So we're a split country right now, and that's the sad thing about it. We need to unify."

Both Mussolini and Hitler drew support for promising economic stability. And Trump's success has been as much to do with his economic policies as his showmanship.

Harris's stance on abortion and attempt to paint Trump as a fascist in waiting failed to pay off. Instead, Americans were drawn to the populism of Trump.

Seizing power

While Trump, like Mussolini and Hitler, has promised to fix the economy and bring back wealth for Americans, much of his stated game plan appears to be one of using an iron fist to implement his policies.

Some believe the US constitution will prevent him from over exerting his power. While he has spoken of using the military to seek out his enemies and immigrants, the constitution does indeed prevent him from doing this. However he does have authority over the national guard. And who is to say the ranks might not be bolstered in order to maintain his position of power.

Even in American history there have been authoritarian policies enacted and carried out. Prohibition and McCarthyism are just two examples where the state has sought to clampdown on Americans, be it their social enjoyment - that of drinking alcohol - or their perceived political views.   

Fascism and authoritarianism doesn't happen overnight. If Trump does intend to establish such a state it will be incremental. Authority over the national guard will at first be seen as 'necessary' to round up 'illegal immigrants'. 'Detainment camps' may be 'needed' to process such people. McCarthyism is a blueprint which could be strengthened to deal with the 'enemies within'.

Many people dismiss the concerns of America becoming a fascist state. Just because Trump and his cohorts don't wear fascist symbols or swastikas, does not make them any less dangerous.

Many novels that warn of a rise of fascism often use such symbols. The Man In The High Castle, a 1963 Philip K Dick novel which imagined a world in which Germany and Japan won the second world war, was heavily saturated in such motifs as was the Amazon Prime TV production that hit screens at the beginning of Trump's first presidency [Guardian]. 

It is unlikely that future totalitarian regimes will adopt symbols from previous movements as often depicted in dystopian fiction. Trumpism already has its own slogans and symbols. It has "Make America Great Again" and "Fight, Fight, Fight" - which became a rallying call after Trump's 'miraculous' escape from an assassin's bullet. It has 'MAGA' and the red baseball cap as well as the American flag.

The author Michael Rosen echoes what many others have said, "I sometimes fear that people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress, worn by grotesques and monsters
as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis. Fascism arrives as your friend. It will restore your honour, make you feel proud, protect your house, give you a job, clean up the neighbourhood, remind you of how great you once were, clear out the venal and the corrupt, remove anything you feel is unlike you… It doesn't walk in saying, "Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution."

However in Trump's case he has, in part, warned of some of that [PBS].

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