Why are fascists so unhappy?

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown …
— "The Merchant of Venice," IV, i

Descending from the sublime to the pedestrian, a cliché says that a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met. Corny though that be, I prefer it to the Republican Party’s knee-jerk ruse today for grubbing up votes: A stranger is an enemy you’ve not yet identified and punished. 

What I dislike about today’s Republican Party is not just its overt racism, its sniveling dishonesty, its goose-stepping behind a phony, bilious Fűhrer, but its vicious jeremiads against anyone who dares to question — i.e., think — about anything Republicans think they think.

Consider this: Why would a major political party base its nationwide public relations onslaught, and hopes for reelection, upon attacking, slandering and harming 0.48% of the population? 

The UCLA Law School estimates that 1.6 million people identify as transgender in the United States. I find that hard to believe, but taking it as given, that comes to 0.48% of our population of 332 million.

That UCLA study estimates that nearly 20% of those self-identifying transgender people are not old enough to vote. That gives us 1.28 million potential transgender voters out of a total voting age population of 258.3 million: virtually the same number: 0.49%.

When, ever, in the history of quasi-democracies, has a nationwide political party planned its campaign for reelection upon directing fear, hatred and punishment upon less than 5/1,000th of its own people?

And why would they do it?

The closest historical analogy I’ve come up with is Germany in 1933, when 0.75% of its population was Jewish, according to the notoriously “liberal” Encyclopedia Britannica. (Hey, the guys who wrote those articles read books! All kinds of books! Even banned ones!)

Hitler, of course, blamed all his country’s problems on “the Jews.”

Why would he do that, do you suppose?

I know why he did it, and so do you. It’s because fascists seek out the weakest, most unprotected people to stomp on first.

That out of the way, they move on to their next victims: homosexuals, foreigners, disabled people, unions, children … school librarians, for Pete’s sake. 

Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemoller said in 1946: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Come on, fellow citizens: Why are Republicans banning books, demonizing people, including children — less than 5/1,000th of our population — in their grubby runs for office?

I know why they do it, and so do you. It’s because they actually want to carry out what George Orwell feared was the future of humanity: a boot being stomped upon a human face, forever.

Black, brown, white, yellow, Jews, Muslims, women, white Christians: Soon or later they’ll get around to all of us.

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