For those of you unfamiliar with Norman Spinrad he is a science fiction author most widely known as the writer of the classic Star Trek episode “The Doomsday Machine”, as well as books far too numerous to be listed here. In the eighties he wrote a book review column for “Destinies”, an unusual experiment in publishing. Destines was a “paperback magazine”, a periodical published in paperback book format. I just obtained, through an online source (other than amazon), the only issue I was missing from my library. In a review of a novel called “The Hell Candidate” by Thomas Luke, Spinrad wrote the following:
“I have lately mused that a Presidential candidate crazy and ruthless enough to spout unadulterated racism, class warfare from the point of view of the middle class, up-front jingoism, gibbering hydrophobic anti-communism, military solutions to the energy crisis and other complex foreign policy dilemmas, sexual license, and atavistic nostalgia for the American supremacy of the Eisenhower era—to appeal, in other words, to the dark cravings and frustrations of the current mass unconscious—would sweep all before him and ride to the White House on a tidal wave of bile and hate, exactly as Hitler got himself elected Fuehrer of Germany.”
Eh, Richard Nixon, well really his wife Pat predicted Donald Trump would be elected president by name, way back in 1987. Richard Nixon even sent Trump a letter about it.
He didn’t sweep all before him or ride into a tidal wave into the white house, he BARELY squeaked by the skin of his teeth against a very unpopular opponent.
Hell, Plato predicted Trump. A glad handing authoritarian who appeals to popular resentments against an out of touch elite is practically a feature of a system where leaders are voted into office.
Wow, this guy’s a real Nostradamus. Seriously. If someone didn’t actually say, “This guy Donald Trump is going to be president one day,” I’m not going to count that as a prediction of Trump.
The type is too easy to predict. Some lying SOB (likely not a DOB) promises the world, castigates the [insert target names], waves arms and shouts a lot, and BINGO!
Stock markets run on greed and fear. Politics seems similar.
I guess to me, any time there is multiculturalism or economic setbacks, it is going to empower fascists.
What we have to do is have enough checks and balances, and make sure the electorate is large and diverse enough to hold back the worst of it.
If only property owning white men were allowed to vote, we’d have someone far worse than trump. And I’m a white man, but its true. The more out groups and disadvantaged people who are allowed to vote, the less tolerant the electorate becomes of fascism. Luckily the electorate is 70% women and non-whites, so the caliber of fascist that society will tolerate is far less intense. We need to get as many people to vote as possible, especially women and non-whites who are less tolerant of fascism.
Also we have checks and balances. that is why domestic terrorism isn’t as bad as it was in the 1920s or the 1860s. Also state judges who refuse to uphold the law can be overruled by federal judges.
I guess its a silver lining, that if this is fascism, its nowhere near as bad as it would be a century ago.
The description is the, how can I put this? “logical extension to the absurd” of Reagan. By that, I mean, if you take Reagan, and extend all the terrible things he did to get elected, like pandering to the Christian right, while actually sharing none of their beliefs, but conveniently promising to support them, and inventing things like “trickle-down” economics that sounded OK to crowds worked up into a froth, but really didn’t make a damned bit of sense.
Reagan turned a huge block of loyal Democrats like no one’s business, and got Christians, who had previously stayed out of politics, going to polls in droves. His base could crush Trump’s to dust.
The best thing you can say about Reagan is that at the beginning of his first term, he was nowhere near as batshit as Trump (albeit, he was probably well in the throes of Alzheimer’s by the end of term two, which is why higher ups in the party dropped the issue of repealing the 22nd amendment like it was radioactive, sometime around 1986).
But anyway, a writer like Spinrad is quite capable of looking at Reagan and saying “If we keep going with men like this we are going to lose democracy.”
I was a freshman in high school 80-81, and I had exactly the same misgivings: If Reagan was a prototype of a new president, and each next one was worse, there would be more division, more general fucked-uppityness. Sure, He appointed a woman to the supreme court but as long as she served she was a party player-- except fortunately on the question of the hour. She would not vote to outlaw abortion altogether.
No…Trump’s racism is very much adulterated. If he was spouting unadulterated racism, he wouldn’t constantly be going on and on about how he’s been reducing African-American and Hispanic-American unemployment and paying lip service to the idea of helping minorities. Unadulterated racism is the “literally Hitler” kind of racism.
No…Trump has not been spouting this. I don’t even know what it means.
Yes, he fits this one.
No…although communism and anti-communism were obviously more of an issue when Spinrad wrote this than they are today.
Uh…no.
Yes on this one - perhaps the most insightful and forward thinking of Spinrad’s prediction, in fact, since authoritarian rulers are traditionally more associated with sexual repression.
I think virtually ALL American politicians are guilty of this.
I don’t think there’s anything “unconscious” about either Trump’s support or the cravings and frustrations of the American electorate.
Hitler wasn’t elected solely on a tidal wave of bile and hate; this is only a perspective of hindsight. His supporters at the time thought that he had a bold and ambitious and optimistic vision for the future of Germany and that he represented exciting progress for society.
So…I’m going to have to go with “flawed”, at best, to describe Spinrad’s prediction.
