NY Times Ad From Bill Ayers' Group Calls for End of 'Trump/Pence Regime' Before it Starts
"Don’t Conciliate… Don’t Accommodate… Don’t Collaborate!"
1.4.2017
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Mark Tapson
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An organization called Refuse Fascism has placed a full-page ad in The New York Times Wednesday calling for "a month of resistance" and activism "outside normal channels" in order to bring a halt to the "illegitimate" election of Donald Trump and the "fascism" he threatens to bring to the White House.
Calling itself a "movement" (because neither "group" nor "organization" really inspires revolutionary zeal), Refuse Fascism declares that it "aims to rapidly transform the deep anguish and outrage, the something and outright terror that is felt by millions and millions in this country, into resistance and defiance and acts of political rebellion and radical art and No! Powerful enough to STOP Trump and Pence BEFORE they start."
Among the group's "initiators" are Bill Ayers, described as "activist, educator" (somehow "domestic terrorist" didn't make the list), radical academic Cornel West, and Carl Dix, "founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA." Dix is seen in the video above which is one of "the videos from the Emergency Organizing Meeting that launched this movement."
"In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America!" the ad announces. "Donald Trump, the President-elect, is assembling a regime of grave danger. Millions of people in the US and around the world are filled with deep anxiety, fear, and disgust. Our anguish is right and just. Our anger must now become massive resistance –before Donald Trump is inaugurated and has the full reins of power in his hands" -- otherwise, "the consequences for humanity will be disastrous."
The ad calls for "a month of resistance" beginning on December 19th and "reaching a crescendo" by the January 20th inauguration. "Millions must rise up in a resistance with a deep determination such that we create a political crisis that prevents the Trump/Pence fascist regime from consolidating its hold on the governance of society."
It goes on to say that Trump's presidency is "illegitimate" because he lost the popular vote. The electoral college is dismissed as a legacy of slavery.
They hysterical fear-mongering, including the obligatory comparison to Hitler, rises to a crescendo from there (emphasis in original):
Fascism foments and relies on xenophobic nationalism, racism, misogyny, and the aggressive re-institution of oppressive “traditional values.” Fascism feeds on and encourages the threat and use of violence to build a movement and come to power. Fascism, once in power, essentially eliminates traditional democratic rights. Fascism attacks, jails, even executes its opponents, and launches violent mob attacks on “minorities.” In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and ’40s, fascism did all these things. This is where this can go. And yes, Hitler himself could “talk graciously” when he felt it would serve his interests and lull his opponents.
... The Trump/Pence cabinet and judiciary will coalesce all of this and worse at the highest level of power, with horrific consequences. No election, whether fair or fraudulent, should legitimize this. “Reaching across the aisle” only legitimizes that which is illegitimate.
If you work with fascists you normalize the road to horror. You cannot try to “wait things out.” Those who lived through Nazi Germany and sat on the sidelines, looking on as Hitler demonized, criminalized, and eventually rounded up one group after another, became shameful collaborators with monstrous crimes. Don’t Conciliate… Don’t Accommodate… Don’t Collaborate!
"Starting now," the ad urges, "distribute this Call everywhere and on social media, host house meetings, fundraising events concerts and forums. Everywhere step up the resistance: walkouts from schools and work, protests against attacks and threats on Muslims, women, people of color, LBGT people – all linked to the objective of Stopping the Trump/Pence regime. The struggle must grow."
Trump Derangement Syndrome is shaping up to be even more irrational than Bush Derangement Syndrome, which we didn't think humanly possible.