The Sedition Caucus in the Arizona House voted Friday to require that students be exposed to stories of people who fled communism, as part of a curriculum to prepare them to be “civically responsible and knowledgeable adults.’’
Just curious, why not expose students to stories of people who fled European fascism? When I was a kid I grew up among World War II veterans who had fought in the battles that are now only in history books, and I knew Jews who had fled Europe both before the war and others who fled after surviving the Holocaust. These first-person oral accounts created a bond of shared history and memories between generations.
The Library of Congress has an entire digital collection of oral histories, many collected since the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
USC’s Shoah Foundation also has Dimensions in Testimony which features live as well as virtual interviews with Holocaust survivors.
Crypto-fascism is resurgent today in Viktor Orban’s Hungary, and also Donald Trump in the U.S., who incited a seditious insurrection against the U.S. government to overthrow American democracy in a failed coup d’etat on January 6.
Is this the reason why the Sedition Caucus left out fascism?
Howard Fischer reports, Arizona House says schools must teach stories of people who fled communism:
The language was inserted by Rep. Judy Burges, R-Skull Valley, into a 232-page bill of changes in laws governing K-12 education.
It says there must be comparative discussion of political ideologies like communism and totalitarianism and how they “conflict with the principles of freedom and democracy essential to the founding principles of the United States.’’
It also would mandate that the state Department of Education come up with new civic education standards including the expectation that citizens will be responsible for preserving and defending “the blessings of liberty.’’
Seriously? Does this education include educating Republican lawmakers in the Arizona Senate who all voted for a GQP sham “fraudit” of the 2020 election based upon Donald Trump’s Big Lie that the election was stolen, that has now been turned into a conspiracy theory propaganda film? Audit leader Doug Logan appears in conspiracy theorist election film directed by a man whose previous work claimed aliens were behind 9/11.
Does this include educating Arizona Republican legislators like state Rep. Mark Finchem and Congressmen Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar who have been identified as leaders of the Big Lie “Stop The Steal” effort and the seditious insurrection on January 6? They all took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States, and failed to do so.
[The curriculum] would require the department to create a list of oral histories “that provide portraits in patriotism based on first-person accounts of victims of other nations’ governing philosophies who can compare those philosophies with those of the United States.’’
Rep. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, said it’s clear to him what that means.
“The reality is one of the greatest threats facing the globe today is communism and totalitarianism,’’ he said. “We have governments like the Communist Chinese government, that their stated goal is to be the world’s sole and only superpower, and that they will achieve that goal through any means possible.’’
As for communism, there are only five countries in the world today that are communist.
As for China, the main threat it poses is as an economic competitor because of all the U.S. companies that relocated operations to China over the decades to take advantage of its cheap labor, and China’s socialist market economy, a system based on the predominance of public ownership and state-owned enterprises within a market economy. It is a form of state capitalism. (It’s a safe bet that Jake Hoffman does not understand this).
Totalitarianism is a growing problem in many places around the world, including Russia, Hungary, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Venezuela, Brazil, etc.
We have GQP authoritarianism right here in Arizona, and Donald Trump tried to impose GQP authoritarianism at the national level with his failed coup d’etat on January 6.
I cringe every time I see this Rep. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek quoted in a news report as if he is credible. This propagandist ran the disinformation troll farm that supported Donald Trump and his Big Lie. Turning Point Action (USA) Creates It’s Own Russian Troll Farm In Phoenix (excerpt):
Teenagers, some of them minors, are being paid to pump out the messages at the direction of Turning Point Action, an affiliate of Turning Point USA, the prominent conservative youth organization based in Phoenix, according to four people with independent knowledge of the effort. Their descriptions were confirmed by detailed notes from relatives of one of the teenagers who recorded conversations with him about the efforts.
The campaign draws on the spam-like behavior of bots and trolls, with the same or similar language posted repeatedly across social media. But it is carried out, at least in part, by humans paid to use their own accounts, though nowhere disclosing their relationship with Turning Point Action or the digital firm brought in to oversee the day-to-day activity. One user included a link to Turning Point USA’s website in his Twitter profile until The Washington Post began asking questions about the activity.
In response to questions from The Post, Twitter on Tuesday suspended at least 20 accounts involved in the activity for “platform manipulation and spam.” Facebook also removed a number of accounts as part of what the company said is an ongoing investigation.
The effort generated thousands of posts this summer on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, according to an examination by The Post and an assessment by an independent specialist in data science. Nearly 4,500 tweets containing identical content that were identified in the analysis probably represent a fraction of the overall output.
The months-long effort by the tax-exempt nonprofit is among the most ambitious domestic influence campaigns uncovered this election cycle, said experts tracking the evolution of deceptive online tactics.
* * *
The Phoenix New Times has more on this troll. Future Arizona Legislator Ran Teen Disinformation Cell, WaPo Reports:
The Washington Post reported that Rally Forge, a local digital marketing company headed by Jake Hoffman, a Queen Creek council member and Republican House candidate for Legislative District 12, ran a program over the summer in which teenagers were paid to spam Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook with identical messages that asserted COVID-19 is overhyped and generally attempted to undermine confidence in the validity of American elections — all in support of President Donald Trump.
Note: The latest conspiracy from Turning Points USA. Charlie Kirk Claims ‘Several Architects’ Told Him the Florida Building Collapse was Act of ‘Domestic Terrorism’ in Insane Tweet.
While this propagandist wants to focus on Chinese communism, he himself has engaged in promoting Putin’s Russian-style dezinformatsiya in support of Donald Trump and his Big Lie propaganda. People who engage in disinformation propaganda should not be allowed anywhere near school curriculum.
Wide-ranging provisions
The legislation contains a lot more.
For example, there’s a prohibition against teaching that someone’s race, ethnic group or sex determines their moral character or makes them responsible for actions committed by the same group.
This is an ignorant reinterpretation of “critical race theory” which is all the white rage in conservative media right now. Remember how Republicans liked to accuse Democrats of ‘identity politics”? This is pure “white identity” politics (white nationalism). How a Conservative Activist Invented the Conflict Over Critical Race Theory; Republicans, spurred by an unlikely figure, see political promise in targeting critical race theory. This is manufactured outrage on Fox News. (Critical race theory is only taught at the graduate level in college and in law school.)
Violations could lead to a $5,000 fine for the school district and the instructor losing a teaching certificate.
Also, school boards would not be able to mandate the use of masks by students or staff on school campuses.
The anti-mask and anti-vax conspiracy theories are a core belief system of QAnon cultists. How QAnon rode the pandemic to new heights — and fueled the viral anti-mask phenomenon; QAnon and Anti-Vax Conspiracy Theories Pose a Threat to Democracy Beyond National Borders.
Lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle also used this measure to debate whether the state is doing enough to pay for K-12 education, even though that funding is in a separate budget measure.
But the discussion became most heated over the question of a new mandated teaching of civics with an emphasis of teaching patriotism and that our form of government is better than any other.
What the hell are Republicans talking about? Their MAGA/Qanon personality cult of Donald Trump tried to overthrow our form of government “better than any other” in a failed coup d’etat on January 6, and replace it with GQP authoritarianism under an autocracy of Donald Trump. These insurrectionists don’t believe their own rhetoric.
“The threat of communism, and honestly, even here within our own borders, the threat of Marxism is on our front porch,’’ Hoffman said.
This is so typical of the far-right. They use terms that they have heard but do not know the meaning of interchangeably, i.e., communism, socialism, Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, etc.
This is not very effective. Socialist India Walton defeats four-term Buffalo mayor in historic upset election.
Hoffman said there are people “within school systems’’ who are socialists.
This is his lame attempt to revive McCarthyism: “I have here in my hand a list of 205 . . . a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department. . . .”
His poster child for that is Noah Karvelis, a former Phoenix teacher he called “an avowed socialist.’’
Karvelis, who no longer lives in Arizona, was an organizer of the group Arizona Educators United that mobilized Arizona’s historic 2018 teachers’ strike. He spoke at the Socialism Conference 2018 in Chicago about the strike and Arizona’s Invest in Ed act. But Karvelis said at the time he was there to network with other teacher organizations.
So this Trump propagandist, Jake Hoffman, is trying to smear teachers and the Invest In Ed activists who successfully passed the citizens initiative Prop. 208, the Invest in Ed Act – a pure Arizona Constitutional act of democracy – as “socialist” because Arizona voters approved a surtax for education on Arizona’s wealthiest citizens? Are all the voters who voted in favor of Prop. 208 also “socialists”? Inquiring minds want to know, Jake.
And what do we call Arizona Republican legislators who just did an end run around the Voter Protection Act in the Arizona Constitution to subvert the surtax in Prop. 208 for education on Arizona wealthiest citizens? This is lawless GQP authoritarianism writ large.
“To teach our children about the evils of communism and totalitarianism is right,’’ Hoffman said. “It is our duty and our responsibility to do that.’’
That means having students hear “real testimony from people who escaped those types of governments and now live here and enjoy the blessings of this country,’’ he said.
They should also hear from Capitol police officers and Congressional staff members who survived the seditious insurrection on January 6 in a failed coup d’etat by the MAGA/QAnon personality cult of Donald Trump, one of the darkest days in American history.
Jan. 6 riot brought up
Rep. Daniel Hernandez, D-Tucson, countered: “You know what’s a bigger threat? White nationalism.’’
Hernandez placed the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol into the same category.
See, DHS: White Supremacists Are ‘The Most Persistent and Lethal Threat’ Within the U.S. today.
“So, yes, let’s talk about communism,’’ he said. “But let’s talk about making sure we are not letting people get away with the kinds of things that happened on Jan. 6 and teaching our kids it’s OK to try to overthrow a democratically elected government.’’
That provoked a response from Rep. Quang Nguyen, R-Prescott Valley, who was born in Vietnam in 1962 and emigrated to the United States after the Vietnam War.
“White nationalism didn’t drown 250,000 Vietnamese in the South China Sea,’’ he told colleagues. “The communists did.’’
Ditto, he said, of the execution of 86,000 Vietnamese at the fall of Saigon. And Nguyen said it was communism that caused him to be in the United States.
“So don’t take it lightly, don’t mock me, don’t mock what I go through in life,’’ he said, saying he lost most of his family members due to communism. “If we don’t stand up to teach communism to our children, we’ll lose this country.’’
Nobody was mocking you, Rep. Nguyen. You clearly want to limit this new curriculum to just communism.
But fascism was responsible for upwards of 75 million deaths in World War II, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians, many of whom died because of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-bombings, disease, and starvation. So teaching the horrors of fascism is also important.
Especially since too many Americans today support crypto-fascist authoritarianism in pursuit of white nationalism (Trumpism). These white nationalists will just as easily come for you, Rep. Nguyen. This is why Congress passed an anti-Asian hate crimes bill earlier this year.
The language added by Burges also requires instruction on “the civic-minded expectations of an upright and desirable citizenry.’’
That would be what Rep. Daniel Hernandez suggested: “[L]et’s talk about making sure we are not letting people get away with the kinds of things that happened on Jan. 6 and teaching our kids it’s OK to try to overthrow a democratically elected government.’’
Conflicts with Senate version
While the bill passed on a 31-25 party line vote, the future of the provisions on the civics teaching may not remain.
That language is not in a parallel bill that Sen. Paul Boyer, R-Glendale, already has pushed through the Senate. And Boyer told Capitol Media Services he does not support the provision.
“We shouldn’t be dictating curriculum from on high, even if it’s well-intentioned,’’ he said.
The differences between the House and Senate versions will have to be worked out in a conference committee.
There’s another key difference.
The Senate version contains language that would allow far more parents to use vouchers of public money to send their children to private and parochial schools.
But efforts to add that to the House version faltered after Republican Reps. Michelle Udall of Mesa and Joel John of Arlington voted with Democrats to keep that out of the legislation.
So will this curriculum and school voucher craziness stay dead, or will our GQP authoritarian legislature find a way to put this craziness back into the bill and strong arm the recalcitrant GQP members?
Pay attention this week.
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Our ideas about helping the rich are horrible, so we have to distract the voters with, a) commies are under the bed, and b) critical race theory will destroy white kids. It works with the Fox News only crowd.
Someone needs to teach most of the history illiterate, House Republican caucus, that international fascism is a bigger threat than 1950’s style, “commies under the bed”, scaremongering. Judy Burges was last in a classroom 50 years ago and knows nothing, and the rest of the illiterates have not read a critical thinking history book ever, but who better to micromanage curriculum.
A disturbing new Morning Consult survey makes the point. “U.S. Conservatives Are Uniquely Inclined Toward Right-Wing Authoritarianism Compared to Western Peers”, https://morningconsult.com/2021/06/28/global-right-wing-authoritarian-test/
New global Morning Consult research underscores the prevalence of authoritarian attitudes among U.S. conservatives.
The research, which used longtime authoritarian researcher Bob Altemeyer’s right-wing authoritarianism test and scale and builds on recent work he conducted with the Monmouth University Polling Institute, found that U.S. conservatives have stronger right-wing authoritarian tendencies than their right-of-center counterparts in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Altemeyer defines authoritarianism as the desire to submit to some authority, aggression that is directed against whomever the authority says should be targeted and a desire to have everybody follow the norms and social conventions that the authority says should be followed. Those characteristics were all on display in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, culminating earlier this year in the attack on the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
A comparison across the eight countries polled showed that the share of the U.S. population that scored as “high RWA” was twice the size of the next largest population: 26 percent of U.S. respondents met that designation, compared with 13 percent of Canadians and Australians and 10 percent of those in the United Kingdom.
More than a quarter of high-RWA respondents and conservatives said those that broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6 were protecting the U.S. government rather than undermining it, compared with roughly 9 in 10 liberal or low-RWA respondents who said the opposite.
Similar divides cropped up on the questions that helped lead to the Jan. 6 riot, with most right-leaning and high-RWA Americans agreeing that Joe Biden won the presidential election due to widespread fraud. A slim majority of those respondents also said they were more likely to believe Trump than U.S. judges when it comes to the existence of evidence of voting irregularities.
And while over half of right-leaning and high-RWA Americans disagreed that Trump should have refused to leave office, that paled in comparison to the approximately 9 in 10 liberal and low-RWA respondents who said the same.
The survey findings also show how the right-wing authoritarian divide reveals itself in matters of public health, although these differences were smaller. Right-leaning and high-RWA respondents were more likely than left-leaning and low-RWA respondents to disagree that masks and vaccines are necessary to stop the spread of COVID-19.
The divides over the use of masks, especially, illustrate the challenges involved in de-escalating the right-left tension in American society and lowering the authoritarian temperature.
These divides all seem to stem from the same dynamic: leaders in the political and media spaces exacerbating tensions and differences for political gain. [The Foxification of the right]. That’s a difficult problem to stop, especially when the political incentives and inertia of the moment suggest that voters may just move on to “the craziest son of a bitch in the race,” as dubbed by conservative Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) in a March 2017 Washington Examiner article.
Jennifer Rubin writes at the Washington Post, “The truth about many in the GOP base: They prefer authoritarianism to democracy”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/29/truth-about-gop-they-prefer-authoritarianism-democracy/
[W]hat if one side adopts noxious views antithetical to democracy — and, worse, rejects the basic premise of America?
We have witnessed Republicans’ reflexive defense of the disgraced former president’s illegal and corrupt conduct. We have observed that the majority of the party accepts the “big lie” of a stolen election and seeks to use that as a basis for suppressing the votes of minorities.
And we know that, once more, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has committed himself to one objective: the defeat and failure of a Democratic president.
In short, they have taken themselves outside the small-d democratic compact that requires, at the very least, that we respect election results and abide by normative guidelines in defeat or victory.
It would be somewhat reassuring to think this is a problem of Republican officials, donors and activists. Alas, the authoritarian temptation is luring millions of Americans away from the democratic experiment. “A scale measuring propensity toward right-wing authoritarian tendencies found right-leaning Americans scored higher than their counterparts in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom,” a Morning Consult poll finds. “26% of the U.S. population qualified as highly right-wing authoritarian, Morning Consult research found, twice the share of the No. 2 countries, Canada and Australia.”
This means that a large percentage of Republicans — that is, tens of millions of Americans — embrace an authoritarianism defined “as the desire to submit to some authority, aggression that is directed against whomever the authority says should be targeted and a desire to have everybody follow the norms and social conventions that the authority says should be followed.” This inclination to follow a demagogue and to reject democratic values is more pronounced than in other Western democracies.
The most authoritarian-inclined Americans tend to be over age 45, live in rural areas and don’t have a college degree. This is the profile of the GOP base, not coincidentally. It follows that many authoritarian-minded Americans are willing to abide by the cult of former president Donald Trump and reject rational analysis. They burrow within right-wing media, refusing to confront facts and views that contradict their philosophy.
That authoritarian mind-set leads to a host of bizarre and dangerous articles of faith in the MAGA-infused GOP. Those with authoritarian beliefs are much more likely to conclude that the Jan. 6 insurrectionists were justified in the attempt to violently halt the electoral count; they are much more inclined to think Trump should not have left office. Although more than half of the strong authoritarian right-wingers “disagreed that Trump should have refused to leave office, that paled in comparison to the approximately 9 in 10 liberal and low-[authoritarian] respondents who said the same.” The authoritarian-inclined are much more inclined to resist mask-wearing and get vaccinated.
The right’s descent into authoritarianism to a large degree is religiously-based.
Robert P. Jones, the author of “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity,” explains: “The most striking difference between right-wing politics in the U.S. and other countries such as Australia, Canada, and [Britain] is the dominance and influence of white evangelical Protestants, who have a theological proclivity toward authoritarianism.” He continues, “The evangelical worldview in America has historically been built on a set of hierarchies that have been defended as divinely ordained — Christian over non-Christian, Protestant over Catholic, white over non-white, men over women. In its strongest forms, this worldview is fundamentally anti-democratic and theocratic.” In what sounds like a perfect alignment with political authoritarianism, “It demands deference particularly to white male charismatic leaders (even when they themselves violate communal norms) and builds identity through a politics of aggression to a shifting array of perceived out groups,” Jones observes.
“Most notably,” he adds, “it gives no quarter to critical thought or dissent, defending its own views as divinely ordained and beyond question.”
If a significant faction of the Republican Party adheres to Christian nationalism rather than the democratic civic religion (equality, the rule of law and the aspiration to perfect the American experiment), the rest of us cannot embrace them as good-faith partners in democracy.
As disturbing as it may seem, today’s GOP cannot be entrusted with power and cannot play the role of the “loyal opposition” if it continues to operate outside the democratic compact.