FreiKorps in America
In my analysis of "Sam Williams: The Crisis (Pt 9)", I was worried about the rise of right-wing paramilitaries (such as a FreiKorps) to defend Capitalism. Unfortunately, this fear has now now been realised.
Dan Dinello writes about "A Confederacy of Vigilantes: White Supremacists, including some Police, attack BLM Protesters, Prepare to Defend Trump’s Theft of the Presidency":
The most vicious elements within these far-right militant groups correctly believe that their conduct is sanctioned by the government and the police. Given the maniacal fervor of pro-Trump paramilitary forces, it’s reasonable to assume that they’ve “upgraded” — in organization and tactics — as a result of involvement by law enforcement officers and even Iraq war veterans. “They have clear civilian targets and a President who eggs them on,” asserts Alexander Reid Ross, author of Against the Fascist Creep, who tracks vigilante groups. “There seems no doubt that America’s far right is keying up for conflict in the lead-up and aftermath of the presidential election” as Trump has floated the idea of rejecting an unfavorable election result as fraudulent.
Emphasis Mine
This is different from the Fascist uprisings in the 1930s. Back then, the Fascists overthrew what they saw as weak democracries in Italy, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Romania, and Poland. The Fascists saw themselves as revolutionaries ushering in a bright new future. They were the true representatives of the people in their world-view. They rejected democracy and Communism/Socialism/Anarchism as foreign to what they saw as the true national character.
Today, the proto-Fascist groups are defending the existing social structure. However, they see themselves as overthrowing the existing social order. Thus, there is a conflict between their subjective reality and the objective reality.
Barry Sheppard writes about Trump’s Bonaparte moment:
In the present day US, albeit for different reasons than at the end of 1848 in France: workers’ organisations play little or no role in politics; like Louis, Trump presents himself as a strongman; and as was the case between 1849–51, the bourgeois parties are continuously bickering between themselves and achieving little (except for bipartisan agreements like adopting ever-increasing military budgets).
Louis embraced France’s Napoleonic past for legitimacy and made himself Emperor. Trump looks to US history, especially the Jim Crow period. He seeks to solidify authoritarianism with bourgeois democratic trappings, while greatly restricting democratic rights, something like the regimes in the Jim Crow South, but with himself at the top.
Trump’s militia
Trump is also building up an armed force that is loyal to him.
Emphasis Mine
Trump is able to position himself as a Bonapartist by bridging the gap between the subjective and objective realities. The problem with Bonapartism is its inherent instability.
That the FreiKorps are now establishing themselves in American society. Whether Trump is able to keep control of them reminds to be seen.
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