The other day, WGBH interviewed Dr. [Last Name]. Jill Stein is the Green Party candidate for president. She is reaching out to disillusioned Bernie Sanders supporters. Considering the tight race and the serious implications of a Donald Trump win, the interviewer inquired about her feelings regarding the possibility of inadvertently helping Trump to win the election. Her response is filled with jargon and evasion, similar to what we heard from previous Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. From historical and current perspectives, there is a noticeable increase in right-wing extremism, not limited to the United States or Donald Trump, but also present in numerous European nations. What is causing this? It is policies such as NAFTA, globalization, the dominance of banks, Wall Street bailouts, and the Wall Street meltdown due to deregulation. Who provided us with those policies? The Clintons were at the forefront of implementing them. Halting neoliberalism is the solution to combatting neofascism. Placing another Clinton in the White House will exacerbate right-wing extremism. We have been aware of this for many years, dating back to the era of Nazi Germany. We will confront both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton!
— Alan Kestrel (@AlanKestrel750) July 28, 2016
The sentence “We have known that for a long time ever since Nazi Germany” is confusing and unclear. Normally, the phrase “we have known that” would refer to the preceding sentence. However, in this case, the previous sentence states “Putting another Clinton in the White House will fan the flames of right-wing extremism.” It cannot be definitively stated that a Clinton in the White House leads to right-wing extremism, especially considering the time of the Third Reich, which predates the first Clinton administration according to the standard neoliberal calendar. Additionally, during the sole period in American history when a Clinton was in the White House, it did not result in fascism. True, it did result in a Republican administration. However, this outcome was influenced by, among various factors, a Green Party candidate in Florida garnering enough votes to sway the final result. The argument that bad things happen after Clinton presidencies is not a strong justification for Stein’s candidacy. Alternatively, Stein may be referring to the idea that the solution to neofascism is stopping neoliberalism, which is also a questionable conclusion to reach. The crisis in Weimar Germany had numerous causes. One of them was the Communist Party’s determination to eliminate the Social Democrats. Because the Communists refused to back any center-left government coalition, it was not feasible to establish a parliamentary majority without the Nazis. Lessons on left-wing political strategy from the Nazi era should not include the idea of withholding votes from the mainstream party that is the only viable alternative to the far right.
Stein does not minimize the danger of a Trump presidency. Instead, she compares it to fascism and Nazism. (I believe this comparison goes too far, despite Trump’s authoritarian tendencies). Despite believing that Clintonism could result in fascism, she ultimately feels the need to oppose both Donald Trump and the only candidate capable of stopping him from becoming president. “Neoliberalism, often criticized by the left as a form of liberalism, is seen as a precursor to fascism. Therefore, some argue that instead of embracing neoliberalism, we should bypass it altogether and transition directly to fascism.”
