by Marcelo Zero
Every historical attempt to tame, control, or civilize fascist forces and the far right has failed miserably.
In Italy, King Victor Emmanuel III named Benito Mussolini prime minister after the fascists’ March on Rome in 1922. The king thought Mussolini’s anticommunism would help control the Bolsheviks. He also thought a coalition of political forces would moderate him.
Bolsonaristas attempting to destroy Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court on January 8, 2023 (photo: social media)
But the coalition only lasted until 1925. That year, Mussolini declared himself dictator, eliminated the separation of powers, and began to govern Italy with an iron fist, brutally repressing all opponents.
In Germany, the centrist and traditional right wing politicians of the fragile Weimar Republic repeated the Italian tragedy ten years later. The Nazis called that republic “The System,” or Das System. Despite what some young analysts appear to believe, the “antisystem” is as old as the “system.” Antipolitics is more than a hundred years old.
In 1932, the Weimar government attempted to fight a severe economic crisis with deep budget cuts and the destruction of incipient social policies. It was a real chainsaw avant la lettre. Elections were held, and Hitler’s party jumped from 18% to 33% of the electorate, the highest percentage of any party in that election.
German President Paul von Hindenburg and the traditional right, alarmed by the growth of the left and by social protests, decided to name Hitler chancellor. At the same time, Hindenburg named Franz von Papen vice chancellor, establishing a coalition of the Nazis with the Center Party.
Hindenburg and von Papen made a monumental error of political calculation. They believed they could “control” Hitler this way.
Hitler, of course, had other plans for the people he called, with deep contempt, “cackling hens,” meaning traditional politicians in general.
He ordered the Reichstag burned. He blamed the communists. Then, at the end of March 1933, he managed to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933. Those laws created a state of emergency and effectively gave the new chancellor broad powers to act outside any parliamentary or legal control.
Ruthless Hitler promptly used those extraordinary powers to block constitutional governance and suspend civil liberties. That caused the rapid collapse of democracy at the federal and regional levels.
With Hindenburg’s death in 1934, Hitler became the unchallenged Führer, the founder of a totalitarian regime that was meant to last a thousand years. The “cackling hens” and all other opponents were swept off the map.
Neither Mussolini nor Hitler rose to power through coups. They came to power through democratic means within the legal structures of their era. But through calculated subversive moves that the “democrats” and the “moderates” tolerated or ignored, they founded totalitarian regimes.
Fascism and Nazism triumphed because the democracies of the time allowed themselves to be destroyed from within.
My apology to those with short or selective memories, but all of this recalls recent and painful events in Brazil.
Bolsonarism, undeniably a form of fascism, also came to power in Brazil through democratic means. It capitalized on weaponized Operation Car Wash anti-corruption rhetoric and anti-Workers’ Party sentiment, pathologies of our recent democracy.
In that process, the traditional right, which was committed to democracy, was politically swept away. It gave way to a gang of militiamen who are viscerally corrupt, violent, and antidemocratic.
In that process, the worst president in the country’s history was elected. A militiaman committed to death, to scientific and climate denial, to dictatorship, and to the hollowing out and isolation of Brazil. A deadly fool.
In that process, Brazilian democracy was nearly swept off the map.
Brazilian democracy was not swept off the map by Bolsonaro, as happened in Italy and Germany, because there was a reaction. At the last moment, our democracy showed that it knew how to defend itself.
It knew how to say no to the coup that Bolsonaro and his supporters fully intended to carry out, with the bloodshed of Brazilian women and men.
I write this article and I am still alive because, at a decisive moment in our history, an institution as important as the Supreme Court knew how to react.
I write this article and I am still alive because, at the last moment, Brazil’s democratic forces knew how to unite around Lula’s candidacy and defeat fascism and its coup.
I write this article and I am still alive because important sectors of our press realized what was happening in time and reacted.
However, I ask: have we learned nothing from our own history?
It seems not. As Hegel wrote, “that the only thing history teaches is that men learn nothing from it.”
Since I have a good memory, and since time and reading have taught me something, I think treating the candidacy of Flávio Bolsonaro, a mere proxy for his father, as something “normal,” a viable alternative, is democratic suicide.
It is democratic suicide and a crime against our sovereignty, considering the unbelievable geopolitical times we live in.
To consider bolsonarismo, an obvious antidemocratic aberration, a clear political pathology, as something that can be controlled and moderated in a democratic environment is monumental political stupidity. It is repeating, once again, the pathetic example of the “cackling hens” of the tragic Weimar Republic.
The DNA of totalitarianism is an integral part of the structure of bolsonarismo. And it is in the nature of fascism, whatever its historical form, to try to abolish democracy.
It is like the fable of the scorpion and the frog. By instinct, by nature, the scorpion will always sting the frog that helps it cross the river.
Herbert Marcuse, an author who urgently needs to be read or reread, knew very well the risks of fascism and Nazism and saved Hegelianism from its distortion by the Nazis. He said that one of the main characteristics of fascism is its profound irrationality.
There is no rational dialogue with fascists. Fascism is a destructive instinct. It is Thanatos. It is hatred.
So I ask, I beg, all remaining democrats. You do not have to like the Workers’ Party. You do not have to like Lula. Believe me, you do not even have to be on the left. You can be conservative. And you are free to dislike any politician at all.
But you need to have some love for Brazil. Some appreciation for democracy.
So in the next elections, do yourself a favor. Fulfill a citizen’s duty. Leave your house and vote to save Brazil and its democracy.
Like me, you may make many mistakes in your life. But you will never be wrong if you are on the right side of history. And the right side of history will always be, under any circumstances, democracy.
Marcelo Zero is a Brazilian sociologist and political analyst. This article was submitted to Panamerican Dispatch by the author.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Panamerican Dispatch.