Fascism is component in Kent State shootings and lies about 2020 election, Capitol riot
While attending the showing of “Fire in the Heartland” at Kent State University and the follow-up film discussion with six panelists, including several who were students involved in the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations 52 years ago on May 4, I realized there is a very relevant connection between the shootings to today.
This was a question asked of panelists afterward and one replied that given today’s current political climate, students need to become active, especially when there are important issues that need to be addressed and even protested. Another panelist labeled some current political positions and government reactions today as “fascist,” especially when people's lives are threatened and violence is an outcome.
I immediately made the connection of this perspective to the book I just finished reading, “Fascism — A Warning,” authored by the recently deceased Madeleine Albright.
Albright’s theme throughout her book is that fascist governments growing in the 1930s and ’40s are the groundwork for neo-fascism today. The basis of this political movement is an extreme form of authoritarianism. Albright writes that “a fascist is someone who identifies strongly with the claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is unconcerned about the rights of others and is willing to use whatever means are necessary — including violence — to achieve his or her goals.”
She supports her definition with fascism as practiced by Mussolini and Hitler and more specifically with rulers in the era following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But the most interesting conclusion she draws about a leader possessing fascist thoughts and behaviors is Donald Trump. Among the many fascistic characteristics are two of his strongest — continually lying about and attempting to influence the outcome of the 2020 election, and encouraging the violent insurrection on Washington’s Capitol. Knowledge, rational thinking and truth are missing in Trump’s egotistical and irrational thoughts and behaviors.
The main May 4th speaker was Jon Meacham, a Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential biographer. His highly reflective comments about the May 4th tragedy were, in many respects, a warning about how democracy had failed us on that day, which he said “is recognized as one of the bloodiest college/university events in American history.”
He added that “those in power declared war on the people.”
The National Guard troops that murdered and wounded 13 students were not convicted of their killings. Neither was Ohio Gov. James Rhodes charged with ordering the Guard to campus to control the students demonstrating against the Vietnam War.
So, the government was blameless. Those in power created a neo-fascistic event over our so-called democracy.
Looking back: Remembering the May 4, 1970, shootings at Kent State University
I had further confirmation of this connection when reading Connie Schultz’s May 6 column in the Akron Beacon Journal, “Ghosts of Kent State Make Their Appearance Every May 4.” In characterizing the slaughter, she wrote that “the ‘they’ who opened fire was the government, the Ohio National Guard.” She is suggesting that “the government” had an influence on the Guard’s radical decision that resulted in the deaths of peacefully demonstrating students and bystanders. This is a fascism at its worst.
Democracy is not easy and we should not take it for granted, especially with Trump attempting to return to the “stage.” Based on their collective comments, I’m sure Albright, Meacham and Schultz would agree.
Bill Wilen of Kent is a Kent State University professor emeritus.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Opinion: Fascism seen at Kent State shootings and Capitol riots
