Ellington

Whatever political ideology the Rand Paul supporters who attacked Lauren Valle last week might have claimed to have, they became fascists the moment they held her down and stomped her in the head.

The term "fascism" comes from the fasces, the intimidating bundle of white birch rods that, attached to an axe in the ancient Roman republic, functioned as a symbol that brought to mind the state's power to execute those who opposed it. While there are many civil liberties that can be violated and many human rights that can be suppressed, true fascism represents the violent suppression of dissent, the idea that the proper response to an idea that challenges authority is either violence or the threat of violence.

As a progressive activist in Mississippi who knows his history, I live under the shadow of the fasces. I've never been beaten or shot for my beliefs, but I can read in the history books about Medgar Evers, the Freedom Summer murders, the Chaney-Goodman-Schwerner slayings and the literally hundreds of other lynchings that defined the white supremacist response to the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi.

Or I can look more recently at the murder of the Arkansas Democratic Party chairman, the Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shootings or the murder of pro-choice physician George Tiller.

Or I can look at the threats that activists still face today—one friend in a feminist T-shirt was cornered in Lowe's and told to be careful wearing slogans like that because she'll get shot for it around here, or the beating death of a young gay man under suspicious circumstances outside a fast-food place last year, or the relentless racist backlash against the NAACP and other civil rights groups.

In practice, on the two occasions I have had a yard sign advocating a black candidate in our front yard, either the sign or another part of our property was vandalized.

These kinds of threats are typically delivered by white men with guns, directed at people who are not white men with guns.

I want to say this is a cultural, bipartisan, non-political issue, but I don't really believe that. There's a large segment of the population that professes to believe that the government is getting too big and powerful, but thinks torturing people or imprisoning them for life without trial is OK if somebody with a government title says it is. They don't want women to be able to take birth control pills because it might kill microscopic blastocysts, but see no reason to save the lives of the 45,000 Americans who die every year due to lack of health insurance. They want to teach creationism and the Ten Commandments in public schools, but think giving kids in poor neighborhoods access to a useful education is just throwing money away. They want to cut food stamps for families because we need to watch out for the deficit, then cut taxes for multi-millionaires. They don't want the government looking at right-wing paramilitary groups that stockpile ammo, but they do want the government raiding low-income Latino households in search of undocumented immigrants.

There's a pattern to all these apparently contradictory policy positions: The tea party is about more freedom and power for the people it represents, and less freedom and power for everybody else—and through its ties with paramilitary and firearm-enthusiast groups, it is implicitly committed to the belief, articulated by Mao Tse-tung, that power flows from the barrel of a gun.

In practice, this isn't really conservatism; it's selfishness. One of Valle's assailants wore a button on his shirt depicting the Gadsden flag: a rattlesnake with the caption "Don't Tread On Me." This flag, originally used during the American Revolution, was meant to depict the 13 colonies' oppression under British law. But on the shirt of somebody who's literally treading on a woman, and whose agenda represents trampling on the interests of women and anyone else who does not fit the narrow demographics of his movement, it sends a different message: "Don't tread on me; tread on other, more historically oppressed groups of people instead."

Whatever form this "save me, not them" attitude takes—and Maoism and Stalinism represented it as effectively as any right-wing movement ever has—it is always connected to a vision of the world that is rooted in selfishness, scarcity, competition and inevitably, violence.

Whatever candidate you vote for in the future, stand for the dignity of the human spirit, the personal freedom of conscience, and the common good. Don't let the fasces scare you—or seduce you. Reject the politics of the curb-stomp in all of its forms.

Stand for something better.

Jackson native Tom Head is secretary of the Mississippi ACLU, writes About.com's Guide to Civil Liberties, and is the author or co-author of 24 nonfiction books, including "Civil Liberties: A Beginner's Guide" (2009).

Previous Comments

ID

160801

Comment

Interesting article. What a pleasure to have met you last week.

Author

Meredith

Date

2010-11-09T14:37:53-06:00

ID

160817

Comment

Very well put. And totally true. Scary business.

Author

cstrongheart

Date

2010-11-10T09:34:50-06:00

ID

160821

Comment

"There’s a large segment of the population that professes to believe that the government is getting too big and powerful, but thinks torturing people or imprisoning them for life without trial is OK if somebody with a government title says it is. They don’t want women to be able to take birth control pills because it might kill microscopic blastocysts, but see no reason to save the lives of the 45,000 Americans who die every year due to lack of health insurance. They want to teach creationism and the Ten Commandments in public schools, but think giving kids in poor neighborhoods access to a useful education is just throwing money away. They want to cut food stamps for families because we need to watch out for the deficit, then cut taxes for multi-millionaires. They don’t want the government looking at right-wing paramilitary groups that stockpile ammo, but they do want the government raiding low-income Latino households in search of undocumented immigrants." Preach brotha preach! Tell'em brotha, tell'em! Damn it is refreshing to see that comparison right there! The sheer hypocrisy of this "conservative" movement is amazing! Good job Tom for pointing that out.

Author

Duan C.

Date

2010-11-10T14:41:52-06:00

ID

160896

Comment

If you study some A&P, then look closer at the tape... the stomp was on her shoulder. Not that it makes it OK. But the semantically oriented people here wouldn't let you say ALL, if it only included 99.9 percent. That aside, I was horrified by a man putting his foot on a woman period. I cannot believe someone did not tackle the guy doing the stomping.

Author

Mark Ellis

Date

2010-11-12T20:22:58-06:00