JAPEC COMMUNITY LIFE MAGAZINE 

Fascism is not at the Door…It’s already in the House

By Lorenzo Canizares

7/21/25

Unless you are expecting the sign fascism has arrived to be members of the Armed Forces marching in goose-steps through Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue, you are then aware that something very serious is happening in today’s USA. The vaunted structure that will safeguard the American people from tyranny through a labyrinth of laws and regulations has sadly proven to be very porous. We have gone through the stage of not living in normal times anymore to one that there is nothing normal anymore, except sports, and even that is changing.

Yes, Fascism is already inside the house. But it hasn’t taken the whole house yet.

But we don’t have to see ourselves yet as citizens of a failed nation, there is still a window period to rescue the nation from this abyss. Hopefully it will be done by us and not by foreigners. And I am saying this because through our internal conditions it reflects a desire to maintain a world safe for our hegemonic designs. Our backing for Israel’s genocide and territorial expansion as we are seeing through Israel’s bombing of five different nations, goes perfectly well with the vision of the Trump administration on how to carry foreign policy. This leads to focus on what our oligarchy have determined the main global threat to the United States and to nobody’s surprise it is China.

The highly successful economic advancement of the Chinese cannot be tolerated by the Trump administration’s hegemonic designs. There is only room for one at the top. China is the target to destroy. But the target believes in a multipolar world and has been extremely consistent in its beliefs. China has united with many other countries of the same outlook to create the BRICS that is incorporating country after country in the global south, and it has now become a powerful force for peace in the world. Other countries are seeing this, especially across the global south, and I don’t perceive any turning back in the commitment of those countries to a multipolar world.

Our harsh global hegemonic designs go together with brutal internal policies that are geared towards subjugating the will of a nation that is broad in its composition, and in order to subjugate a population like that, enemies have to be created to energize a sizeable portion of the population towards accepting a police state. Immigrants are serving the Trump administration as the rallying point to exacerbate the much-needed energy created through racial hatred. Luckily for us, it is not working that well. Polls after polls are showing the American people do want a lawful immigration system but for those people that are already here, and have not committed any crime, the expectations are of a different way of dealing with them rather than deportation or jail.

Immigration has become the most salient point in the struggle to prevent fascism from continuing to gain space inside of the house. The issue of immigration serves the Trump administration as a tool to fan the flames of racism probably the most potent of all the issues that can lead to people accepting the loss of their civil and legal rights. As we are seeing in today’s America, due process is becoming less accessible to a lot of people, especially if they are Black or Brown. Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost on his visit a few days ago to the terrifying jail in the Florida swamp “Alligator Alcatraz” mentioned that he didn’t see a prisoner there that was not Black or Brown.

What is there to do?

Those of us that understand the need to prevent fascism not only from taking the whole house but getting them out of the house (there is no such thing as cohabitation with fascists if you want to sleep with your two eyes closed), we still have time to prevent the nightmare from happening. A beginning for those of us that appreciate living fascist-free is to have a working understanding of what is meant by fascism. Encyclopedia Britannica (EB) defines “fascism as a philosophy of government that stresses the primacy and glory of the state, unquestioning obedience to its leader, subordination of the individual will to the state’s authority, and harsh suppression of dissent. Martial virtues are celebrated, while liberal and democratic values are disparaged. Fascism arose during the 1920s and ’30s partly out of fear of the rising power of the working classes; it differed from contemporary communism (as practiced under Joseph Stalin) by its protection of business and landowning elites and its preservation of class systems. The leaders of the fascist governments of Italy (1922–43), Germany (1933–45), and Spain (1939–75)—Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Francisco Franco—were portrayed to their publics as embodiments of the strength and resolve necessary to rescue their nations from political and economic chaos. Japanese fascists (1936–45) fostered belief in the uniqueness of the Japanese spirit and taught subordination to the state and personal sacrifice.”

Understanding we are fighting the corporate class is intrinsic to be able to develop a correct way of fighting fascism. This means a conscious effort of developing the largest possible United Front to fight corporate attempts to curtail the legal, civil and economic rights of the American people. The effort can be exercised in many different ways from minimal risks like boycotts or like it was done in Orange County, as Labor Community Alliance of South Florida (LCA) Steering Committee member Terri Falbo reports “Recently in Orange County, Florida, we have had some wins in getting County officials to reverse negative positions originally taken regarding cooperation with ICE. 

There have been some decent articles about this,

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/orange-county-rejects-plan-for-local-jail-staff-to-transport-ice-detainees-to-alligator-alcatraz-39960830

Orange County rejects plan for local jail staff to transport ICE detainees to Alligator Alcatraz | Orlando | Orlando Weekly but they don’t detail the strategy used — that I think those of us struggling for a better world can possibly learn from - & apply to other issues & movements. 

Often, when elected officials take stands, we aren’t happy with, people tend to have two opposite reactions: either

1) make excuses for the elected officials; or

2) yell at the officials. 

Instead, the Immigrants Are Welcomed Here Coalition - led by Ericka Gomez-Tejeda- employed a strategy of helping to give officials the strength needed to do the right thing. Volunteers went to neighborhoods where commissioners lived and knocked on neighbors’ doors and asked if they could put the signs in their yards. This way, Commissioners would see signs saying #BeBraveWithUs every time they left their homes and when they were driving home. Then - during public comment at Commission meetings, dozens of speakers all started their comments by asking the Commission to end its Intergovernmental Services Agreement with ICE and ended by saying “Be brave with us!”.

From these types of actions up to following the lead of labor leaders Sarah Nelson and Shawn Fain to prepare for a general strike there are many things that can be done to prevent fascism from taking over our nation. But one thing that needs to be done immediately is to get organized with like-minded others to maximize the effectiveness of what you can do to prevent fascism taking over the whole house.