Opinion: When is Enough, Enough?

Lawmakers and senior government officials can no longer deny that which is right in front of our faces

Photo by Rux Centea on Unsplash

Fascism is everywhere in the United States today. We see it in Latin America in El Salvador and Argentina, and we saw it in Brazil under Jair Bolsonaro. We see it in Eastern Europe, and we see it growing in Western European countries like Germany. In each of these instances, they are being driven by religious motivations: Christian nationalism. In essence, they are no different than theocratic states like Iran, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia.

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Then there’s Israel. Another theocratic state that, if criticized, cynical claims of anti-Jewish sentiments soon follow under the guise of antisemitism, the latest weapon in the war targeting speech. In other words, it’s the only government Western countries disapprove of speaking negatively against. And while the argument can be made that criticising Zionism is anti-Jewish, that’s only true of neo-Nazis who equate the two, which is, in itself, anti-Jewish.

Yet, here we are. With a police state that saw an explosion in growth after 9/11 and bolstered by the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act, we are now not only faced with the United States government committing a genocide with our tax dollars, but also with the prospect of all the power granted to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and it’s child agencies, like Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is starting to show itself. Yes, they can surveil and target everyone. In fact, they do it often.

We have a White House riddled with racists, bigots, white nationalists, and Christian nationalists, fascists on the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) and Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission. We are witnessing the virtually livestreamed attempted ethnic cleansing of Latinos from major cities across the country alongside the genocide of Palestinians by Israel.

Yet, hardly a word is spoken about any of this from lawmakers and high-ranking government officials. Neither side of the political aisle, aside from a few individuals, has spoken out about the enormous boost to ICE funding, the same agency with a sordid history of human rights abuses and zero accountability. Similarly, hardly a word is spoken about continuing to send weapons of war to carry out the genocide. Instead, we get spin and excuses to justify them.

If tens of thousands of women and children, innocent civilians, along wth bombing hospitals, house of worship, universities, hundreds of journalists, and starving millions isn’t enough to even identify a genocide, let alone stop it, what hope do we have that they’ll stop the ethnic cleansing of Latinos under the guise of “illegal aliens” and “criminal aliens” here at home? The public has been voicing its displeasure with all of this, and we’re met with silence and cynicism.