The short answer: Sadly, it’s already here!

May 1978, in my native Belgium, a Moroccan community festival is beaten up and left in shambles by the Flemish Militant Order. The police “accidentally” arrive too late to prevent the brutalities. It’s but one example of many in Europe, largely unreported in the U.S. Here, in October, after the devastating Hurricane Helene, militia in North Carolina threatens FEMA workers. Please read on and consider how both events flow from the same fascist well.

1961, Austrian journalist Joseph Hindels writes his book “Hitler war kein zufall” (not available in English, but translated as “Hitler was no accident”), warning that fascism is far from dead. The 1978 event underscores that loudly; the North Carolina FEMA event brings it even closer.

October 2015, NPR Morning Edition reports that a business guy from New York City runs for president. Hearing his very early statements, I almost choke on my breakfast. My hairs raise instantly. Highly alarmed, I blurt to my wife, “What he says is pure fascism!”

I share my great alarm with many well-educated, well-informed friends, progressives and conservatives alike. All — with no exception — either ignore my arguments or plainly dismiss them, pointing out my ignorance on American politics, that fascism in the U.S. is impossible and at best that the guy is too unfit, inept, whatever, to beat his opponent. A couple resent me talking about it at all.

2015-16, the major news outlets cautiously avoid any wording that could sound too close to the idea of fascism, and by the same token — in the name of free speech — offer large, free propaganda space and airtime. Comments like ” … does not fit the definition, Neo Nazi nests don’t exist in the U.S.,” attempt to normalize the dangerous rhetoric.

Rereading Hindels’ book in 2017-18 made me gasp, as it truly reads like a blueprint of what’s been happening in our country since the 2015 launch of the MAGA campaign! In fact, it starts even earlier with the Tea Party movement and, if you’re a student of history, you’ll find an even longer trajectory, albeit not quite as out in the open.

Now hearing again (still!) the demagoguery, blatant white supremacy, sloganized promises of simple solutions (never intended to be delivered), the government is a monster, promises of lower taxes, everybody (whites only, that is) will get paradise restored, immigrants are bandits, rapists, drug addicts, home thieves, freeloaders, tax abusers, Social Security milkers, lazy, profiteers, murderers, drug addicts, let your imagination run wild. It all is for me, dating back to October 2015, déjà vu, and it is what it has been for the last 55-60 years: pure fascist rhetoric.

Today, there is one difference: it no longer stays only rhetoric. The horrors of Jan. 6, 2021, and the recent threats against the FEMA workers are beyond dry runs. It is breaking out in the streets, just as Hindels describes the 1920s in Germany. How much longer before shots are fired?

The signs I grew up with that continue now in Europe are blatantly similar. Fortunately, Europe’s strict weapons limitations help in preventing the fascist organizations from evolving into straight terroristic ones. Additionally, multi-party systems in Europe have thus far been able to form a “cordon sanitaire,” largely confining extreme right-wing parties from grabbing ruling power.

Can history repeat itself? We have the perfect recipe for an answer to that question present in our nation — Part I: A large economically disgruntled population, single-mindedly open to fascist rhetoric and the country carpeted by automatic weapons; Part II: A current analogue of the sociopath Hitler, vilified by his coworkers, nevertheless rising to political power, quickly obliterating the Nazionalsozialismus to a meaningless but good-sounding acronym to cozy up to the capitalist industrial powerhouse to secure his own absolute rule; and last but not least, Part III: The big enabler of it all, the willful denial/ignorance of all of us who really can see and do know better if we but open our eyes to the reality of what is present and possible “even in our country.”

Don’t just consider my warnings. Listen also to those of the late Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who lectured around the country in 2018 along with her book “Fascism: A Warning.” And more recently, General Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appointed by Trump, who warns Trump is “fascist to the core.”

No matter what your politics are, please consider the stakes. We all have a voice. Please use your vote wisely in this election.

Jan Dirckx is a Topsham resident.