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U.S. public discourse has sometimes been freer than it is now but it鈥檚 often been as restricted 鈥� and worse. The McCarthyism of the 1950s hounded universities and academics and forced screenwriters to use pseudonyms or move to Europe. McCarthy waved fake lists of communists in the State Department, which he never revealed, and attacked the army, which was bolder than anything done by Trump. CBS threw the Smothers Brothers off the air for letting Pete Seeger sing a metaphorical critique of the Vietnam War.

Lest we feel immune, CBC TV cancelled one of its most popular shows, “This Hour Has Seven Days,” for irritating the Liberal government. The National Film Board faced red-baiting and interference probably worse than Hollywood鈥檚 Red Scare. My point? Have some perspective. Learn from Jimmy Kimmel.

The real innovation in Trumpism isn鈥檛 about speech. Trump鈥檚 real innovation is the overt thuggification of government power. The FBI, i.e., the political police in the US, used to dress in prissy suits and ties. Now the ICE enforcers wear masks, kidnap people at random and fly them to barbaric camps in police states or prisons in swamps. They do it proudly.

I don鈥檛 see why this shouldn鈥檛 be called fascism. It mimics Mussolini鈥檚 tactics in the 1920s and the takeover by the SA and SS, originally private Nazi militias, of the police and army in Nazi Germany. They tortured, killed largely at will and it was never clear who was in charge. This is happening in the U.S. but faster than in Germany. If you want to feel panicky about that, be my guest.

They are the money

I鈥檝e been holding out hope for Avi Lewis in the race for federal NDP leader. I think Canada needs a less risk-averse NDP, to advocate for a strong equalizing role by government in a time that feels ridiculously feudal. Prime Minister Mark Carney sorts of fills that need, and sort of doesn鈥檛. At the least he could use a political force pushing him from the left, not just the right.

Lewis released a video last week and I found it a bummer. He attacks the corporate rich, but he ends: 鈥淭hey Are the Money. We Are the Many.鈥� It rings to me like a smartass advertising slogan, too impressed with its own wordplay. The NDP have long had a tin ear in such matters.

But it鈥檚 worse than the wordplay. It has a whiff of a line by Shelley, the romantic poet at the time of the French Revolution, who called on the masses to, 鈥淪hake your chains to earth like dew 鈥� Ye are many, they are few.鈥� It was considered treasonous and went unpublished in Shelley鈥檚 own time. But it鈥檚 a line that can persist subterraneanly, in a collective unconscious way and resurface to be used or misused. I鈥檇 bet on that here though I couldn鈥檛 prove it.

In Lewis鈥檚 video it鈥檚 a misuse. Why? Because they 鈥� the rich and vile 鈥� are not the money. They have it but that鈥檚 because they stole it. As a union anthem that probably also filches from Shelley鈥檚 line says: 鈥淭hey have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn/But without our mind and muscle not a single wheel could turn.鈥� They聽stole聽the money.

Does anyone really think billionaires Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos do enough to merit the vast sums they manage to siphon into their private hoards? If you can鈥檛 keep that straight, what else are you missing?