The January 6 Men: American Stormtroopers

Fascist Militias Await the President’s Command

Even in these “LOL, nothing matters” times, the Vengeance President’s pardoning of the January 6 putschists has attracted enormous attention. Quite rightfully, most of the focus has been on the mind-bending injustice of the foremost figure charged with upholding the laws of the United States canceling all punishment for a group of people who shed blood to destroy the country. But we must also grasp that this isn’t only about the (very recent) past, it is about the future. “Mango Mussolini’s” move is primarily intended to create a private paramilitary that serves him alone and answers only to him.

Such a thing is unprecedented in American history, but is dreadfully familiar to students of twentieth-century Europe. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s men were called squadristi or “blackshirts,” and Hitler’s men the Sturmabteilung (S.A., or “brownshirts”). American fascists of this same period attempted to imitate their European colleagues. But the founder of the “Silver Shirts,” one William Dudley Pelley, was not the president of the United States. Perhaps as the nation’s schoolbooks are overhauled, he will be rehabilitated as a man ahead of his time, in the chapter following the one about how happy African American slaves learned valuable job skills from the whip-wielding masters and overseers.

In the short range, the Geriatric Generalissimo can rely upon his loyal Proud Boys and suchlike shit-smearers to serve as a reserve force to carry out his illegal will, at least until the U.S. military is broken of its stubborn commitment to the rule of law. Then perhaps, there will be a Night of the Long Knives. Watch your back, Enrique Tarrio.