Letters to the Editor: Dear modern fascists: History shows this will not end well for you

To the editor: If anyone depicted in Omer Aziz’s op-ed article, “Why do so many young white men in America find fascism “cool’?” is reading this (which I doubt), here are some thoughts you may want to consider in your future planning.

As powerful and entitled as you may feel in your pod, cult or group, your ideology does not pay off in the long game. Political, racial and religious bullying have a price to pay.

It may not seem so surrounded by like-minded followers who believe they can overcome well-conceived laws and structures meant to protect society. Though these systems may not be as perfect as we would like, they still have a more lasting quality than whatever the neo-Nazis, Proud Boys or Qanon can come up with.

Look how history played out for past brutal authoritarians. Saddam Hussein was hanged. Moammar Kadafi was beaten to a pulp then shot. Benito Mussolini was hanged in public. Adolf Hitler shot himself in humiliation and defeat.

This doesn’t say much for following a cause built on hatred and bullying.

Beverly Lever, Calabasas

..

To the editor: Aziz’s op-ed article should be mandatory reading for all Americans so they can better appreciate the degree to which the Republican Party has transformed from a conventional conservative organization to a flat-out fascist entity.

The folks to whom Aziz is referring are largely part of the “Make America Great Again” brigade. They are overwhelmingly white, male and under-educated. They also harbor a great deal of misogyny and bigotry.

Most tragically, they have found a welcoming home in today’s Republican Party.

After all, Republicans have been appealing to this crowd for about 50 years now, culminating in their embrace of Donald Trump in 2016. Appealing to the southern Dixiecrats, as Richard Nixon did back in 1968, produced the unintentional consequences we are witnessing in 2023.

Bob Teigan, Santa Susana