The far right never delivers, except for pain

In 2016, Donald Trump made a play for the vote of Black America. In a famous quote, he asked: "What have you got to lose?"

Of course, the following four years showed exactly what they, and all of us, had to lose.

But this is a common refrain among the far right. "Things are awful. We're new. Give us a chance." However, whenever the far right is given that chance, things don't, in fact, get better.

Let's look at history. Did Germany fare better after Hitler assumed power? Did Italy fare better after Mussolini marched his Black Shirts on Rome? Did Chileans fare better after Augusto Pinochet overthrew Salvador Allende?

Ah, yes. Italy.

As of this writing, a far right, nay, fascist party is set to take over the reins of the Italian state. This is just two weeks after a party with neo-Nazi roots was included in the new Swedish coalition. 

Now, we can console ourselves with the fact that Italian governments have the lifespan of mosquitoes. But, like mosquitoes, bad governments can do a lot of damage.

Republicans in the US have released their program for 2022. It hides their true intentions: banning abortion; making Social Security subject to review every year; impeaching Joe Biden. 

And then you have the Tories in Britain, destroying the country's currency to give tax breaks to the 1%. So much for "leveling up".

The fact is that far right parties promise the moon with no pain, but deliver only pain. It's what they're made for. They're made to fuel hatred and animus. They're not made to deliver relief to ordinary people; they're made only to attain and maintain power for a small elite.

The leader of Brothers of Italy, the main party in the new coalition, Giorgia Meloni, keeps telling Italians to "not be afraid" of her party. Well, friends, I don't know about you, but when someone tells me over and over to not be afraid, I take that as a signal to be very afraid.

When will voters in the West learn that the far right is nothing but deleterious to a commonwealth? They offer nothing of value. They offer only bitterness and division. And they are pumped up by foreign actors like Russia and China who seek to weaken the West by taking advantage of its freedoms.

We've had many great victories over authoritarianism over the past few months. But the war is far from over. Here in the US, you need to get out and vote. Donate. Volunteer. We have to draw a line in the sand in this country against the dark. 

Italy and Sweden are about to go through things. Our job is to avoid that happening here.