I’ve had a bit of a political journey over the last five years. I have the cringe-inducing memory of telling an anarchist that “I’d vote for an anarchist for president”, to actually having enough understanding to know that I’ll be a bit embarrassed by that for the rest of my life. There’s a problem I’ve noticed, and I’m pretty sure it’s not just “a me problem” – it’s far to easy to assume that my journey of understanding mirrors that of other people who’ve lived through the same world events. I’ve debunked fossil fuel propaganda more times than I can count in the last decade, to the point where it feels as though everyone must have seen through the lies by now. I’ve learned about fascism as it has become more relevant in the world, to the point where it must be obvious to everyone what’s going on in the US right now.
And now I’m at the point where I realize that no, it really has just been me and some number of other people, who’ve gone from being some breed of liberal, with a mild curiosity about the loud folks carrying red and black flags at a protest, to being one of the weirdos who won’t shut up about fascism. The world has not accompanied me.
To be fair, a great deal of the world has accompanied me. I think a lot of the people – particularly on the right – who claim that Trump’s movement isn’t fascist are either lying, or so deep in denial that they may lack original thoughts on the matter entirely. And so, for all it has been glaringly obvious to many of us, some people will have trouble coping with Trump’s recent declaration that:
“A massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the constitution.”
At this point, I doubt Trump will lose much support over this. The “mask” he wore of respecting the constitution and rule of law was already paper-thin and so full of holes you could see the swastika peeking through even when the hot air wasn’t on full blast. There were so many holes I forgot the damned mask was even there. Some people may denounce this, but I think we should not trust the displays of shock from anyone who supported him and his lies up till this point. The goals of Trump and his movement have never been clearer, and as they continue their genocidal campaign against LGBTQIA people, they will probably be increasingly open in their efforts to establish fascist rule in the United States.
It may be that the GOP leadership will finally deign to rule Trump ineligible to hold the presidency, though I doubt it, but it’s been clear for a while that the world they want is the same as the world Trump wants. As I’ve said before, the GOP is a white supremacist, Christian fascist party, and they will not stop unless they are forced to.