"We Want To Go Back To The Middle Ages"
How DARE Joe Biden calls us "Fascists"
Remember when then-GOP Chairman Reince Priebus declared that he wanted the Republican Party to be the “Big Tent Party?” Yeah? How’s that working out for you? Man, that seems like such a long time ago, and it was sometime in the 2000s. Time flies when you’re (not) having fun, doesn’t it?
And do you remember when [insert name of “small government” Republican here] said they wanted to get government off the back of the “little guy?” It wasn’t that long ago, was it? How’s that going for you?
If you answered “Good!” to either one of those questions, you need to sit down and STFU because you clearly haven’t been paying attention. In fact, neither of those counts has turned out to be anywhere close to the truth, as extremists within the GOP have
turned the GOP into the party of White Conservative Christian heterosexuals (all others need not apply), and
created within the GOP an onerous social/religious program that requires the ramping up of government to almost unimaginable size.
You can’t monitor the sex lives of Americans if you don’t have GOP monitors in the bedrooms of Americans. (Career opportunities abound! Apply within!!)
The problem isn’t that fascism is being installed at the highest reaches of the federal government- though that’s the ultimate goal. It’s that it’s happening at the local level, on school boards, county commissions, and city councils- places that hit people where they live.
Freedom is disappearing at home and the rot is working its way up.
From there, fascists devoted to Trumpism and Donald Trump are working their way into all facets of government and awaiting the day when they’ve taken over legally via the electoral process. Or via violence if they decide that they don’t want to exercise patience. And it could make January 6th look like a Cub Scout convention.
Months from now, when you realize that the terrible things you always dismissed as virtual impossibilities have actually come to pass, how will you feel?
When it becomes sickeningly clear that January 6th, 2021 was not a final and resounding defeat of this malignant ugliness but merely a postponement of its eventual victory, what will run through your mind?
Will you regret not taking it all more seriously?
Will you grieve the loss of the nation you dreamed we could have been?
Will your heart break for your children and grandchildren and for the terrifying future they will now inherit?
Will you lament your silence, your inaction, all the times you abstained from the fight because you were too tired or too lazy—or simply because you never imagined this was even a remote possibility?
It might not happen this November or in November 2024, but the people dedicated to Trumpism know what it will take. They know they can use violence or the ballot box or both. They’ll do whatever it takes to reach their goal- the destruction of American democracy and seeing Donald Trump re-installed in the White House.
Our democracy is not a given. It’s not permanent, nor is it something we automatically hand down from generation to generation. History shows us that empires fall and political systems crumble, usually because they become complacent and sclerotic. Can that be said of American democracy? There’s an argument to be made, certainly. If you look at the past seven years, from the moment Donald Trump descended the escalator at Trump Tower in Manhattan, creeping fascism has very much been on the menu.
Donald Trump has managed to tap into the anger and fury of White middle-class and middle-aged America. He’s made it acceptable for White Conservative Christian heterosexuals to feel their anger, and he’s provided them with scapegoats. That anger and rage have coalesced around him to the point where many of his supporters adore him, even if they can’t tell you what he’s done for them.
Truthfully, he’s done nothing for them, save for making it acceptable to vent their rage against those they hate. When you get down to it, the appeal of Donald Trump for White Conservative Christian heterosexuals is that they perceive him as hating the sample people they do. And that’s enough.
It will all be somewhat irrelevant, because on the day fascism does win you will have far fewer choices than you do right now. Your voice and your vote and your options will no longer mean what they mean as you read this.
Our Democracy is not guaranteed, our Republic not ensured to survive, the freedoms and systems that we always saw as a given are no longer fixed promises. The sobering truth, regardless of whether we want to believe it or not, is that we are perilously close to losing many of the elemental liberties we assumed could never be taken away.
America, we are a hair’s breadth from authoritarianism; from a conservative white theocracy at the hands of a small minority of the absolute worst human beings among us. We are at the precipice of forced submission at the hands of people who fully despise diversity and equity and empathy. This is not hyperbole or sky-is-falling histrionics, it is the sober and clear evaluation of what will be, if the kind and decent human beings of this nation choose to stay silent or procrastinate away our activism or assume that justice will prevail simply because we cannot imagine it failing.
My intent is not to sound like Chicken Little. The sky isn’t falling, at least not yet. That’s not to say it couldn’t or won’t soon. We’ve all seen examples of it- people showing up armed to city council or school board meetings and the like. These are things that would’ve been unheard of just a few years ago, but there’s an air of malevolence in America, unlike anything I can remember. That frightens me, and I can’t help but believe this isn’t destined to end well.
So what do good people do? How do we counter the trend of mean-spirited bullies using guns to get their way?
First, we vote- and we make sure we help our friends and neighbors turn out to vote. Here in Oregon, that’s easy. All voting is done by mail, so it’s a simple matter of sending back the ballot that shows up in your mailbox. It’s been a ridiculously easy process for at least a couple of decades now, and there’s no conflict.
Why isn’t it like that everywhere? (Today’s rhetorical question)
In states that do make it more difficult to vote, people need to help one another get to polling places. Do everything you can to make sure every voice is heard. Fascists depend on suppressing the vote and ensuring that only the “right” voices are heard. High turnouts favor democracy.
Second, we need to stand up to bullies. So someone shows up carrying an AR-15 or with a pistol strapped to their hip. They depend on being feared and on those who are unarmed backing down. Don’t provide them that satisfaction. Most of those folks are frightened bullies who can’t function on an even playing field. They need something that they feel gives them an advantage, but that only works if those around them act as if it’s an advantage.
Then there are incels (involuntary celibates) like Nick Fuentes and Dalton Clodfelter who hate women because they can’t get laid and so they want to create a world in which women are subservient to them. That’s not surprising; the only way they’ll probably EVER get laid is by forcing women to submit to them.
As for dragging America (and women) back to the Middle Ages, good luck with that. Fuentes and his incel army will create their own Gilead about the same time I win my fourth Pulitzer Prize. Nick Fuentes is a pathetic excuse for a human being who’s managed to monetize his feeble manhood and his willingness to blame everyone but himself for his lack of nookie. He’s of no account and never will be. His threat to American democracy is non-existent, and with any luck he’ll die a virgin.
The real threat comes from Trumpian fascists willing to walk the walk, the worker bees working quietly behind the scenes to undermine American democracy.
These are the folks who have the chutzpah to complain about Joe Biden calling them out for being fascists. Yeah, the truth hurts, doesn’t it?
It could happen, but it doesn’t have to. There are far more good, decent, caring Americans than there are bitter and hateful Trumpers. I will continue to believe that, when all is said and done, love will triumph over hate. Love is easy and requires no effort. Hate consumes you from within and wears you down; and it’s not an enjoyable way to live. It requires a lot of energy to maintain hatred, which is why Trump and his followers will ultimately lose, but it won’t be for lack of trying.
Love always wins…but let’s not be naive about the threat we face.
A thing that many people fail to realize is that fascism is still fascism even though it has not (yet) achieved hegemonic domination. And as Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt detail in their book "How Democracies Die," most authoritarian regimes of the past 50 years or more have come to power via legal means. The rabid, blind hatred of Trump's base is entirely in line with how fascism works. An populist base energized by energized by a cult of victimhood, coupled with a cult of personality for the Supreme Leader, takes whatever steps necessary, without regard for legality or decency, to achieve absolute power. There is no ideology driving fascism. Only the simgle-minded drive for power.