President Trump, who loves to cosplay as a tough, authoritarian leader, finally went full fascist with his Mussolini photo-op gasping for breath on the White House balcony just after leaving Walter Reed Hospital. The stable genius even filmed a short video telling Americans not to let the virus that has killed 210,000 of us “dominate” our lives, adding that he “might be immune” to the virus.
You know who else assured the public he was feeling great while recovering from COVID after a Trump rally? Herman Cain.
Don’t forget just because the leaders of our military are in quarantine after their own exposures with Commander Superspreader, that it was only two weeks ago that Trump, the president of these allegedly united states, refused to say he’d accept the results of the November election, undermining the bedrock of the American political system. In the days that followed he doubled down on that assertion, and then doubled down again.
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Don’t forget amidst Trump’s health lies, tax returns (odds are, you paid more income tax in 2016 than he did) and unhinged debate performance that his “jokes” about the transfer of power put into sharp relief how dangerously close to fascism America is right now. Don't forget that on Tuesday, Trump called for a “criminal investigation” of Joe Biden, said there should be “charges” against Hillary Clinton, and claimed Robert Mueller acted “illegally” and his team should be “prosecuted.”
When he’s blasting a frayed democracy in the face, like, say, tear gas to clear the streets of peaceful protesters for a presidential photo-op, you must pay attention, or you risk losing your democracy.
When we hear of fascism, we never think of the United States. It could never happen here, right? We think of Europe and black and white images; nothing like a failed businessman and reality TV show host whose base wears red MAGA hats, attacks science, promotes dangerous conspiracy theories, celebrates a Muslim ban and would support him even if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue.
Fascism is defined as a governmental system where a single leader has singular power, suppresses opposition and criticism, regiments industry and commerce, and emphasizes nationalism and racism. And fascism never happens overnight. It creeps up on a nation, slowly chiseling away at our norms and institutions, effectively mainstreaming hate and replacing truths with propaganda. It’s like that line from Hemingway about bankruptcy: it happened gradually, and then suddenly.
The nation’s ongoing dark comedy is that at least one-third of its citizens refuse to see this stark, troubling reality. The media is partly to blame. The Washington press corps have not been prepared for a president who lies constantly. Media institutions have also failed to acknowledge reality. For instance, many in the press are incapable of calling the president a racist, despite four years of him being a full-time, committed racist. They use terms like “authoritarian impulses” or compare him to a “demagogue.” Rarely is the R word deployed.
But something else is also happening. Amid the exhausting cycle of news, some Americans, among them some of the savviest media consumers, have now taken a moment to step out from this never-ending churn and realize how far towards fascism we’ve tilted as a nation.
Every day, Trump erodes trust in U.S. democracy and elections by attacking legal mail-in voting. He calls it a “scam,” despite any lack of evidence. Never mind that the president has voted with absentee ballots. At one of his recent COVID-superspreader rallies in Nevada, Trump told his red-hatted acolytes the election will be rigged—if he loses. Some Republicans admitted to The Atlantic that the president may claim election fraud in November and then rely on Republican state legislatures to bypass the popular vote and give him the election.
Trump is desperate to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat so he can count on a 6-3 conservative-majority Supreme Court to deliver him the presidency, a depraved remake of Bush v. Gore. How do we know? Because he admitted it.
Like a weak James Bond villain overcompensating for his deficiencies, Trump reveals his entire dastardly plot in the first act.
For his entire presidency, countless people have sought to ignore or explain away his authoritarian impulses. Cable news talking heads have contorted themselves to find reasons to say Trump is “presidential.” Others dismiss these concerns with a wave of the hand, saying, “The institutions will protect us.”
To a wannabe authoritarian, with slavish devotees in all branches of the government and an entire right-wing media ecosystem that pushes out propaganda, institutions are like bowling pins waiting to be knocked down. Nazi Germany, and recently Viktor Orban in Hungary and Aleksandr Lukashenoko in Belarus, have shown how easily institutions are toppled or hijacked as instruments and extensions of authoritarian rule. It’s already happening here. The Justice Department is now headed by Bill Barr, Trump’s Luca Brasi, whose sole job is to run interference for Trump and attack his critics—like declaring New York City the priciest “anarchist jurisdiction” in history.
The Department of Homeland Security is run by Chad Wolfe. He was not appointed to his position, and is likely not allowed to legally serve in it, but that hasn’t stopped his DHS from “underplaying” the threat of white supremacist terrorism and Russian interference and “overplaying” the threat of antifa, a convenient windmill for Trump to fight like a bloated Don Quixote.
Speaking of white supremacy, Donald Trump refused to condemn it during the first presidential debate. Instead, he told the Proud Boys, a racist, hate group that promotes violence, to “stand back and stand by.” The group immediately saw his comments as an endorsement and used Trump’s quote to create memes and posters.
Trump, the “law and order” president, defends alleged murderer Kyle Rittenhouse and disgraced Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, but wants to use “unlimited power” to crack down on peaceful protesters marching against police brutality and racism. The streets of Portland looked like a war zone this summer and fall as masked law enforcement in camo picked up protesters in unmarked cars and shot tear gas and rubber bullets. Trump has repeatedly praised the police for shooting MSNBC’s Ali Velshi with rubber bullets in Minneapolis, calling it “beautiful.” He refers to the press as “the enemy of the people,” a phrase used by dictators to justify the oppression and murder of their critics.
Some sighed relief after Republican senators assured the American public there would be a peaceful transfer of power despite Trump’s latest comments. If you believe these Republicans will place the country over Trump, you are the frog in the boiling pot. These are the same Republicans who have enabled and protected him for four years. The same Republicans who didn’t allow a single witness during Trump’s impeachment trial, where they were perfectly fine with him abusing his power to try to force Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election.
Last week, General H.R. McMaster said Trump is “aiding and abetting Putin’s efforts.” If we were living in a normal timeline, that terrifying admission from Trump’s former national security advisor would be front-page news. Now? It’s an afterthought. During the debate, Trump repeated his baseless lies about mail-in-ballots and again declined to accept the election results. That assertion has also been largely forgotten in the blitzkrieg of chaotic news.
If it acts like a fascist, talks like a fascist, and tweets like a fascist, it’s Trump trying his very best to be a fascist and subvert a free and fair election. Call it out at every term, and marshal every tool at our disposal to keep this president at bay until we vote him out in November.
