Fight the Fascists
The rise of the Irrational Right is the most dangerous domestic political phenomenon in the United States in my lifetime. That irrational Right has existed for decades, but for decades it was content to exist hidden. Reagan woke it. Gingrich stoked it. Bush II rode it. But Trump exposed it, brought it out into the open. In one sense, he did the World a favor by exposing the evil even as he took advantage of it. But by emboldening these lunatics, by feeding them a steady diet of lies even his predecessors did not, by playing with a deadly beast, he has endangered the World.
If all goes poorly, that beast could rise up not only to vote in the midterm elections and the next presidential election but to commit violence against anyone who does not agree with its political program of complete fealty to Trump. This includes anyone who certifies an election result the beast does not like. This includes anyone, regardless of elections. Anyone Trump criticizes becomes a target. Anyone who looks at them funny does. Any Democrat does. The eventual goal of such an irrational but large mob is the totalitarian rule of the United States by Dictator Donald Trump. Do not kid yourself that anything less is its goal. Such a rule would destroy the United States as we know them and usher in a period of revolution and civil war as good citizens fight to restore their country.
I used to think and say that Trump would not wish to be dictator (too much work). Now I think he would accept it if handed to him rather than go to prison, and there are tens of millions who would love (and have already tried) to hand it to him.
If all goes well, what we already know will be augmented and sufficient to prompt enough citizen engagement to prevent things from going poorly. This is still “all hands on deck”. Everyone needs to speak up, speak out, organize, protest, vote, and tell everyone she or he knows that the fate of our nation is in the balance — as it is.
If we can do that, we may yet have a future. Reagan (whom I do not believe intended the current state of affairs, however little he minded manipulating the gullible for his own electoral successes) said the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. That is true domestically as well as internationally.
In other words: fight the fascists now, in the streets if necessary, so we don’t have to fight them out of power.
