It really is this simple
Trump is a fascist, trumpism is a fascist movement, and now is the time to take stock and act accordingly.
Like every American I know, I was appalled by the scenes from the failed coup attempt that occurred in the Capital building this past week. Like many of them, I won’t say that I was surprised. It has been clear to me for some time that for all they differ from historical and non-American incarnations, trump and trumpism are fundamentally fascist in nature. Initially, I was hesitant to label him — and it — as such, if only because I didn’t want to be immediately discounted by people who might feel that such labels are alarmist to the point that they no longer listen once they show up in conversation. I don’t feel this way anymore, and I hadn’t for some time prior to January 6th. Long ago I realized that anyone still casting their lot in with trump was not worth trying to sway. Political defeat is the only fruitful way to deal with them.
There are many people that I know who voted for trump in 2016. And while I have largely removed myself from circumstances that would keep me in regular contact with them (which is to say “Long Island”), I am sure that many of them voted for him again in 2020. A thing that is all the more concerning to me, since almost every one of these people is an educator, working with children.
I don’t think most of these people are fascists. I do, however, think that there is something in their own political thinking, be it tribalism, or single-issue fixation, or whatever else, that has caused them to support a political movement that has now shown itself to be clearly and unequivocally fascist in its construction. That this movement has metastasized throughout the modern Republican party is likely the primary overt reason why these people have remained trump voters (I can’t pretend to know how covert notions like white supremacy have played supporting roles, though I know enough to know it is certainly not a negligible influence). In my own view, I see these people similarly to how I see the citizenry of Germany who supported the Nazi regime: Their guilt, whatever it may be, is not legally actionable, nor should it be. And while I am personally heartened that my own political life never put me in a position to support something recognizably fascist, my own understanding of cognitive biases suggests that there but for the grace of circumstances go me, my family, and virtually every one of my close friends.
This is how I feel about Trump's willing voters. It is not how I feel about his political collaborators.
It has been recognized since Plato that intolerance is paradoxically not compatible with maintaining a tolerant society. Subsequent to the emergence of first-wave fascism in the early twentieth century in Europe, and the aftermath of the wars that it precipitated, this dynamic was expanded at length by people much smarter than me, but the fundamental point remains: A society that wishes to be tolerant can not abide intolerance once that intolerance develops to the point that it can influence the functioning of that society. This is a dynamic that has shown itself over and over again since the development of modern democratic societies as intolerant views on a variety of issues have developed to the point that they impinge upon the continued democratic functioning of those societies. And the results have always been the same: A reckoning.
It is time to reckon with trumpism in America.
To be clear, I am not advocating for violent conflict. A nation of laws has plenty of non-martial means to produce consequences for criminal behavior. Legal consequences are the only course of action for America to follow, assuming it would like to preserve its functioning democratic structures. Trumpism must be consigned to the dustbin of history. Its origins, its fascist mechanisms, and the unacceptable results of those mechanics must be understood and conveyed to all future generations of Americans. Its leaders and enablers must be prosecuted for whatever crimes they have committed in support of its aims. And they must be prevented from ever being able to hold elected office again. This is the bare minimum of what America has to do if it would like to preserve its democratic institutions.
I fully recognize that this is an incredibly difficult task, made all the more so by the remarkable degree of polarization in contemporary American society. We already see the issues arising as the most complicit leaders of the republican party screech about the de-platforming of trump and the free-market dynamics that have started to cost them financial and political resources. It is a waste of time to try to convince these guilty quislings to change their hearts and minds. But it is also very likely that many political leaders who support initial moves to dismantle trumpism and hold its leaders/enablers to account will suffer tangible consequences for so doing, even though it is clearly the most important political work of the immediate moment. This is a hard ask, but that doesn’t make it any less necessary.
Like everyone else, I don’t have any magic beans that will let me see the future of how this unprecedented crisis will play out. I am hard-pressed to find any parallel events in recent history. The best that I can come up with are the fall of the Berlin wall, and the sudden collapse of the USSR. Or maybe the Tiananmen Square massacre. None of these is a perfect analog, but I leave them all here if only because each one had such markedly different, fundamentally unpredictable, outcomes both in the short-term and in the long-run.
So how then to proceed? Ideally as together as we can, though only with those leaders who clearly understand how dangerous this moment and the political movement that brought us here are. You should not require any additional evidence outside of this past week to forget about accomodationists if you haven’t done so already. Any elected politician or other leaders who do not agree should be viewed as at best naive, and at worst actively collaborationist with trumpism. In watching the repercussions from the failed coup spread out into the next few weeks, look to see who is for consequences and who is not. This, more than any other signal, will show you who is all-in on the American political project, and who would prefer to let this mortally-wounded system die in a death spasm of trumpist fascism.
