(Photo: Peter/CC BY-SA 2.0 Flickr)
Collectively, Americans are still suffering from a failure of imagination.
It just can’t happen here, the most powerful and wealthy country in the world, which has flawed but stable, democratic institutions. I mean, somebody will step up and check Donald Trump from becoming a full-blown authoritarian leader, right? The people who always warn about America transforming into a dictatorship are just loud alarmists suffering from TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome). Look, the trains are still running, the internet is still up, and I enjoyed my Negroni over the weekend at my favorite bar. Sure, some people are affected, like the undocumented and transgender people, but, for the most part, everything is going on as usual. I mean, these things happen in every country, and I’m sure I’ll be fine. After all, I still have my job, and I live in a nice, suburban house, and my kids are going to school. Just wait until the 2026 elections, and you’ll see, we’ll be OK.
I’ve heard variations of this conversation multiple times over the past year from fellow Americans who remain committed to a delusion that somehow they’ll be immune to fascism. This kind of ignorance is blissful and protects the individual from acknowledging, and more importantly, confronting right-wing authoritarianism that is staring them in the face and speaking to them directly from the White House.
What more do people need to see?
Well, there’s Donald Trump, who incited a violent insurrection, refuses to concede he lost the 2020 election, muses about running for a third term, openly quotes and praises Hitler, sides with authoritarian rulers, and has threatened to unleash the military on “the enemy from within.” There’s the Trump Administration openly kidnapping and deporting innocent brown immigrants while welcoming white “refugees” from South Africa under the pretext of a non-existent “white genocide.” Trump is now attacking Harvard University for not bending the knee, going after pro-Palestinian activists on campus, and subjecting foreign students to an ideological litmus test.
Earlier today, this white supremacist Trump Administration announced it’s siding with White contractors who claimed discrimination and is gutting a successful $37 billion affirmative-action program, The Transportation Department initiative, which was established in 1983, currently serves nearly 49,000 contractors, and has been described as “key lifeline for many minority-and women-owned businesses.” Subtlety is not one of the features of MAGA and the current Trump regime. They just welcomed 59 white South African “refugees” by promoting the debunked “white genocide” conspiracy that has been promoted by Nazis and alleged they can “assimilate” into America better than immigrants like Abrego Kilmar Garcia, who married a US citizen, has children, and committed zero crimes.
In case you were in doubt as to this regime’s explicit goals and intentions, they were kind enough to write a Bond-villain outline in the form of Project 2025. This week, the Administration announced its next salvo in the war against brown, Black, and now Chinese, immigrants by pausing student visas and launching an investigation into social media posts. Trump literally seemed to have no idea about his own initiative as he failed to answer basic questions about it earlier today. Instead of asking questions about Trump’s mental and physical fitness, headlines are still concerned about President Biden’s health and doing a “both sides” whataboutism to avoid confronting the sordid reality of our country diving headfirst into a racist, fascist regime.
In this mid-week Democracy-ish check in, Danielle and I make the case for people going “woke,” becoming more aware, and making the choice to be both hopeful and active in doing their part to call out the bullshit and fight the bullies.
Let us know if you agree!
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