Many Americans struggle to accept that democracy is young, fragile, and could actually collapse – a lack of imagination that dangerously blunts the response to the Trumpist Right
Good article. I find it mildly disturbing that Ross Barkan, one of the most influential socialist writers here on Substack, is rather blasé about a Trump victory. He said America has hundreds of millions of people so diverse and so invested in so wide a variety of local government bodies, too much so for fascism at the federal level to have any effect. He’s neglecting, of course, that Trump would have sweeping power over the federal carceral state once again, plus the millions of nativist fans who will probably glom onto JD Vance, or Josh Hawley, or Vivek Ramaswamy, in the next cycle. (An aside: Trump might as well be taking the Republican Party back to its roots in the Know-Nothing Party, with all his loaded rhetoric.) Would love to read your thoughts.
The Democrats quit being a meaningful opposition party over thirty years ago.
Neoliberalism and democracy are incompatible. And our leaders’ choice between the two is long obvious.
The right to vote is under attack and being weakened.
SCOTUS is a law-ignoring junta.
Of course things will be worse under Trump with either or both houses of congress under a Republican majority. But I wonder whether it wing be all that worse for all that many — the worse has been happening for years.
Democracy dies in an establishment news media-created cloud of bullshit.
I lived in Europe in the '90s. My 'disorientation' since returning has a life of its own! I am flummoxed by the acquiescence to gross logical fallacies in speeches, the obvious lack of critical media education and the denigration of scientific facts! It seems SO obvious we are headed in a fascist direction. I thought tfg was offered as a joke candidate! Waiting for America to WAKE up!!
It's not 'liberal coastal elites', just people who have experienced cultures outside American 'white' world and recognize that we have a LOT to learn!! I suspect that the timing of this rise in alt-right may have something to do with the vanishing WWII vets--across Europe too--they knew better then to flirt with this disaster.
“As an empirical matter, an old, consolidated democracy has never turned into an autocracy, excepting cases of foreign war or occupation. There’s a reason for that. It, quite literally, doesn’t happen.”
If he were on the Titanic after it hit the iceberg he'd be telling people not to worry, a huge well-built ocean liner had never sunk after hitting an iceberg! We can all go back to out cabins and get some sleep.
"a hard-right majority with three of the six reactionary justices nominated by a president who lost the popular vote" Five of the six. Two were Bush II's, and he lost the popular vote to Gore.
“And so, we compartmentalize, which often leads us to experience a strange mixture of normalcy and emergency that can sometimes feel almost disorienting.”
Thank you! This is precisely what I have been saying about our history ever since I took a course in 1974 that drew the parallels between South African and American racial apartheid. We are incredulous because we are encouraged to forget the past and the bloody struggles it took to get us here. Remember Viola Liuzza, a white woman who chose to fight segregation and racism and was killed for it. It demands people of conscience to take risks to push back bravely and not retreat into the imagined “ordinariness” of their own lives in moments when the frozen legacies of past authoritarianism seem possibly melting.
I grew up in a small, rural Indiana town not so long ago. My stepfather was a white supremacist, complete with Klan membership and gown & hood. My siblings & I were forced to listen to his hate filled rants at every meal. That is, when we weren’t being dragged to church 6 days a week as part of our mother’s adoption of an evilangelical cult’s agenda soaked in hate, fear, racism, bigotry and misogyny. It was hell.
Watching the country I served in uniform for ten years turn into a nationwide form of my childhood, of everything I tried to escape, has been devastating. I am not at all surprised though. Hate is an easy sell - it’s addictive and feeds on itself. Hate feels powerful and is far, far easier than paying attention, being self aware and doing the work of not blindly following anyone, of trying to contribute to society for the good of everyone.
Just imagine what amazing heights we could reach if all the energy put into hate, fear and hurting others was instead directed towards a just society for all. Will humanity ever do that? I hold out a sliver of hope but highly doubt it.
The dilemma of America's 2024 Presidential election so well described. In 2016 we were saved by Trump's utter incompetence and the fact that there were adults in the room during his Presidency. Thankfully the United States government was not destroyed. This time his underlings will be better equipped to do maximum damage: Democracy, Equality before the law, Rule of law, an unbiased civil service, - all will be gone. Guardrails gone. Trump admires Putin and Hitler. Both totally ruthless about getting rid of their enemies and rivals. To me people have to be real "low information" voters not to realize the stakes in this election.
What will be good for native-born white poor and working class people? Certainly not more military interventionism, mass immigration, free trade, and their communities literally rotting while coastal liberal elites are oblivious or worse, actively contribute to their social, economic, and demographic destruction. Your interests aren’t those of most of the country outside of power centers on both coasts, Hollywood and Wall Street.
Another point; Democracy is simply rule by money. All of you good liberals and ‘progressives’ are fine with corporations and the billionaire classes dominating the political process with their vast concentrated wealth as long as they support cultural and social liberalism, LGBTQ, or whatever is the new woke cause celebre. Personally, I would love to see Trump destroy this system utterly and completely.
Why would an (alleged) billionaire who pals around with the richest man in the world destroy "this system"? He's going to be in thrall to the billionaire class that dominates the anti-"woke" side of the political process anyway - all they have to do is wave the 25th Amendment or potential prison time at him and he'll bend right over.
You seem to believe he will do so which is why you throw around terms loosely and quite irresponsibly like ‘fascist’ and portray the outcome of the election as an existential struggle.
We should abolish NATO and remove all American troops and bases out of Europe and Asia. Germany, France, Britain are quite capable of defending themselves. We should be an honest broker in world affairs not a bullying hegemon. I don’t buy into your Putin da nu Hitlah’ narrative either. Russia is a regional power not a global superpower. Putin isn’t any threat to my freedoms or liberty but the political and business elites running the United States definitely are so on all levels.
Wolves in Elephant's Clothing: Trump, Epstein, and the GOP’s Twisted Legacy
The party that preaches family values while enabling abuse, spreading lies, and betraying the innocent in pursuit of power.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-151168540?r=4d7sow&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Good article. I find it mildly disturbing that Ross Barkan, one of the most influential socialist writers here on Substack, is rather blasé about a Trump victory. He said America has hundreds of millions of people so diverse and so invested in so wide a variety of local government bodies, too much so for fascism at the federal level to have any effect. He’s neglecting, of course, that Trump would have sweeping power over the federal carceral state once again, plus the millions of nativist fans who will probably glom onto JD Vance, or Josh Hawley, or Vivek Ramaswamy, in the next cycle. (An aside: Trump might as well be taking the Republican Party back to its roots in the Know-Nothing Party, with all his loaded rhetoric.) Would love to read your thoughts.
Query whether the word already happened.
The Democrats quit being a meaningful opposition party over thirty years ago.
Neoliberalism and democracy are incompatible. And our leaders’ choice between the two is long obvious.
The right to vote is under attack and being weakened.
SCOTUS is a law-ignoring junta.
Of course things will be worse under Trump with either or both houses of congress under a Republican majority. But I wonder whether it wing be all that worse for all that many — the worse has been happening for years.
Democracy dies in an establishment news media-created cloud of bullshit.
One of the best articles I’ve read. Thank you.
Another fantastic post, Thomas. Thank you!
I lived in Europe in the '90s. My 'disorientation' since returning has a life of its own! I am flummoxed by the acquiescence to gross logical fallacies in speeches, the obvious lack of critical media education and the denigration of scientific facts! It seems SO obvious we are headed in a fascist direction. I thought tfg was offered as a joke candidate! Waiting for America to WAKE up!!
It's not 'liberal coastal elites', just people who have experienced cultures outside American 'white' world and recognize that we have a LOT to learn!! I suspect that the timing of this rise in alt-right may have something to do with the vanishing WWII vets--across Europe too--they knew better then to flirt with this disaster.
“As an empirical matter, an old, consolidated democracy has never turned into an autocracy, excepting cases of foreign war or occupation. There’s a reason for that. It, quite literally, doesn’t happen.”
If he were on the Titanic after it hit the iceberg he'd be telling people not to worry, a huge well-built ocean liner had never sunk after hitting an iceberg! We can all go back to out cabins and get some sleep.
"a hard-right majority with three of the six reactionary justices nominated by a president who lost the popular vote" Five of the six. Two were Bush II's, and he lost the popular vote to Gore.
“And so, we compartmentalize, which often leads us to experience a strange mixture of normalcy and emergency that can sometimes feel almost disorienting.”
That made me think of Ilya Kaminsky’s poem “We Lived Happily During The War”, from his book “Deaf Republic” (2019): https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/91413/we-lived-happily-during-the-war
Thank you! This is precisely what I have been saying about our history ever since I took a course in 1974 that drew the parallels between South African and American racial apartheid. We are incredulous because we are encouraged to forget the past and the bloody struggles it took to get us here. Remember Viola Liuzza, a white woman who chose to fight segregation and racism and was killed for it. It demands people of conscience to take risks to push back bravely and not retreat into the imagined “ordinariness” of their own lives in moments when the frozen legacies of past authoritarianism seem possibly melting.
I believe Trump will do every evil and incompetent thing he promises, and voted accordingly. It just remains to be seen whether we can defeat Trump.
I grew up in a small, rural Indiana town not so long ago. My stepfather was a white supremacist, complete with Klan membership and gown & hood. My siblings & I were forced to listen to his hate filled rants at every meal. That is, when we weren’t being dragged to church 6 days a week as part of our mother’s adoption of an evilangelical cult’s agenda soaked in hate, fear, racism, bigotry and misogyny. It was hell.
Watching the country I served in uniform for ten years turn into a nationwide form of my childhood, of everything I tried to escape, has been devastating. I am not at all surprised though. Hate is an easy sell - it’s addictive and feeds on itself. Hate feels powerful and is far, far easier than paying attention, being self aware and doing the work of not blindly following anyone, of trying to contribute to society for the good of everyone.
Just imagine what amazing heights we could reach if all the energy put into hate, fear and hurting others was instead directed towards a just society for all. Will humanity ever do that? I hold out a sliver of hope but highly doubt it.
Prof Ruth Ben-Ghiat writes this tonight. She clearly has the imagination of what Trump's implementation of his Mass Deportations might look like. I have read others discussing the cost. https://open.substack.com/pub/lucid/p/trumps-mass-deportation-machine-in?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
The dilemma of America's 2024 Presidential election so well described. In 2016 we were saved by Trump's utter incompetence and the fact that there were adults in the room during his Presidency. Thankfully the United States government was not destroyed. This time his underlings will be better equipped to do maximum damage: Democracy, Equality before the law, Rule of law, an unbiased civil service, - all will be gone. Guardrails gone. Trump admires Putin and Hitler. Both totally ruthless about getting rid of their enemies and rivals. To me people have to be real "low information" voters not to realize the stakes in this election.
I read that Hamid piece in the Post this morning and was astounded at how blasé he was. I guess it was a Bezos-approved op-ed.
What will be good for native-born white poor and working class people? Certainly not more military interventionism, mass immigration, free trade, and their communities literally rotting while coastal liberal elites are oblivious or worse, actively contribute to their social, economic, and demographic destruction. Your interests aren’t those of most of the country outside of power centers on both coasts, Hollywood and Wall Street.
Another point; Democracy is simply rule by money. All of you good liberals and ‘progressives’ are fine with corporations and the billionaire classes dominating the political process with their vast concentrated wealth as long as they support cultural and social liberalism, LGBTQ, or whatever is the new woke cause celebre. Personally, I would love to see Trump destroy this system utterly and completely.
Why would an (alleged) billionaire who pals around with the richest man in the world destroy "this system"? He's going to be in thrall to the billionaire class that dominates the anti-"woke" side of the political process anyway - all they have to do is wave the 25th Amendment or potential prison time at him and he'll bend right over.
You seem to believe he will do so which is why you throw around terms loosely and quite irresponsibly like ‘fascist’ and portray the outcome of the election as an existential struggle.
We should abolish NATO and remove all American troops and bases out of Europe and Asia. Germany, France, Britain are quite capable of defending themselves. We should be an honest broker in world affairs not a bullying hegemon. I don’t buy into your Putin da nu Hitlah’ narrative either. Russia is a regional power not a global superpower. Putin isn’t any threat to my freedoms or liberty but the political and business elites running the United States definitely are so on all levels.