MAGA + GOP = American fascism
Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president for the third consecutive election cycle. He will not lose a single primary or caucus. His control over the Republican Party as an institution is absolute.
Many commentators seemed confused and disoriented around how to interpret Trump’s victory. After all, nearly 45 percent of Republicans voted against him, and only 35 percent claimed affinity within the MAGA movement, according to exit polls.
Donald Trump presides over a tenuous coalition of fascists and conservatives. The fascist faction is larger, better funded, more intense and utterly belligerent. There could have been no better ethos of the fascist worldview than this gem by Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia antisemite and conspiracy theorist, who said:
Not only do [Republicans] support President Trump, we support his policies. And any Republican that isn’t willing to adapt these policies, we’re completely eradicating from the party. So it’s up to Nikki Haley what she does.
The quote is an authoritarian marker that is fundamentally anti-American because it disdains dissent and demands obedience against a price that includes punishment —and maybe more for deviating. Fascists don’t like the big tent, and are not trying to build a majority. What they want is power. All fascist movements come to power with an unholy alliance of conservatives riding shotgun.
Fascists are always underestimated by the conservatives who bring them to power. They are always disregarded and disrespected. They elicit laughs, groans and a disdainful arrogance. Conservatives see a fascist, and often confuse them as a horse they can ride to power. Sadly, they seem incapable of absorbing John Kennedy’s admonition about the foolish men who sought power by trying to ride the back of the tiger, only to wind up inside.
It is essential to understand the 2024 Republican Party through this prism. Nikki Haley is Donald Trump’s Franz von Papen. Haley isn’t MAGA, but she collaborates with them. While not a part of it, she is a leader of its recessive and cynical minority. When the time comes, she will stand with the fascists against the American freedom coalition led uneasily by President Biden.
Every fascist movement is fear-based and powered by lies, cynicism, and intimations of violence against its many enemies. American fascism depends on stoking fear of others by attacking the far left of the Democratic Party. This is why Trump routinely attacks the small number of elected far-left extremists who have contributed to the decline in the livability and safety of some of America’s greatest cities. The fascists’ best political friend has been the movement that demands conformity around speech, pronouns, and slogans, consequences be dammed. Trump is delighted to wage a culture war against a belligerent left that is as intolerant as his belligerent right. This disorients enough Republicans to believe the threat they face is not from Trump, but from his enemies, who hate them along with him. This is a powerful glue that binds up the coalition. Fascists take power when democracies are weak and decaying. They take power when there is enough fear generated about an imaginary threat that seeks to destroy the nation, its identity and culture through a vast conspiracy that can only be defeated by a strong leader. Where this leads is the abyss. Every single time.
The fascist movement and the Republican Party will continue forward in coalition under Donald Trump. The two factions believe something that binds them that isn’t remotely true, but is true to them. They believe the biggest threat in America is Joe Biden, and that will be enough to hold them together.
The person who is at center stage in 2024 will lose the election. Thus far, Trump has framed the election at Biden’s expense. The race must become about Trump. He must be confronted, mocked, laughed at, and put off balance, every hour of every day until the election.
The fight ahead requires a clear understanding about its nature. Make no mistake: “fascism has come to America and it is wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
It is time to lift the American flag high as a unifying banner, and tell these people, “No. No way. We won’t permit it.”
Vote. Get involved. There is no time to waste.
Okay, so these articles are insightful, prescient, and clear. However, the problem continues to be the people reading them are well aware of the concerns and will take a stand against the anti-democratic forces and vote accordingly in November. That will not be enough. For all the repeated warnings, the people who need to read this and open their eyes never will and certainly don't care. They live in their bubbles and echo chambers - but that's exactly what we have here. Steve, you spend time and what you convey is important, but those who understand and agree with you are already here. Your target audience needs to be those on the fence, not those already MAGA-fied.
Just think how hermetically sealed their bubble is that they think January 6th was a tourist visit and are not aware that their soon to be formally nominated candidate has 91 charges against him. If they've even heard, they don't believe. How do you reach them? Because it sure isn't reading these.
Steve: I devoutly wish that you and others in the media stop referring to these folks as conservatives. This gives them an aura of respectability which they do not merit. Rather, they should be referred to as "right wingers' or "far right wingers' which is what they really are. True conservatives have the philosophy of keeping things as they are, perhaps with incremental changes, while these right wingers wish to undo things like the ACA, Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, the Chevron rule, Roe (already undone) and so on.