Fast Fascism: From Democracy to Dictatorship in Under a Year
Fascism arrived quickly. We need to send it back to hell, quickly, too.
In the words of the incomparable Ron Burgundy, “Boy, that escalated quickly.”
As someone who's spent the past few years working tirelessly to warn people about the implementation of Project 2025 and the arrival of authoritarianism all but assured with a second Trump term, even I have to admit that it’s unfolded far more rapidly than I could have imagined in the most terrifying of my nightmares. He and his cadre of soulless grifters, religious zealots, and white supremacists have proven themselves prolific in their assaults on the systems, institutions, and safeguards of this nation.
Just eight months in, and already:
American cities have been turned into police states,
Gestapo-esque gangs of masked thugs are kidnapping innocent people,
public education is facing termination,
Gaza and Ukraine are hanging by the thinnest of threads,
our thriving economy has been intentionally sabotaged,
our global standing in the world has plummeted,
our electoral process is under siege,
the Constitution has become increasingly irrelevant,
and Conservative Evangelicals are seeding theocracy.
Oh, yeah, and this week, we reached the “slavery wasn’t bad” part of the program, as Trump took to social media to also declare museums woke and America “hot.”
The fact that it’s common knowledge that Donald Trump is an unfettered lunatic tends to work to his advantage lately.
He so regularly dispenses nonsensical online word salads that it can be easy to dismiss them as moronic distractions; to overlook how sinister his intentions are, to miss how chilling his agenda is—and to fail to see how close we are to losing liberties that we once believed were inalienable.
In this and posts like it, Trump is not simply impulsively broadcasting would-be dictator delusions or invoking racist fever dreams; he is telling you the plan.
The media. Colleges. Schools. Physicians. Labor Statistics. The CDC. Museums. He is coming for all of them. Authoritarianism needs to silence all voices of truth and dissent, and whether it’s revered universities, respected journalists, or beloved networks, we’re watching them all being swallowed up by the brute force of public servants with no regard for those they are entrusted to care for.
What you and I are witnessing in real time is an all-out attempt by the President and his Administration to rewrite history, to erase the national sin of slavery, to demonize the marginalized, and to eliminate any realities that might impede the White Christian Savior narrative they are feeding their highly suggestible base of the hateful and stupid.
Trump’s dog whistle invocations of “woke”, his criticisms of slavery’s negative portrayal by the caretakers of our past, and his asinine resentment toward vulnerable “downtrodden” people should strike fear in the hearts of every decent, rational human being who sees the way the worst of history is repeating here.
But more than that, it should rouse all of us out of the self-induced slumbers of denial, self-preservation, fatigue, toxic positivity, or American exceptionalism that might prevent us from fully seeing the dire place we find ourselves, and equally concerning, how quickly we’ve arrived here.
The rapid progress of Trump’s and his minions’ brutal ambitions is part of the story, but the relatively easy path they’ve been given is another part, and that’s the part we can control. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for every one of us.
We cannot afford to be paralyzed by fear, numbed into apathy, or shamed into silence a single second longer.
This threat is not going away on its own.
It will not come to its senses.
It will not exhaust its inhumanity,
It’s not going to politely allow itself to be vanquished by an election.
It’s not going to have a change of heart or a moment of clarity.
Authoritarians and fascists don’t stop; they must be stopped, or at the very least, slowed down enough so that a collective opposition can coalesce.
If you’re reading or hearing this and you’re already convinced, already engaged, and already in the thick of the fight for the existential life of this country, firstly, thank you. Secondly, I hope you’ll share it with those you know who, for whatever reason, are not quite there yet, good people who are either tired or frightened or oblivious or brokenhearted, and help them understand the cost of inaction.
Fascism arrived quickly, friends—and we need to send it back to hell quickly, too.
I read every one of your writings and posts. Your words are so inspiring and powerful. And, this fascist road we are on must be stopped. But, what’s the alternative? The liberals have been defined by what we are against, which you so eloquently write about. But, often missed is what we are for. We need to give those that are on the fence, those who dislike and disagree with this administration, a place where they can be welcomed and have purpose. Where they see the vision of something better. I encourage everyone to read Steve Schmidt’s most recent writing where he praises a recent speech by Billy Ray.
But please, keep doing what you’re doing. Your words matter to many of us.
I'd say the masked thugs are more like Hitler's Sturmabteilung, the 'SA', aka the Brownshirts. Gestapo are more secretive than that. Interestingly, Hitler disbanded the SA and had its leader (Ernst Rohm) executed because he'd begun to doubt their loyalty; that was when the SS, the 'Schutz Staffel' were born. They were even more fanatical, and therefore much more trusted than, the SA - or at least inasmuch as a fascist dictator can trust anyone, living in perpetual fear of deposement as they do. The encouraging message in this is that a) even a dictator's closest 'friends' are only that subject to his whim (look at what happened to Elon), and b) none of the dictator's 'friends' are safe; he's just as likely to turn on them as he is on hispanics, for example, and c) it is likely that in the ranks of his 'friends' there are those who would like nothing better than to unseat him and take his place. Not that that would improve things, but at least we wouldn't have to put up with that whiny, at times grating, voice, and of course the beak. Hard to unsee that beak....