Fascism, of course, is awful. But it's pre-cursor is often corruption. I think corruption is settling in at the highest levels. I'd like to offer some (I know there are plenty more) anti-dotes so my kids and grand-kids live in our formerly quite wonderful democracy.
Let's try: over-writing Citizens United and presidential immunity; rolling back the 2003 and 2017 tax cuts; balancing the budget a la Clinton/Gore; supporting Ukraine proactively not lethargically; reform the Supreme Court with term limits, age limits, and a robust ethics code; release the un-redacted Epstein Files and fire BONDI & Blanche; prohibit gerrymandering. And there's more....
Snyder’s right that Trump is stuck—-authoritarian instincts without competence to execute the fascist transition. But the corruption you’re identifying isn’t just precursor, it’s the mechanism. Citizens United, presidential immunity, wealth concentration, captured courts…these are the incentive structures that selected for Trump and enabled his rise.
The system is optimized to prevent exactly the structural reforms you’re proposing because the people benefiting from corruption control the institutions that would implement them.
The operational question: how do you build alternatives when captured systems can’t be fixed from within?
I have also explored this in my last series on the world in 2026, because what are individuals, institutions, and democratic states to do when traditional reform paths are blocked. We need operational frameworks for maintaining agency during institutional collapse.
Your kids and grandkids need strategic adaptation to navigate the gap between vision and reality. The piece addresses building friction against authoritarian consolidation when the old playbook fails.
I say understand the language of fascism, which explains Trump's actions. According to George Orwell, Trump uses Doublethink and his followers use Duckspeak. They are all ducks quacking around this liar. I explain this here.
If we can understand what Trump says it seems likely that Trump needs war, as we see in "1984" the country is in perpetual war, and the allies and enemies keep changing. War is Peace is powerful and for the fascist the two are intertwined. You make war to keep the peace. You claim peace while making war. The boat incident in Cuba yesterday, made me wonder if Trump was amassing troops in Iran and then going after Cuba as a Trojan Horse move. Also, wondered if the Submarine that emerged unexpectedly by Greenland was also a snafu. Greenland did not know it was there, and neither did Denmark. They still helped the sick sailor from the Submarine. Trump is looking for small countries to attack and claim victory over, and he needed it before his SOTU ramble. That he did not get. Lucky for him, someone did some winning. He could trot out the US Mens Hockey Team for a win and claim victory.
When you cite corruption, Swbv, most people see the money side.
But consider, too, imaginative corruption.
My favorite part here is where Timothy Snyder notes "submission to hierarchy as the only kind of life." And I'd like to define hierarchy as not just the power structures set up by and governed by those of money and moneyed institutions, but those set up by and governed by our institutions shaping imaginations.
Schools, clergy, news and entertainment media, standardized testers, corporate textbook packagers, and social media billionaires all play roles here. But our largest resource bubbles, radiates, and emits its reach through the many ways we get our novels, memoirs, histories, biographies, essay collections, movies, music, and other arts.
If we have and show healthy access to our humanities, hierarchy enters much less. Our capacity to see and appreciate -- and to reform and change -- human complications matters more, grows more vital.
We've endured the hierarchy not only of Donald, but of all his related rapist predators. They relate to each other through the powers of money they exchange. But also through the absence of humanities. Their hierarchy repeats as Yuri Zhivago was disgusted to see repeating in the slogans, banalities, and abstracted emptiness of the Forest Brotherhood.
And where bad language rules, as Orwell taught us, terror, murder, rape, chaos and worse set in.
Good beginnings. Let's also protect voters from both state and federal interference in their right to vote, make women equal citizens and protect their right to bodily autonomy and to make all decisions affecting their health care, protect LGBTQ+ persons from private and government discrimination, provide clear and enforceable penalties for executive sequestration or repurposing of funds appropriated by Congress; kill the Electoral College by adopting direct election of presidents; tighten up the emoluments clause with legislation requiring all gifts to be reported to and approved by Congress and owned by the US of A; prohibiting any president from having any investments or business interests other than the job of being president; mandated yearly disclosures of tax returns, medical evaluations, and statements of financial condition; and oh so many more rules to protect the norms and guardrails that we foolishly thought existed heretofore. Bottom line: we need a Congress that takes it constitutional role and its oath to defend it seriously; something better than some big city alderman doling out largesse and privileges to its favored constituents.
Swbv, I am all for getting rid of not only Citizens United, but also tax breaks for billionaires. Let them ruin some other country. I am all for supporting Ukraine proactively too.
Please stop with the "Trump is a fascist" meme. As his latest SOTU meandering showed, he is very American, channeling America's worse-than-fascism authoritarianism. When you talk about fascism, you give people an easy out of saying "that's not us, that was some other place and some other time." When you connect Project 2025 and Trump with their predecessors in US history, you force people to confront what is--that the current regime is the latest manifestation of a very old AMERICAN strain of politics.
Trump meets every aspect of the definition of fascism, and if there's one thing most Americans agree on, it's that fascism is a bad thing. We historians know that fascism never ends well, for anyone. We know that the Greatest Generation fought to end fascism.
"Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, and the forcible suppression of opposition. It prioritizes the nation, and often race, over individual rights, promoting a strict social hierarchy and intense regimentation of society and the economy."
That strain of politics is a lot older than just American politics, and our Constitution was devised as a guardrail against it. Saying the guardrail is not holding is essential.
Indeed, you are absolutely correct, a point I sometimes forget. The American Experiment and its Constitution was a big step forward. But I can’t help but think about the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 that within a generation started dismantling the Constitution.
But you raise a great question we all need to consider: what guardrails have we lost and how do we get them back? How do we reverse the current concentration of power and circulate power back to the people?
Those acts were largely the result of a couple of things usually forgotten in the years since.
One was that John Adams was almost as thin-skinned as Trump is, that the the political violence surrounding our ‘quasi-war’ with France was as pervasive and disrupting as anything we’ve seen since, and that Jefferson and his mob’s support of the French Revolution even after it had descended into bloody chaos was also a contributive factor.
Your comment about that ‘dismantling’ is true enough, but perhaps ignores the fact that it was our very inexperience with this newest form of national government that made those Acts possible. Yet virtually the same thing happened during WWI, with basically the same name, and something like it has been a part of both Nixon’s depredations during Vietnam and Trump’s in terms of ICE, when we’d had far more experience with our Constitution.
We can forget how long and complex a game Democracy is. And how fragile it is. Indeed, that forgetting is, IMO a large part of the rise of Trump. Since WWII, we had become increasingly complacent about both. Even the disruptions of the Vietnam War and the violence surrounding the Civil Rights struggle during the sixties and seventies were not enough to really make us look hard at the direction in which we were going.
I think this has been Trump’s greatest ‘gift' to us - that we’ve been finally forced to take a good long look at that complacency and the ways in which it must be faced and combatted.
Thank you for that great explanation and your thoughts. Looking back at US history, it is disconcerting how often the country has slid into near-authoritarianism. I forget right now who it was, but someone wrote a book arguing that the US has a cyclical history moving between authoritarianism and greater freedoms, a kind of boom and bust cycle, in which authoritarians create a crisis that waked people to action but when things calm down, people get complacent and authoritarianism re-emerges.
I truly enjoy these conversations, wishing this ability to have then across the country and even the world had been available for far more of my 81 years than it has been.
You forgot to put quotation marks around the AI response you cited in this post.
If you really want to study the nuances of our long history of authoritarian power grabs based on white supremacy beliefs, read Heather Cox Richardson's "Democracy Awakening". There is some overlap in the definitions of authoritarianism, autocracy, totalitarianism, fascism, and oligarchy/plutocracy, but all of those ideologies were implicitly rejected by the men who wrote our Constitution, and expounded upon in the Federalist Papers.
I respectfully submit that acknowledging that our Constitution is not a guardrail is essential. Our Constitution imposes no physical barrier (like a guardrail). For good reason, the people who wrote and ratified our Constitution spoke of it as a mere "paper barrier" or "parchment barrier." They emphasized that principles and people will make or break our constitution (as a nation). Principles inspire and motivate people who serve as guardians and sentinels.
To use a medical analogy, you need to diagnose the disease correctly to know what the best treatment is. If you apply an incorrect treatment, then you will fail to mitigate the disease and may even make it worse. Correct identifications and responses are why medical science spends considerable time and effort in research, documentation, and training.
I am not saying Trump is a disease, although many people would forgive me if I did. He’s actually much more of a symptom of a disease, as I’ve been saying for a long time.
You are treating the problem like some academic exercise, battling over words. Yes proper diagnosis is important but I'd appreciate less meandering on what to call the "problem" and more constructive dialogue about the possible solutions. Suggestion less BS, more real world solutions to whatever you call the ill America now suffers.
To Old Man from an old woman. I agree with you. I love intellectual discourse. But it’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed or taken part in competitive intellectual sports. I agree with you that academic word games are non-productive at this point in time. So are arguments for transformative change.
Honestly, after thirty years working in state and local government, I have found that incremental change can lead to significant transformation. That transformation can proceed with modest and sometimes major leaps forward - while minimizing backlash and backsliding. That’s as “intellectual” as I get.
But today we are faced with an existential (not theoretical) crisis and we need to save the debates over long-term change until we put out the fires. And IMHO, we must win in November; that is the fire that could consume us all. So… mass protests, public sharing of the corruption, and court cases are essential and must be ongoing.
And please, please, please use the immigration excesses (including concentration camps) to further unite the anti-oligarch/authoritarian/fascist movement. Minnesota has shown how this can be done. We are metaphorically hiding the Jews in our attics - but not in secret: on camera, loudly.
The harm being done to real live people is my own personal crusade. We can’t watch this without realizing the Nazis are here and now. Bring out the smartphones and the whistles: later we can have a glass of wine and begin conversation about whether this was fascism or not.
Can you summarize your solutions so we can see how they fit in with other solutions? Substack is contributing to the splintering of the opposition. We need less fascination with articulating the problem down to the nth degree and more interest in action.
I agree with you about the splintering problem. Much of that comes from people jostling to yell the same slogans the loudest. Who talks solutions? Very, very few.
In response to your question, for which I thank you, I both summarize and go into detail what I think the solutions are and what we need to do to work toward them. I posted the link for anyone who wants to spend more time than reading slogans and memes. And yes, step one toward the solution is pointing out "hey, you're going down the wrong path."
You’re right that most discourse has devolved into competing to yell slogans loudest. The splintering you’re describing is a predictable outcome when incentive structures reward performative outrage over substantive analysis. Algorithmic platforms amplify extreme positions because they generate engagement, so people optimize for volume rather than solutions.
The behavioral mechanism matters: when the system rewards signaling over problem-solving, you get fragmentation instead of coordination. People aren’t collaborating toward shared goals, they’re competing for attention within their respective tribes. That’s not a path toward functional opposition or institutional repair.
I spent considerable effort mapping what actually works when old playbooks fail. Talking about solutions, I laid out operational frameworks for individuals, institutions, and democratic states navigating authoritarian drift and institutional collapse. It’s substantive analysis of adaptation strategies, not slogans: the World Ahead 2026 Part 5.
How do you build alternatives when captured institutions can’t be reformed? How do democracies maintain optionality when traditional alliances are unreliable? What individual decisions matter when systems are fragmenting?
Behavioral economics and incentive analysis, not just critique.
DG PhD: your grasp of objective reality and current events appears to be tenuous at best.
“In contrast, Trump is an isolationist. His “America First” slogan means “America .” Hitler sent knights marching out of the castle to conquer other lands; Trump raises the castle drawbridge.“
You can quibble about definitions, but the plain truth is that your statement is objectively false. Trump lowered your metaphorical drawbridge to invade and capture one head of state and assassinate another.
In fact this was not a State of the Union address, it was a State of Trump address, making it, once again, abundantly clear that the man currently inhabiting the Oval Offuce is little more than an amoral, mendacious, malicious, vengeful, tired and demented old huckster and con mn obsessed with himself and existing almost wholly in a delusional world of his own creation.
At the same time, it is also clear that he knows an American fury is rising in intensity to a level that will almost certainly result in his losing the House and possibly the Senate in November, and he is not so deluded as to ignore what that may mean for him.
That understanding also makes him more dangerous than at any other time in either of his his presidencies.
Trump v USA gave him the sense that he can do pretty much anything he wants to, which is one of the reasons he reacted so strongly to the recent SCOTUS decision about his tariffs. He might as well have cried, with Hitler, about the ‘stab in the back’.
We are entering a very dangerous time in our history, perhaps as much so as any we have ever encountered. Our response must be as courageous and unstinting, yet as measured as we can make it. Either underreaction or overreaction could be equally fraught.
You've certainly accurately outlined the majority opinion of Trump from the UK. I agree that as he gets more tired and demented, he becomes more unpredictable and vengeful, and thus more dangerous. It's a big problem for Europe.
Yet I think that what you all seem to be doing, separating yourselves from Trump to as great an extent as is plausible and recombining may work to both your and our advantage.
At the same time, it is easy to forget that for a thousand years before the disastrous twentieth century, that kind of recombining was cause for endless wars.
From my viewpoint in Sweden I see it in the same way. He can’t afford to lose. His government can’t afford to lose. If violence against the American people is necessary, they will surely try to go down that road. His State of the Union address was a preparation for that scenario.
The 4 pillars of "Trumpism" are Greed, Bigotry, Racism and Thoughtless Stupidity. We need to attack these 4 pillars in order to save our once fine country from authoritarian fascism or whatever you want to call it. The GREED exhibited by " The Wealthy Epstein Class" must be spotlighted for all to see and understand. BETTER EDUCATION and BETTER JOBS for as many as possible will help solve the latter 3, which may take a little time.
Epstein is fading from the front pages. We need to be sure that it stays there and that those who can, delve deeper into the size and extent of Epstein’s corruption and collusion with corrupt people. We need to have the final word on the Russian/Putin connection — in there somewhere is the reason why Trump is so slavish toward Putin, beyond their synchronic personalities. Also, we need to find the truth about his death.
The Lyin’ King & his unhinged bottom feeders are having trouble keeping their lies & propaganda straight.
The American government has a duty to protect law all law abiding residents regardless of citizenship status.
Biden’s last year added 8X more jobs than the 1st year of Trump’s “Golden Age”, but the unpatriotic “fools & lapdogs” that he appointed are sending us into bankruptcy?
The “I can do anything” Chosen One would by fiat change the plain language of the law & the constitution.
No Kings... Resist MAGA gangster grifter authoritarianism! Vote Sane. #VoteBlue!
Doug, I have no idea what your ideology or politics are and I agree about Biden’s failures and it appears that you don’t understand that against an authoritarian takeover all those against must unite in a Popular Front and in this situation it means short term voting Blue to handcuff the Trump regime. That is necessary to give us the room to make the progressive changes that are needed for the wellbeing of the majority of our people and stabilize world politics.
It’s Douglas, please, but more importantly, thank you for your comments. My politics is openly on display (https://imnotyourechochamber.substack.com/) and while I grant you your point that we need a more stable situation before we can take next steps, but what I will strongly add is that I’m tired of those people who think VoteBlue is enough. It isn’t. What is necessary is far more us holding everyone in government accountable and building real change from the ground up. BTW - I voted and campaigned for Harris.
"If Biden had kept his 2020 campaign promise to not seek a second term, we wouldn't be dealing with Trump today.”
Not necessarily the case. The Democratic Party has shown an extraordinary ability to shoot itself in the foot over the past decades, and there’s no guarantee that they wouldn’t have done so again leading up to 2024. Indeed, they may yet do so between now and November.
"Of course, if Biden had bothered to prosecute Trump immediately after January 6, 2001 instead of waiting years, Trump would be in prison”
Again, no guarantees here. And it wasn’t Biden who prosecuted Trump. Saying that just plays into MAGA’s ‘lawfare’ game. Further, the need to create an ironclad case against a former president who still enjoyed immense popularity required exceptionally careful preparation. The real villain in this case was the SCOTUS decision in Trump v USA. Absent that, Trump would most probably have been brought before the bar well in advance of the 2024 election.
"So, sorry, I don't see "Vote Blue" as a solution.”
The actual solution is to 'vote American'. The problem with that is that far too many of us aren’t really sure what that really means - that we are both the inheritors of and the participants in the most extraordinary, the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex ongoing experiment in human society and government ever attempted. Only when a sufficient number of us understand that, and what it implies about the responsibility of citizenship will we be on the road to fulfilling that responsibility.
"Please stop with the "Trump is a fascist” meme”
Arguing about this is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Defining Trumpism by what it it as opposed to what America was created to be is all that ought to be necessary.
You are correct is saying that Trump is a symptom of an idea which has been a part of the American political landscape as long as we’ve been a nation. There have always been and will always be those among us who are unhappy with the essential messiness and inefficiency of democratic government. Further, as international complexity and interconnectedness increase, there will also always be those who seek the simplistic answers that demagogues like Trump are always all too eager to supply. But arguing over what to call it, beside it’s essence, which is simply Trumpism, is a wasted effort.
I’m not excusing Biden for his egocentricity, which in its destructive way equaled Trump’s, nor the Democratic establishment for hanging onto him for as long as they did. And Harris did have a fighting chance (and yes, I voted for her as well). But IMO that’s not what cost her the election. Her polling was actually a bit on the slide from its high point by the time of the election.
My sense is that her problem was twofold. Unlike what so many on the right were saying, she did have a clear agenda, which she articulated. But she did not distance herself enough from those Biden policies which were unpopular and, in truth, I still don’t think there is enough support in some substantial quarters for the idea of a woman (let alone one of color) running the show to really put one clearly over the top.
Clinton did win the popular vote in 2016, but given the clear awfulness of Trump’s first campaign, any competent Democrat should have won by a large enough margin to have overcome the Electoral College.
Thanks, James, I couldn’t agree with you more. We will never know, but it’s possible that Harris lost the election when in that one late interview she said she wouldn’t change a thing that Biden did. You could hear the sound of droves of people walking away after losing faith in her. It was sad.
And, yeah, Clinton was probably the only person who could have lost to Trump. It’s sad how myopic the Democratic Party has been.
I’ve always thought Biden should have run in 2016. I’ve heard some of the controversy surrounding the decision to run Clinton although it’s hard to know exactly what happened. But I strongly suspect he could have beaten Trump handily. His older son’s death surely had a hand in his decision but apparently Obama had a hand in it as well.
I agree that myopia is a central Democratic problem (It’s a Republican one as well in a different way, one of the reasons I’ve always been an Independent myself), but I also think that much of the blame for our current predicament is down to our ossified binary political party system in which party loyalty has so often trumped (the word is intentional) what might have been best for the country. The Framers understood the danger in this, then they went right ahead and initiated it anyway. One of our two Original Sins.
Wow, it must be such a satisfying thing for you to write off lots of people because they don’t have time to read your substack. You have no idea how much Old Man has already worked, and your words are not respectful. I could say the same thing to you: Your words so far are empty of action.
I attend protests, contribute to causes I believe can help, support responsible journalism and will make my voice heard in the ballot box come November. These are the tools available to concerned citizens The fact that you feel the need to declare "w/o BS" says everything one needs to know about you. What is your truth, telling everyone they are wrong, you are right? You have a good day.
To think, 10 years ago, America had a "deal" with Iran which stopped enrichment of high grade uranium, removed what they had already and allowed onsite inspections.
That would look like an incredible win rn, but Trump threw it all away for nothing. What a crappy dealmaker.
Thank you for this post. In a strange way it is hopeful. I’m going to place my bet on the side of ordinary Americans and their courage to resist this ugly takeover in process.💔🇺🇸🙏🏻
Did Trump speak about the war in Ukraine in his SOTU Address!?! If so, what did he say?
Feb 24th marks the 4th Anniversary of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine that Trump claimed he would end in "one day" - it's now day 1,462.
Due to the resilience and resistance of the Ukrainian people and their Freedom Fighters, although exhausted, they are still standing tall. They are the true guardians of democracy. No surrender!
Taking care of my time, I did not watch too much of the speech. But I certainly have read and watched enough excellent commentary on it (including Prof. Snyder’s) to know what its tenor was. I did happen to see one episode which I think perfectly encapsulated both the speech and indeed beyond it, the 2nd Trump Presidency. He awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor to a seriously injured U.S. servicemember who sustained his wounds while participating in the totally illegal kidnapping of the President of a foreign country who, apparently, will remain imprisoned indefinitely, with or without trial, in Trump's United States.
If Trump wants to invade Iran, the results will be very bad. Many of us remember Iraq and Afghanistan. Was the invasion of these countries worth the American snd allied lives we lost? These wars were not popular and invading Iran will not be welcomed. But, Professor Snyder, those of us who are from Queens are tired of implications that Queens people need the affirmation of wealthy people from Manhattan. Trump has his own issues. I grew up in the same neighborhood as Simon and Garfunkel and many other thoughtful and successful people. They didn’t need to be part of any particular wealthy group. Many of us are, and always have been, Democrats or moderate Republicans, more concerned with taking care of our families than with attending the Met Gala. Queens is now one of the most diverse areas in the United States. Trump’s problems are his own.
In light to the horrors Drumpf has wreaked on democracy, it is perhaps anti-climatic to realize that history will probably remember the grift first, and the fascism second. Certainly that is true of the mixture of corruption and lawless imperialism in US history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Your column reduces him to his true state, floundering, unintelligent, crass, venal, and above all, incompetent.
When Trump posed his gotcha question--If you think the first responsibility of a POTUS is to US citizens or to illegal aliens, stand up--both Hitler and Stalin leapt to their feet. Simply shift "US citizens" to "white, Christian, legacy Americans" and illegal aliens to Jews or Ukrainian peasants.
The first duty of a US president is to the US Constitution.
Thank you, Professor Snyder. Your thoughts on Fascism are timely, and it behooves the reader to
take this warning seriously. The reason for this warning is very clear: America has a Fascistic leader, supported by an incompetent, sycophantic group. The danger lurks in every corner of this present group...he (der Fuehrer) could not do it alone. For the past 10 years, he has had the time, with the assistance of others, to hone his fascistic tendencies...the interruption of four years by the Democratic leadership just gave him more time...to surround himself with liars and thieves.
Writing morning after state of union. He was his usual awful self. I said I would not watch, but was tuned into MS NOW for rebuttal, ... so of course I watched his fiasco of a speech. Timothy is correct, that he wants and needs a war, to prove to himself and his sycophants, that he is strong and powerful. I expected LIES; as he breathes, he lies, blaming the Dems for all he has done. I think he is too much a coward, to actually get us into a ground war, but may fire a few missiles as he did before. By saying that, I do not mean that a strong, brave man is needed to decide war -- what is needed, is brains, thoughtfulness, a reason to go to war, ... not one's ego.
My overwhelming sadness last night, was the degradation of the wounded, the grieving, the heroes, that were USED to promote his own ego. Some of those people deserved a medal, ... but wrong time, wrong place, wrong purpose. He USED them to pump himself up, ... that he CARES about them. (these are the suckers and losers, he called them, before).
They were USED for his pompous circus, ... and that saddens me terribly.
Keep up the fight, People. We CAN stop this authoritarianism becoming fascism. Time-consuming, boring, but the rule of law is our weapon ... and our vote.
Fascism, of course, is awful. But it's pre-cursor is often corruption. I think corruption is settling in at the highest levels. I'd like to offer some (I know there are plenty more) anti-dotes so my kids and grand-kids live in our formerly quite wonderful democracy.
Let's try: over-writing Citizens United and presidential immunity; rolling back the 2003 and 2017 tax cuts; balancing the budget a la Clinton/Gore; supporting Ukraine proactively not lethargically; reform the Supreme Court with term limits, age limits, and a robust ethics code; release the un-redacted Epstein Files and fire BONDI & Blanche; prohibit gerrymandering. And there's more....
Snyder’s right that Trump is stuck—-authoritarian instincts without competence to execute the fascist transition. But the corruption you’re identifying isn’t just precursor, it’s the mechanism. Citizens United, presidential immunity, wealth concentration, captured courts…these are the incentive structures that selected for Trump and enabled his rise.
The system is optimized to prevent exactly the structural reforms you’re proposing because the people benefiting from corruption control the institutions that would implement them.
The operational question: how do you build alternatives when captured systems can’t be fixed from within?
I have also explored this in my last series on the world in 2026, because what are individuals, institutions, and democratic states to do when traditional reform paths are blocked. We need operational frameworks for maintaining agency during institutional collapse.
Your kids and grandkids need strategic adaptation to navigate the gap between vision and reality. The piece addresses building friction against authoritarian consolidation when the old playbook fails.
— Johan
I say understand the language of fascism, which explains Trump's actions. According to George Orwell, Trump uses Doublethink and his followers use Duckspeak. They are all ducks quacking around this liar. I explain this here.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/the-language-of-the-fascist-regime?r=f0qfn
If we can understand what Trump says it seems likely that Trump needs war, as we see in "1984" the country is in perpetual war, and the allies and enemies keep changing. War is Peace is powerful and for the fascist the two are intertwined. You make war to keep the peace. You claim peace while making war. The boat incident in Cuba yesterday, made me wonder if Trump was amassing troops in Iran and then going after Cuba as a Trojan Horse move. Also, wondered if the Submarine that emerged unexpectedly by Greenland was also a snafu. Greenland did not know it was there, and neither did Denmark. They still helped the sick sailor from the Submarine. Trump is looking for small countries to attack and claim victory over, and he needed it before his SOTU ramble. That he did not get. Lucky for him, someone did some winning. He could trot out the US Mens Hockey Team for a win and claim victory.
When you cite corruption, Swbv, most people see the money side.
But consider, too, imaginative corruption.
My favorite part here is where Timothy Snyder notes "submission to hierarchy as the only kind of life." And I'd like to define hierarchy as not just the power structures set up by and governed by those of money and moneyed institutions, but those set up by and governed by our institutions shaping imaginations.
Schools, clergy, news and entertainment media, standardized testers, corporate textbook packagers, and social media billionaires all play roles here. But our largest resource bubbles, radiates, and emits its reach through the many ways we get our novels, memoirs, histories, biographies, essay collections, movies, music, and other arts.
If we have and show healthy access to our humanities, hierarchy enters much less. Our capacity to see and appreciate -- and to reform and change -- human complications matters more, grows more vital.
We've endured the hierarchy not only of Donald, but of all his related rapist predators. They relate to each other through the powers of money they exchange. But also through the absence of humanities. Their hierarchy repeats as Yuri Zhivago was disgusted to see repeating in the slogans, banalities, and abstracted emptiness of the Forest Brotherhood.
And where bad language rules, as Orwell taught us, terror, murder, rape, chaos and worse set in.
Corruption is an inherent ingredient of all right-wing regimes.
Good beginnings. Let's also protect voters from both state and federal interference in their right to vote, make women equal citizens and protect their right to bodily autonomy and to make all decisions affecting their health care, protect LGBTQ+ persons from private and government discrimination, provide clear and enforceable penalties for executive sequestration or repurposing of funds appropriated by Congress; kill the Electoral College by adopting direct election of presidents; tighten up the emoluments clause with legislation requiring all gifts to be reported to and approved by Congress and owned by the US of A; prohibiting any president from having any investments or business interests other than the job of being president; mandated yearly disclosures of tax returns, medical evaluations, and statements of financial condition; and oh so many more rules to protect the norms and guardrails that we foolishly thought existed heretofore. Bottom line: we need a Congress that takes it constitutional role and its oath to defend it seriously; something better than some big city alderman doling out largesse and privileges to its favored constituents.
YES! All good additions. Write your Congress person
Swbv, I am all for getting rid of not only Citizens United, but also tax breaks for billionaires. Let them ruin some other country. I am all for supporting Ukraine proactively too.
More, please, and let's post it to Kingdom Come.
Please stop with the "Trump is a fascist" meme. As his latest SOTU meandering showed, he is very American, channeling America's worse-than-fascism authoritarianism. When you talk about fascism, you give people an easy out of saying "that's not us, that was some other place and some other time." When you connect Project 2025 and Trump with their predecessors in US history, you force people to confront what is--that the current regime is the latest manifestation of a very old AMERICAN strain of politics.
https://dgilesphd.substack.com/p/why-trump-is-not-a-fascist
I disagree.
Trump meets every aspect of the definition of fascism, and if there's one thing most Americans agree on, it's that fascism is a bad thing. We historians know that fascism never ends well, for anyone. We know that the Greatest Generation fought to end fascism.
"Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, and the forcible suppression of opposition. It prioritizes the nation, and often race, over individual rights, promoting a strict social hierarchy and intense regimentation of society and the economy."
Check, check, and check!
And if you are open to deeper truths, I have written a lot about what Trump really is:
https://imnotyourechochamber.substack.com/
Checkmate: https://dgilesphd.substack.com/p/why-trump-is-not-a-fascist
That strain of politics is a lot older than just American politics, and our Constitution was devised as a guardrail against it. Saying the guardrail is not holding is essential.
Indeed, you are absolutely correct, a point I sometimes forget. The American Experiment and its Constitution was a big step forward. But I can’t help but think about the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 that within a generation started dismantling the Constitution.
But you raise a great question we all need to consider: what guardrails have we lost and how do we get them back? How do we reverse the current concentration of power and circulate power back to the people?
Those acts were largely the result of a couple of things usually forgotten in the years since.
One was that John Adams was almost as thin-skinned as Trump is, that the the political violence surrounding our ‘quasi-war’ with France was as pervasive and disrupting as anything we’ve seen since, and that Jefferson and his mob’s support of the French Revolution even after it had descended into bloody chaos was also a contributive factor.
Your comment about that ‘dismantling’ is true enough, but perhaps ignores the fact that it was our very inexperience with this newest form of national government that made those Acts possible. Yet virtually the same thing happened during WWI, with basically the same name, and something like it has been a part of both Nixon’s depredations during Vietnam and Trump’s in terms of ICE, when we’d had far more experience with our Constitution.
We can forget how long and complex a game Democracy is. And how fragile it is. Indeed, that forgetting is, IMO a large part of the rise of Trump. Since WWII, we had become increasingly complacent about both. Even the disruptions of the Vietnam War and the violence surrounding the Civil Rights struggle during the sixties and seventies were not enough to really make us look hard at the direction in which we were going.
I think this has been Trump’s greatest ‘gift' to us - that we’ve been finally forced to take a good long look at that complacency and the ways in which it must be faced and combatted.
Thank you for that great explanation and your thoughts. Looking back at US history, it is disconcerting how often the country has slid into near-authoritarianism. I forget right now who it was, but someone wrote a book arguing that the US has a cyclical history moving between authoritarianism and greater freedoms, a kind of boom and bust cycle, in which authoritarians create a crisis that waked people to action but when things calm down, people get complacent and authoritarianism re-emerges.
I truly enjoy these conversations, wishing this ability to have then across the country and even the world had been available for far more of my 81 years than it has been.
I enjoy them also. So much better than the usual snark.
You forgot to put quotation marks around the AI response you cited in this post.
If you really want to study the nuances of our long history of authoritarian power grabs based on white supremacy beliefs, read Heather Cox Richardson's "Democracy Awakening". There is some overlap in the definitions of authoritarianism, autocracy, totalitarianism, fascism, and oligarchy/plutocracy, but all of those ideologies were implicitly rejected by the men who wrote our Constitution, and expounded upon in the Federalist Papers.
Wow, dude, you could not be more off topic. Worse, you don't care.
Doesn't it seem like that's the recurring history of politics/governance everywhere throughout time?
It is, you are correct. I think we all need to accept that truth--that there isn't anything new in Trump, it is, as you say, recurring history.
Yes. No Kings and No Fascists are about the same thing.
I respectfully submit that acknowledging that our Constitution is not a guardrail is essential. Our Constitution imposes no physical barrier (like a guardrail). For good reason, the people who wrote and ratified our Constitution spoke of it as a mere "paper barrier" or "parchment barrier." They emphasized that principles and people will make or break our constitution (as a nation). Principles inspire and motivate people who serve as guardians and sentinels.
And a sure sign of a break-down in principles is flouting the Constitution.
To use a medical analogy, you need to diagnose the disease correctly to know what the best treatment is. If you apply an incorrect treatment, then you will fail to mitigate the disease and may even make it worse. Correct identifications and responses are why medical science spends considerable time and effort in research, documentation, and training.
I am not saying Trump is a disease, although many people would forgive me if I did. He’s actually much more of a symptom of a disease, as I’ve been saying for a long time.
You are treating the problem like some academic exercise, battling over words. Yes proper diagnosis is important but I'd appreciate less meandering on what to call the "problem" and more constructive dialogue about the possible solutions. Suggestion less BS, more real world solutions to whatever you call the ill America now suffers.
To Old Man from an old woman. I agree with you. I love intellectual discourse. But it’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed or taken part in competitive intellectual sports. I agree with you that academic word games are non-productive at this point in time. So are arguments for transformative change.
Honestly, after thirty years working in state and local government, I have found that incremental change can lead to significant transformation. That transformation can proceed with modest and sometimes major leaps forward - while minimizing backlash and backsliding. That’s as “intellectual” as I get.
But today we are faced with an existential (not theoretical) crisis and we need to save the debates over long-term change until we put out the fires. And IMHO, we must win in November; that is the fire that could consume us all. So… mass protests, public sharing of the corruption, and court cases are essential and must be ongoing.
And please, please, please use the immigration excesses (including concentration camps) to further unite the anti-oligarch/authoritarian/fascist movement. Minnesota has shown how this can be done. We are metaphorically hiding the Jews in our attics - but not in secret: on camera, loudly.
The harm being done to real live people is my own personal crusade. We can’t watch this without realizing the Nazis are here and now. Bring out the smartphones and the whistles: later we can have a glass of wine and begin conversation about whether this was fascism or not.
LOL, hardly! I’m treating it with the sledgehammer of “let’s cut the crap and get to the heart of the matter.”
I want solutions. I write all the time about solutions. I reject simplistic words and empty sloganeering. https://imnotyourechochamber.substack.com/
Can you summarize your solutions so we can see how they fit in with other solutions? Substack is contributing to the splintering of the opposition. We need less fascination with articulating the problem down to the nth degree and more interest in action.
I agree with you about the splintering problem. Much of that comes from people jostling to yell the same slogans the loudest. Who talks solutions? Very, very few.
In response to your question, for which I thank you, I both summarize and go into detail what I think the solutions are and what we need to do to work toward them. I posted the link for anyone who wants to spend more time than reading slogans and memes. And yes, step one toward the solution is pointing out "hey, you're going down the wrong path."
You’re right that most discourse has devolved into competing to yell slogans loudest. The splintering you’re describing is a predictable outcome when incentive structures reward performative outrage over substantive analysis. Algorithmic platforms amplify extreme positions because they generate engagement, so people optimize for volume rather than solutions.
The behavioral mechanism matters: when the system rewards signaling over problem-solving, you get fragmentation instead of coordination. People aren’t collaborating toward shared goals, they’re competing for attention within their respective tribes. That’s not a path toward functional opposition or institutional repair.
I spent considerable effort mapping what actually works when old playbooks fail. Talking about solutions, I laid out operational frameworks for individuals, institutions, and democratic states navigating authoritarian drift and institutional collapse. It’s substantive analysis of adaptation strategies, not slogans: the World Ahead 2026 Part 5.
How do you build alternatives when captured institutions can’t be reformed? How do democracies maintain optionality when traditional alliances are unreliable? What individual decisions matter when systems are fragmenting?
Behavioral economics and incentive analysis, not just critique.
— Johan
Well said. The time for navel gazing is over, every positive action moves us closer to a positive outcome.
DG PhD: your grasp of objective reality and current events appears to be tenuous at best.
“In contrast, Trump is an isolationist. His “America First” slogan means “America .” Hitler sent knights marching out of the castle to conquer other lands; Trump raises the castle drawbridge.“
You can quibble about definitions, but the plain truth is that your statement is objectively false. Trump lowered your metaphorical drawbridge to invade and capture one head of state and assassinate another.
You offer ad hominem; I'll offer more facts.
https://imnotyourechochamber.substack.com/p/theres-nothing-new-in-trump-foreign
There is nothing new in Trump--he's a typical American right-winger.
In fact this was not a State of the Union address, it was a State of Trump address, making it, once again, abundantly clear that the man currently inhabiting the Oval Offuce is little more than an amoral, mendacious, malicious, vengeful, tired and demented old huckster and con mn obsessed with himself and existing almost wholly in a delusional world of his own creation.
At the same time, it is also clear that he knows an American fury is rising in intensity to a level that will almost certainly result in his losing the House and possibly the Senate in November, and he is not so deluded as to ignore what that may mean for him.
That understanding also makes him more dangerous than at any other time in either of his his presidencies.
Trump v USA gave him the sense that he can do pretty much anything he wants to, which is one of the reasons he reacted so strongly to the recent SCOTUS decision about his tariffs. He might as well have cried, with Hitler, about the ‘stab in the back’.
We are entering a very dangerous time in our history, perhaps as much so as any we have ever encountered. Our response must be as courageous and unstinting, yet as measured as we can make it. Either underreaction or overreaction could be equally fraught.
You've certainly accurately outlined the majority opinion of Trump from the UK. I agree that as he gets more tired and demented, he becomes more unpredictable and vengeful, and thus more dangerous. It's a big problem for Europe.
Yet I think that what you all seem to be doing, separating yourselves from Trump to as great an extent as is plausible and recombining may work to both your and our advantage.
At the same time, it is easy to forget that for a thousand years before the disastrous twentieth century, that kind of recombining was cause for endless wars.
Can we do the one without recreating the other?
We can but hope - and I see little alternative.
From my viewpoint in Sweden I see it in the same way. He can’t afford to lose. His government can’t afford to lose. If violence against the American people is necessary, they will surely try to go down that road. His State of the Union address was a preparation for that scenario.
The 4 pillars of "Trumpism" are Greed, Bigotry, Racism and Thoughtless Stupidity. We need to attack these 4 pillars in order to save our once fine country from authoritarian fascism or whatever you want to call it. The GREED exhibited by " The Wealthy Epstein Class" must be spotlighted for all to see and understand. BETTER EDUCATION and BETTER JOBS for as many as possible will help solve the latter 3, which may take a little time.
Epstein is fading from the front pages. We need to be sure that it stays there and that those who can, delve deeper into the size and extent of Epstein’s corruption and collusion with corrupt people. We need to have the final word on the Russian/Putin connection — in there somewhere is the reason why Trump is so slavish toward Putin, beyond their synchronic personalities. Also, we need to find the truth about his death.
How much Trump regime corruption & racism is too much? https://youtube.com/shorts/3AZWEGyvqZ8?si=_UdnUBBmFTM9A8tb
The Lyin’ King & his unhinged bottom feeders are having trouble keeping their lies & propaganda straight.
The American government has a duty to protect law all law abiding residents regardless of citizenship status.
Biden’s last year added 8X more jobs than the 1st year of Trump’s “Golden Age”, but the unpatriotic “fools & lapdogs” that he appointed are sending us into bankruptcy?
The “I can do anything” Chosen One would by fiat change the plain language of the law & the constitution.
No Kings... Resist MAGA gangster grifter authoritarianism! Vote Sane. #VoteBlue!
If Biden had kept his 2020 campaign promise to not seek a second term, we wouldn't be dealing with Trump today.
Of course, if Biden had bothered to prosecute Trump immediately after January 6, 2001 instead of waiting years, Trump would be in prison.
So, sorry, I don't see "Vote Blue" as a solution.
Doug, I have no idea what your ideology or politics are and I agree about Biden’s failures and it appears that you don’t understand that against an authoritarian takeover all those against must unite in a Popular Front and in this situation it means short term voting Blue to handcuff the Trump regime. That is necessary to give us the room to make the progressive changes that are needed for the wellbeing of the majority of our people and stabilize world politics.
It’s Douglas, please, but more importantly, thank you for your comments. My politics is openly on display (https://imnotyourechochamber.substack.com/) and while I grant you your point that we need a more stable situation before we can take next steps, but what I will strongly add is that I’m tired of those people who think VoteBlue is enough. It isn’t. What is necessary is far more us holding everyone in government accountable and building real change from the ground up. BTW - I voted and campaigned for Harris.
"If Biden had kept his 2020 campaign promise to not seek a second term, we wouldn't be dealing with Trump today.”
Not necessarily the case. The Democratic Party has shown an extraordinary ability to shoot itself in the foot over the past decades, and there’s no guarantee that they wouldn’t have done so again leading up to 2024. Indeed, they may yet do so between now and November.
"Of course, if Biden had bothered to prosecute Trump immediately after January 6, 2001 instead of waiting years, Trump would be in prison”
Again, no guarantees here. And it wasn’t Biden who prosecuted Trump. Saying that just plays into MAGA’s ‘lawfare’ game. Further, the need to create an ironclad case against a former president who still enjoyed immense popularity required exceptionally careful preparation. The real villain in this case was the SCOTUS decision in Trump v USA. Absent that, Trump would most probably have been brought before the bar well in advance of the 2024 election.
"So, sorry, I don't see "Vote Blue" as a solution.”
The actual solution is to 'vote American'. The problem with that is that far too many of us aren’t really sure what that really means - that we are both the inheritors of and the participants in the most extraordinary, the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex ongoing experiment in human society and government ever attempted. Only when a sufficient number of us understand that, and what it implies about the responsibility of citizenship will we be on the road to fulfilling that responsibility.
"Please stop with the "Trump is a fascist” meme”
Arguing about this is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Defining Trumpism by what it it as opposed to what America was created to be is all that ought to be necessary.
You are correct is saying that Trump is a symptom of an idea which has been a part of the American political landscape as long as we’ve been a nation. There have always been and will always be those among us who are unhappy with the essential messiness and inefficiency of democratic government. Further, as international complexity and interconnectedness increase, there will also always be those who seek the simplistic answers that demagogues like Trump are always all too eager to supply. But arguing over what to call it, beside it’s essence, which is simply Trumpism, is a wasted effort.
Oh sure, the Dems could have screwed it up anyway, but Biden could have at least given Harris a fighting chance.
I’m not excusing Biden for his egocentricity, which in its destructive way equaled Trump’s, nor the Democratic establishment for hanging onto him for as long as they did. And Harris did have a fighting chance (and yes, I voted for her as well). But IMO that’s not what cost her the election. Her polling was actually a bit on the slide from its high point by the time of the election.
My sense is that her problem was twofold. Unlike what so many on the right were saying, she did have a clear agenda, which she articulated. But she did not distance herself enough from those Biden policies which were unpopular and, in truth, I still don’t think there is enough support in some substantial quarters for the idea of a woman (let alone one of color) running the show to really put one clearly over the top.
Clinton did win the popular vote in 2016, but given the clear awfulness of Trump’s first campaign, any competent Democrat should have won by a large enough margin to have overcome the Electoral College.
Thanks, James, I couldn’t agree with you more. We will never know, but it’s possible that Harris lost the election when in that one late interview she said she wouldn’t change a thing that Biden did. You could hear the sound of droves of people walking away after losing faith in her. It was sad.
And, yeah, Clinton was probably the only person who could have lost to Trump. It’s sad how myopic the Democratic Party has been.
I’ve always thought Biden should have run in 2016. I’ve heard some of the controversy surrounding the decision to run Clinton although it’s hard to know exactly what happened. But I strongly suspect he could have beaten Trump handily. His older son’s death surely had a hand in his decision but apparently Obama had a hand in it as well.
I agree that myopia is a central Democratic problem (It’s a Republican one as well in a different way, one of the reasons I’ve always been an Independent myself), but I also think that much of the blame for our current predicament is down to our ossified binary political party system in which party loyalty has so often trumped (the word is intentional) what might have been best for the country. The Framers understood the danger in this, then they went right ahead and initiated it anyway. One of our two Original Sins.
What do you see as solutions?
It’s easier to state than to enact, which is why people settle for memes and slogans rather than commit to the hard work. But I talk a bit about the approach we need to take here: https://imnotyourechochamber.substack.com/p/what-being-left-wing-actually-means
Again, argumentative words, aka BS, no proposed solution, nothing constructive.
IF you want solutions: https://imnotyourechochamber.substack.com/p/what-being-left-wing-actually-means then get to work, old man!
I can lead you to the truth, but I can’t make you think. If all you have is empty words, then good day, sir.
Wow, it must be such a satisfying thing for you to write off lots of people because they don’t have time to read your substack. You have no idea how much Old Man has already worked, and your words are not respectful. I could say the same thing to you: Your words so far are empty of action.
And you have no idea how much I have already worked. Don’t assume disagreement is ignorance.
And if you can’t be bothered to click a link and read, you have no basis for saying someone else is empty of action.
I attend protests, contribute to causes I believe can help, support responsible journalism and will make my voice heard in the ballot box come November. These are the tools available to concerned citizens The fact that you feel the need to declare "w/o BS" says everything one needs to know about you. What is your truth, telling everyone they are wrong, you are right? You have a good day.
My truth is in what I write, encouraging real work for social justice, not mere sloganeering. https://imnotyourechochamber.substack.com/
To think, 10 years ago, America had a "deal" with Iran which stopped enrichment of high grade uranium, removed what they had already and allowed onsite inspections.
That would look like an incredible win rn, but Trump threw it all away for nothing. What a crappy dealmaker.
Yes. Dump threw it away because he hates Obama and refused to give him a “win.” Only Dump is allowed to cut “deals.”
Thank you for this post. In a strange way it is hopeful. I’m going to place my bet on the side of ordinary Americans and their courage to resist this ugly takeover in process.💔🇺🇸🙏🏻
Did Trump speak about the war in Ukraine in his SOTU Address!?! If so, what did he say?
Feb 24th marks the 4th Anniversary of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine that Trump claimed he would end in "one day" - it's now day 1,462.
Due to the resilience and resistance of the Ukrainian people and their Freedom Fighters, although exhausted, they are still standing tall. They are the true guardians of democracy. No surrender!
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦 🌻 🕊
Thank you. Hoping Trump finds a way to TACO on Iran.
Taking care of my time, I did not watch too much of the speech. But I certainly have read and watched enough excellent commentary on it (including Prof. Snyder’s) to know what its tenor was. I did happen to see one episode which I think perfectly encapsulated both the speech and indeed beyond it, the 2nd Trump Presidency. He awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor to a seriously injured U.S. servicemember who sustained his wounds while participating in the totally illegal kidnapping of the President of a foreign country who, apparently, will remain imprisoned indefinitely, with or without trial, in Trump's United States.
If Trump wants to invade Iran, the results will be very bad. Many of us remember Iraq and Afghanistan. Was the invasion of these countries worth the American snd allied lives we lost? These wars were not popular and invading Iran will not be welcomed. But, Professor Snyder, those of us who are from Queens are tired of implications that Queens people need the affirmation of wealthy people from Manhattan. Trump has his own issues. I grew up in the same neighborhood as Simon and Garfunkel and many other thoughtful and successful people. They didn’t need to be part of any particular wealthy group. Many of us are, and always have been, Democrats or moderate Republicans, more concerned with taking care of our families than with attending the Met Gala. Queens is now one of the most diverse areas in the United States. Trump’s problems are his own.
In light to the horrors Drumpf has wreaked on democracy, it is perhaps anti-climatic to realize that history will probably remember the grift first, and the fascism second. Certainly that is true of the mixture of corruption and lawless imperialism in US history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Your column reduces him to his true state, floundering, unintelligent, crass, venal, and above all, incompetent.
When Trump posed his gotcha question--If you think the first responsibility of a POTUS is to US citizens or to illegal aliens, stand up--both Hitler and Stalin leapt to their feet. Simply shift "US citizens" to "white, Christian, legacy Americans" and illegal aliens to Jews or Ukrainian peasants.
The first duty of a US president is to the US Constitution.
Thank you, Professor Snyder. Your thoughts on Fascism are timely, and it behooves the reader to
take this warning seriously. The reason for this warning is very clear: America has a Fascistic leader, supported by an incompetent, sycophantic group. The danger lurks in every corner of this present group...he (der Fuehrer) could not do it alone. For the past 10 years, he has had the time, with the assistance of others, to hone his fascistic tendencies...the interruption of four years by the Democratic leadership just gave him more time...to surround himself with liars and thieves.
Writing morning after state of union. He was his usual awful self. I said I would not watch, but was tuned into MS NOW for rebuttal, ... so of course I watched his fiasco of a speech. Timothy is correct, that he wants and needs a war, to prove to himself and his sycophants, that he is strong and powerful. I expected LIES; as he breathes, he lies, blaming the Dems for all he has done. I think he is too much a coward, to actually get us into a ground war, but may fire a few missiles as he did before. By saying that, I do not mean that a strong, brave man is needed to decide war -- what is needed, is brains, thoughtfulness, a reason to go to war, ... not one's ego.
My overwhelming sadness last night, was the degradation of the wounded, the grieving, the heroes, that were USED to promote his own ego. Some of those people deserved a medal, ... but wrong time, wrong place, wrong purpose. He USED them to pump himself up, ... that he CARES about them. (these are the suckers and losers, he called them, before).
They were USED for his pompous circus, ... and that saddens me terribly.
Keep up the fight, People. We CAN stop this authoritarianism becoming fascism. Time-consuming, boring, but the rule of law is our weapon ... and our vote.
Trump may be stuck but the billionaires that back his fascist program are still there pushing their evil agenda.