Last night I had hoped to never have to write Trump’s name again. Perhaps I’ll just call him Grover Cleveland II.
One expert is warning that the United States is about to enter a period of “American fascism,” in which both Americans and American institutions will be under constant attack.
That’s according to City University of New York journalism professor Jeff Jarvis, who recently authored a Medium essay entitled: “How F—ed Are We?” Jarvis wrote that Americans can expect “vast tragedy and destruction” over the next four years assuming President-elect Donald Trump intends to enact his campaign promises. He began his essay by emphasizing that blame for Trump’s victory shouldn’t lie at the feet of Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he argued “did everything she possibly could to win.”
“The fault is in our nation. We must come to the realization that America is deeply racist and sexist, incapable of electing a Black, Asian woman to its highest office because of our culture’s innate, widespread, and unreconciled bias and hatred,” Jarvis wrote. “That is the root of it. That is the weed that will now grow unkempt no matter how much media wish to groom the nation to make us look as if it were not so. Its aims of oppression will grow daily.”
[…]
“This election was my hope that we could find a different way, to rebuild not from the ashes but from where we stood. Now I am not sure,” he added. “What is ultimately broken is not the set of institutions the extremists are trying to destroy but instead our nation itself. Until we face its faults of racism, sexism, and inequity we will never be finished fighting our war, our endless Civil War.”
Expert lays out scope of ‘vast tragedy and destruction’ as Trump ushers in ‘American fascism’ https://t.co/yheBDYyWri
— AlterNet (@AlterNet)November 6, 2024
“You know, the question is, what the Republican Party looks like now,” Baier said. “It’s a multiracial party, to your point, it’s working class, and maybe it’s the future. I mean, it’s Elon Musk. It is Joe Rogan and podcasts.”
“Trump will claim a popular mandate for everything he does,” @AdamSerwer writes. “But there is no constitutional mandate for authoritarianism.” https://t.co/AlVTcXPFrx
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic)November 6, 2024
The assumption that Mr. Trump represented an anomaly who would at last be consigned to the ash heap of history was washed away on Tuesday night by a red current that swept through battleground states — and swept away the understanding of America long nurtured by its ruling elite of both parties.
No longer can the political establishment write off Mr. Trump as a temporary break from the long march of progress, a fluke who somehow sneaked into the White House in a quirky, one-off Electoral College win eight years ago. With his comeback victory to reclaim the presidency, Mr. Trump has now established himself as a transformational force reshaping the United States in his own image.
Populist disenchantment with the nation’s direction and resentment against elites proved to be deeper and more profound than many in both parties had recognized. Mr. Trump’s testosterone-driven campaign capitalized on resistance to electing the first woman president.
And while tens of millions of voters still cast ballots against Mr. Trump, he once again tapped into a sense among many others that the country they knew was slipping away, under siege economically, culturally and demographically.
[…]
As a result, for the first time in history, Americans have elected a convicted criminal as president. They handed power back to a leader who tried to overturn a previous election, called for the “termination” of the Constitution to reclaim his office, aspired to be a dictator on Day 1 and vowed to exact “retribution” against his adversaries.
Umberto Eco wrote a 1995 @nybooks essay called “Ur-Fascism” in which he named 14 features of fascism. He said only one need be present for fascism to coagulate around it. Trumpism as currently practiced in the US hits all 14. Every one.
