Do you really think fascism is coming to America?

 

I have gone back and forth many times on the question of whether we are entering a period of fascism.  

If it is indeed true that we are entering a period of fascism, then we should focus all of our energy on defeating fascism.  That means that we have to build a democratic (small d) coalition large enough to defeat fascism.  This means that we have to put aside all of our other political disputes, embracing people we otherwise might not, in order to win them over to the side of democracy.  We have to accept them as they are, not try to change them, and make ourselves appealing to them.

So, for instance: if there are people who are anti-vaxxers, or people who question the origins of Covid and think it may have been intentionally designed in a lab, or who perhaps just think that people should be free to make their own medical choices, we have to welcome them into our movement.  If there are conspiracy theorists, in general, we have to welcome them into our movement.  If there are people who believe that aliens exist, and that they are walking around in human skinsuits, we have to welcome them into our anti-fascist movement.  We have to welcome all kinds of churches, including people that we regard as religious extremists into our anti-fascist movement.  We have to welcome drug addicts and drug dealers, like the Sackler family, into our anti-fascist movement.  We have to welcome the CEOs and boards of directors of major corporations into our anti-fascist movement.  We have to welcome Bloods and Crips and Young Lords into our anti-fascist movement.  We have to welcome people who are guilty of sexual perversion, deviancy, and impropriety into our anti-fascist movement.  We have to welcome people of all ethnicities into our anti-fascist movement.  We have to welcome astrologers and homeopaths and polyamorous people and Scientologists and Mormons and fans of Bill Maher and fans of Joe Rogan and fans of Anthony Jeselnik and even fans of Alex Jones into our anti-fascist movement.  (After all, many fans of Alex Jones should be your natural allies - they are always talking about resisting tyranny, stopping big government, and even opposing fascism.  Not all of them, obviously.)  Perhaps most troublingly of all, we have to welcome fans of smooth jazz and Coldplay and Nickelback and "This Is Us" into our anti-fascist movement.

We have to put all of our petty squabbles aside, to focus on this one enemy.  Don't worry, we can go right back to fighting each other after fascism is defeated.

I fear that this is not what the (big D) Democratic Party is doing.  I fear that, instead, Democrats are excluding larger and larger swaths of the American public, and saying, "You are not welcome here."  I see this most acutely in many Democrats' attitude towards RFK, Jr.  Now, I don't give a shit about RFK Jr., personally - indeed, I regard him as a joke.  But we must remember that in early polls in 2023, RFK was attracting a major segment even of registered Democrats - perhaps as high as 20%.  My fear is that, as RFK leaves the Democratic Party and joins the Trump administration, he takes some part of that constituency with him.  Ditto for Tulsi Gabbard and others.  We must convince the people who support these kinds of figures not only that there's a place for them in our big tent, not only that they are welcome to join us, but that there's a real interest for them in doing so.

I fear that some Democrats - a minority, most likely, but a loud, vocal minority - are more interested in purity testing prospective allies, acting as gatekeepers, and keeping them out of our antifascist movement.  

Will we all get along?  No, we will not.  It will be uncomfortable and annoying and irritating and aggravating and I for one will feel like strangling half of the people around me at all times.  Remember, an ally is just that - an ally - not a friend.  Alliances are temporary coalitions for the purpose of some pragmatic political goal.  They shift constantly, as political conditions and political aims change.  (One conclusion we must draw from this is that we must try to make it very clear, in our own minds at least, what our goals are.)

Think of previous struggles against fascism.  Like, the big one.  The United fricking States of America allied itself with the Union of Soviet Socialist fricking Republics.  Not to mention the Communist Party of China and the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) - this was known as "The Second United Front."  Diametrically opposed political enemies joined together to defeat the fascist menace.  

Since it doesn't have a clear definition, I am tempted to define fascism as a political movement to establish a government so horrendous that capitalists and communists will be compelled to work together to defeat it.  Capitalists will have to ally themselves with communists, and communists will have to ally themselves with capitalists.  Not an easy prospect in either direction, but necessary.

If you really think fascism is coming to America, we have to put aside all of our differences to combat it.  And if you are not willing to do this, I have to wonder whether you really believe that fascism is coming to the USA, or if that's just some bad faith rhetoric.