There’s a fair bit of truth in a recent opinion piece in the New York Times by Ezra Klein analyzing Trump’s first two weeks in office, titled “Don’t Believe Him”. It’s well worth listening to, thinking about, and discussing.
Klein says Trump’s strategy is to “flood the zone”- a Bannonesque “muzzle velocity” plan of issuing a flurry of executive orders and pronouncements to overwhelm, intimidate and defeat opposition. The aim being to create the illusion that Trump’s regime appears all powerful and so is. The piece also points to some of the real weaknesses that lay underneath this plan.
I would add some other thoughts however.
These fascists are serious about arrogating complete power to themselves by fiat- based on executive order, threats, and pronouncements, overwhelming opposition. This IS very dangerous. It’s a fascist program of destroying the rule of law, making white supremacy, mysoginy and American chauvinism the unquestioned mode of rule. It is already leading, to real horrors, and will lead to many more. And it holds even a genocidal potential, if it continues and is allowed to consolidate and escalate.
But these fascists also have real problems in accomplishing this. They are seeking to “flood the zone” and demonstrate command. But command will only be accomplished if people acquiesce to it and bow down.
So I believe the lesson is not simply “Don’t Believe Him”, as Klein says. But understand what they are seeking to do, understand the weaknesses that lay underneath it, and act in united opposition.
If people speak out, oppose it in every way possible, and unite to resist in every sphere-and hopefully quickly-coming into mass resistance, fascism can fail.
A Few Observations to Consider
Like the Nazis, these Trumpian fascists are seeking to destroy people’s ability to understand or have the tools to figure out what the truth is. They want to replace using evidence to determine the truth with Trump’s and other leading fascists “common sense”. In other words, stuff they make up or that simply reflects their bias and serves their political needs.
Like the Nazis, they are brutal aggressors with no compassion for anyone who are not like them. They hold a disdain and hatred for people of color, anything that smacks of intellectual thought or reason, and an arrogance toward non-Americans.
Like the Nazis, they are filled with arrogant hubris about their ability to fool people, to frighten and intimidate them into silence, and to rule over them like dictators, Gods or Kings. Like the Nazis, they are fully willing- and already moving to-use extreme repression by the “legal system”, the police, the prisons, and the military to crush opponents.
At the core of this American fascist project as well is a deep mysoginy and a lunatic Biblical literalist/dark-ages conception of how society must be remade, even as some of them-(such as Trump or Musk) have no religious belief of any kind.
Unlike the Nazis, they are less fully unified around a core fascist ideology, or an extreme program of seizing land, territory and domination for expanding the “living space” (Lebensraum) of the “volk” of their nation, spreading their empire though war. They could care less about “the volk”- in this case the MAGA base. To the fascist Trumpians, the MAGA base are simply willing tools to be manipulated, used and abused as a stepping stone for their own wealth, domination and power. Many among them are mainly out to expand ultimate personal wealth and power and willing to use absolute corruption in grabbing it for themselves as opposed to belief in a core philosophy
In terms of Trump especially, he is as much motivated by a desire to get revenge on his enemies and crush them to win in a personal narcisstic drive, as by anything he actually believes in. Yet, there are a mix of varied interests and motivations among this fascist cabal, some with more ability to plan and scheme or think things through than others.
Although they have an arrogant, imperialist conception of American power and empire, America’s power and empire is in steep decline, and at least at this time, there is little thirst among the populace broadly for sending American troops into war. In this lack of a steel core ideology or vision, is a weakness, a certain use of bluster as power that reveals also a strategic weakness. There is also however a real danger in this, because Trumpists are possibly even more likely than past U.S. imperialists to use nuclear weapons as a means of defeating rivals. And imperialist rivalry, especially with China, will likely escalate.
Like the Nazis as well, Trump’s fascism is an outgrowth of capitalism, rooted deeply in the entire history, development, and ethos of the society’s it springs from, and also as a very extreme version or form of rule that replaces the appearance (not essence) of democracy, free speech, individual rights, and formal rule of law, with open, terroristic dictatorship relying on force and violence to crush opposition.
Some of the Problems and Weaknesses for the Trumpers
If Trump’s regime goes ahead with threats to fire or lay off thousands of civil service employees who carry out the bureaucracy of writing the checks and administering health services, medicare, social security or any of the other daily tasks of the federal government to try to put in their place only fascist loyalists, who will replace them? What if any actual skills or ability will any of these people have to run the operations of governments that is necessary to provide any stability to people’s lives? What chaos could ensue from this?
As the CDC, FDA, etc. are purged, and anti-science types like RFK run the instruments governing people’s health and welfare, what costs will result? What new pandemics will spread, or even run amuck? How many will be poisoned by complete failure to monitor or prepare for, or even warn people as standards of safety are tossed aside? What further airplane crashes will result if Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” slashes funding, removes experts and guts airline safety measures to cut costs?
As “drill, baby, drill” and unchecked logging of our forests that Trump is trying to install rips forward, the further unraveling of earth’s ecosystems and life support systems will only increase, with increasing chaos from massive storms, more powerful wildfires such as the recent burning of parts of LA, and growing chaos.
Will Trump’s arrogant tariffs against not only America’s enemies but it’s trading partners succeed in bludgeoning them into deals more favorable or will they lead to a trade war and increasing economic chaos, price rises, etc. ? How much of is bluster, for show?
Will their racist plans to mass deport immigrants-even send them to Guantanamo Bay concentration camps, lead to acquiescense and the appearance of victory to Trump’s racist base, or economic chaos as whole industries that depend on immigrant labor are hamstrung and grind to a halt?.
And instead of ruling by fear and crushing opposition, will mass deportation attempts instead lead to massive resistance among immigrants, their allies, people of conscience, and refusal from churches, schools, some local governments, etc. to allow ICE to steal people away, and an undermining of the appearance of fascist power? Or all of the above? This is very likely to be a very back and forth and chaotic process. Resistance does appear already to be building in this sphere.
Will Trump orders to install “patriotic education”, whitewashing America’s history of slavery, genocide of native peoples, Jim Crow lynching, police murder and mass incarceration of people of color, succeed in brainwashing millions of youth to obey and follow? Remembering, this is already a generation, of at least many millions, who have witnessed Gaza genocide on social media and hate it, who often have friends of different nationalities and gender identities and are in general more progressive than their elders. Or instead will the attempted brainwash raise up hatred and mass rejection among this generation and the next?
Will the attempts to install an even more virulent, thoroughly, white supremacist, woman-hating society than even the “normal” forms this has taken throughout American history, raise up a storm of opposition from Black people, other oppressed nationalities, from women?
None of these things are decided, but by understanding what the fascists are seeking to do, the real danger, but also the real weaknesses and potential for a whole different thing to be brought forward, and the possibility of different sections of people to unite against fascism, there is real potential to turn this around and defeat it, if we act.
But I would add, time is not necessarily on our side. We can’t sit back and wait. Consolidating fascism can attain a momentum whereby it becomes much harder, if not impossible to defeat it, or even oppose it. We have to act now, and spread resistance.
Also, anyone who thinks, “this will be a bad 4 years but I’ll just keep my head down and try to make it through” is living an illusion. If fascism consolidates, it will be horrific, and it will not hold a free and fair election again, even as relatively unfair as the past several have been, (if voter suppression and intimidation of officials are taken into account). Trump and his backers have already proven a disdain for fair elections, and that they will go to any lengths to hold onto power. This will be the case even more in 2028 than in 2020, if they are fully able to consolidate fascist rule.
For the Planet and Humanity 