Fascism: Are We There Yet? - Part III

We are 58 percent along the road to a full fascist rule. And with 1317 days to go in Trump's second term, there's plenty of time to complete the plan.

c/o 2025 moonwalker5212

This week, ICE tackled and cuffed the senior senator from California. This comes on the heels of the feds arresting a Wisconsin judge, indicting a New Jersey congresswoman, arresting the mayor of Newark, and an aide to Congressman Jerry Nadler in his office. All of the targets are Democrats. Now, with Trump having deployed 4,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles — with 700 Marines on standby — in response to largely peaceful protests, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem declared, “We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and burdensome leadership that this governor and this mayor have placed into this city.”

It’s time again to ask, “Is Fascism here yet?”

The short answer is “Yes.” The more nuanced answer is “It’s a mixed bag, but it has been steadily creeping up on us. And the speed is accelerating.”

I’ve been monitoring fascistization of America since Trump’s first term. This is installment three of my full assessments. If I write a fourth, it will be from a federal prison cell. Yes, that’s how far we are along the slippery slope to jackboot rule.

As Madeleine Albright explained in her book, Fascism: A Warning, “Fascism is not an ideology; it’s a process for taking and holding power.” After bumbling around in Trump’s first term, his political machine has more or less gotten its act together to methodically impose fascist control over the United States in accordance with a spanking new operator’s manual called “Project 2025.” This detailed 920-page manifesto lays out a fast-paced plan to accrue power, starting with politicizing the civil service, neutering the judicial system, and persecuting foes. It’s all there in plain sight.

With only 152 days into Trump’s second term, Project 2025 Tracker shows that 58 percent of Project 2025’s key goals have already been completed — 313 total with 99 accomplished and 63 in progress. For example, administration goals to transform the Justice Department are 61 percent complete; my former employer, the State Department, is further along at 75 percent magafied. There are 1317 days to go in this term, ample time to bring about full-on fascism in America. OMB’s Russell Vought (author of Project 2025) is seeing to it like the diligent reichskommissar he is.

CIVICUS, an NGO dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society, states that “The USA is experiencing what can only be described as a technocratic coup, rooted in far-right authoritarian ideology. . . Trump is attempting to centralize power in a 21st-century US variant of fascism, backed by a white nationalist ideology and largely based on Project 2025.”

In his book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, historian Timothy Snyder provides us with handy clues to help us understand how Trump and his MAGA allies have gotten us to where we are today:

A fascist guide to commentary on elections would have eight parts: contradict yourself to test the faith of your followers; tell a big lie to draw attention from basic realities; manufacture a crisis; designate enemies; make an appeal to pride and humiliation; express hostility to voting; cast doubt on democratic procedures; and aim for personal power.

I’d add another key element: purge your ranks of all opposition. The Republican Party has become little more than a vassal state of Trumpland.

A close examination of the current political state of play disturbingly shows the scales favoring fascism.

Trumpism has in its favor:

• Charismatic autocratic leader.

• Victimhood, grievance and turning tables on the Democrats — “Stolen election!” “Antifa!” “Radical left!”

• Powerful propaganda machine - Fox, OAN, Breitbart, etc.

• A number of media companies, law firms and universities Trump has made subservient to him.

• Social fissures – inequality, white grievance, populism to exploit.

• Purged and cowed Republican Party.

• A cabinet comprised of unquestioning sycophants.

• Weak opposition - an unpopular Democratic Party.

• Martyrs and heroes: Ashli Babbitt, Rittenhouse, Jan. 6 “political prisoners/hostages.”

• Mass derangement - QAnon: akin to Germany’s Weimar period.

• Creeping election subversion and voter suppression.

• An attempted putsch portrayed as a peaceful protest by “patriots.”

• Packed Supreme Court.

• Dark money - lots of it.

Trumpists lack:

• Even a semi-coherent ideology. Art of the Deal is no Mein Kampf. The magafied GOP relies primarily on white grievance and racism.

• Competence - Trump’s tariffs, RFK Jr’s policies, Hegseth’s chaotic DoD, etc.

• Strong popular support as reflected in dwindling favorability poll numbers.

• Unified paramilitary – though groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, militias and the J6 releasees as well as the proliferation of guns provides a foundation to build on.

• Dire economic conditions and a breakdown in social order to exploit – though Trump is doing his best to bring both about.

There are still crucial steps the MAGA planners must accomplish in the process of alignment that the Nazis called gleichschaltung, leading to “unitary executive” power centered in the president, before they can fulfill the conditions for suspending the Constitution and declaring martial law, if that becomes necessary. These include fully subduing the courts and the military as well as intimidating Democrats with force. These constitute the chief obstacles to the fascistization of America. Threats against judges and Trump’s gathering of politicized Trump-loyal Army troops at a staged event at Fort Bragg this week work in this direction. But, uncertain that senior military officers will obey illegal orders, such as firing on civilians, more work needs to be done to purge those ranks. The same goes for purging “activist judges who meddle in government affairs.” Muscling Democrats has already begun, as noted, as have efforts to exert control over civil society institutions and Blue-leaning jurisdictions. There’s little worry any more about recalcitrant Republicans. As Senator Lisa Murkowski said, “We’re all afraid.”

So, when will the MAGA Reich be proclaimed and its strongman leader be able to bellow, in Benito Mussolini’s words, “We have buried the putrid corpse of liberty”?

Hard to say. But as I said, there are 1317 more days to work on it.