What It Takes to Stop Fascism
No, the "Illiberal Left" Is Not the Boogeyman. Let's Remember What's at Stake
Are you panicking? I'm panicking. Today is election day in the United States, something we've been waiting for since 2016. I have no idea how it will go. So if you came to this newsletter looking for a solid, confident prediction, sorry. I have some hopes and wishes, but that's it. It is nerve-wracking, and in the last few months we've seen major elections and votes across the world, with Jacinda Ardern securing reelection in New Zealand, the people of Bolivia voting out the people who staged a coup against Evo Morales in 2019, and Chileans casting ballots in favor of scraping the Pinochet dictatorship-era constitution. All of that is fantastic news, but doesn't offer a prediction to tonight's outcome.
(A polling location in 1900; photo is fair use via Wikimedia Commons)
But one thing is clear and it's that so many of our rich pundits and “strategists” and “experts” still don't get is that this isn't about manners. This isn't about Donald Trump being an aberration and that the country needs to return to normal. This is fascism. This is an election about stopping state-level fascist tyranny. Is Joe Biden an ideal candidate, a progressive paragon or even a more center-leaning figure who is coming around to the times? Not really. Even some of his answers on climate change or taxation, while better than some other establishment leaders, feel outdated to some of the things said 20 years ago. Yet so many pundits, when not treating this as sport, are seeing Trump as a singular figure, rather than as part of a culmination of the last 40 years, the end result of Ronald Reagan's corporatism, military jingoism and fervor in a simple good-versus-evil message. Trump is not doing his actions alone, he has so many people in so many departments carrying out his orders, from dropping the MOAB in Afghanistan to the use of Border Patrol special operations units in opposing protesters in cities such as Portland.
It just remains infuriating that so much of the strategy or the conventional wisdom seems so beholden to the right-wing of this country. The prognosis on what is at stake is wrong. From the Biden campaign itself to the PACs and organizations backing him, this election is about “decency” and character. Is Biden more humble, decent and empathetic than Trump? Of course! That is imminently obvious but that's not what this is about. Self-serving actors and less politically engaged people might see it that way, but that risks a further rightward slide, which threatens so many people. Look at the Lincoln Project, a group of highly paid consultants who helped enable the Iraq War, never apologized for it, who have posted racist and Islamophobic comments on social media, who steal content, they somehow are praised and are even getting a cushy media organization out of it after taking donations.
Meanwhile working class people and people of color have put their health, safety and bodies on the line to fight against police brutality, to fight for a living wage, to protest against the brutality of DHS. But no, praise the people who are silent on any real issue like the Supreme Court seat that the Senate rammed through a confirmation on, or poverty in the United States. Because they hate Trump's manners, not his policies.
This is an administration that in its first month on power enacted a Muslim ban where DHS employees went beyond the vaguely written order to detain people, force people to sign deportation papers and held people without right of attorney. In that first month Trump authorized a botched raid in Yemen (an undeclared war whose escalation goes back to Yemen) that resulted in the death of a SEAL but also an American girl (whose brother, another American citizen, was killed in a drone strike under Obama). The administration has lost 545 kids, after doing child separation, internment camps, and even forced hysterectomies, which counts as genocide under the United Nations' definition. It has been able to do that not because Trump is a genius or mastermind, but because so many of the hallowed institutions of this country went along with it, and he had a movement. Think about it. The coronavirus has killed more than 200,000 Americans. Millions have been pushed into poverty due to a lack of support and millions are hungry (let's put aside that poverty and hunger have been long-running issues). The Republican-controlled Senate blocked relief plans for months and adjourned before the election with no stimulus bill passed. We're heading into winter and people are going homeless, hungry and at risk of a disease the administration has actively downplayed or dismissed.
Many people, including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have noted that Trump himself might lose but similar neofascists, including ones with more polished rhetoric, are waiting in the wings. While many movements are singularly aligned against Trump this year and hopefully will defeat him, the neofascist and far-right wave that emerged in the last decade in large numbers isn't going away. To defeat that, you need to defeat the underlying causes of it. Inequality, lack of vision, Forever Wars and blanket militaristic nationalism. What can win? Policies that directly benefit people, like blocking evictions, providing checks during a pandemic, providing universal healthcare and forgiving student debt. The things that the American left advocates for, the things that other developed nations already do and are proven to work and pay for themselves. More “both sidesism” and appeals to hollow bipartisanship versus directly helping people only enables a more cunning fascist to rise to power.
Then there is this.
Is this the worst thing being written? No. Mounk is against Trump, he's not advocating racism or genocide or anything like this. But his reading of the current political landscape and priorities are baffling. Mounk is someone who rose to prominence after 2016, a kind of soothsayer of what democracy means and how to ease centrists afraid of both the boogeymen of “populism” (AKA fascism) and socialism. It's the idea that politics is a noble, good faith field, where anyone trying to rock the boat one way or the other is bad.
In his thread on Twitter and his piece itself, Mounk points to the “illiberal left,” which he says excuses the violence of antifa. Mounk is against Trump, but what he sees as the bigger issue and trend is illiberalism. Censorship, political violence, all of that, that's what he is worried about. The “woke” left is a harbinger of that, but Biden presents the best chance to stop it, not Trump.
Ignoring Mounk's stance that “populism” in general is the issue—which so casually and dismissively ignores the difference between left- and right-wing populism, and continues the weird use of “populism” as a synonym for “fascism” that pundits and even mainstream news outlets have done since 2016—the idea that people might vote for Trump out of anger with the left is absurd. It's the written equivalent of Matt Bors' comic, except 100 percent serious. And more importantly, illiberalism is coming from the right, not the left. Blowhards getting criticized for racist or sexist views isn't censorship, it's criticism. The right has engaged in far more political violence. Trump has threatened to cut funding for schools and programs to challenge historical projects that examine the United States' foundation of racism and slavery .You want censorship and illiberalism? It's from the right. Look at who has been trying to do voter suppression this year.
Let's be clear: “Wokeness” is not worse than violence. Being held accountable and called out for bigotry, xenophobia or even factual errors when making a case for bigotry is not worse or even close to equal to the cruelty and intentional suffering being enacted by the Trump administration. Mounk's assertion that antifa operates solely through violence and not showing up to nonviolently oppose fascists, to be the wall protecting people from the threat of fascist violence as people been throughout the last four years in many instances, is wrong. Mounk's article and thread, such as they are, point to left-wing violence and Antifa, which he says Democrats must call out. Aside from being a gross misread of the anti-fascist movement and its history, he fails to bring up the far more violent and deadly record of right-wing violence. This very month it emerged that far-right proponents of a second civil war, the Boogaloo Boys, were responsible for police killings blamed initially on leftists.
Plus, so many leftist ideas are popular. Medicare for All? A majority favor it per polls. Do you realize how popular student debt forgiveness is?
If Trump loses, it's not going to be because of the “intolerable left.” One side wants healthcare and higher taxes on the rich. The other is pushing for white nationalism and is using state and paramilitary violence to achieve it. The trends that have enabled the last four years, that can only be countered with solutions, not centrist vagueness.
Politics is direct action and mobilization and power. Poland is seeing massive turnout and strikes in the wake of an abortion ban. France had long-running protests against service cuts. The idea of a general strike somehow has not taken much hold in the United States, but the tools of the people to directly engage in politics beyond just voting are there.
A better world is possible. It just takes political will and a vision.
This Week's Panic Reading
Like I mentioned earlier, there are dark times ahead of the United States no matter who wins. Jeff Stein over at the Washington Post dived into the full depth of those horrors.
Discourse Blog also has a great piece up today about what the long-term struggle will be.
The Intercept looked into the enduring trauma and legacy of Trump’s border wall project. I highly recommend this.
Also I want to apologize for the lapse in the newsletter. A combination of freelance work, my 30th birthday, personal matters and the like took my attention elsewhere. I will hopefully be more regular with this, and go back to some film posts soon.
This Week's Panic Music
As we go into the election, I wish you all only the best. Like I said, I can't predict how it will go. Be safe. Be prepared for the worst. But remember, as Woody Guthrie sang, the fascists are bound to lose.