Fascism. It’s about time Americans got as comfortable with that 'F word' as they are with the other one. A two-tiered system of US fascism is emerging: 'fascism-lite' for most people, and full-blown repression for stigmatized 'Others' - Black, Indigenous, and people of color, the undocumented, and those protesting the government and police. Americans must call fascism by its name even if it’s not hitting all of us - yet.
Just because Trump caught COVID-19 and Biden is favored to win the upcoming US Presidential Election doesn’t mean we have a reprieve from democratic backsliding. 'Fascist' is the descriptor of an increasingly consolidated corporate-oligarchical, racist, anti-democratic regime and of a violent movement that will endure no matter who triumphs on November 3rd.
Consider the new 'normal.' Despite a flurry of outrage in 2019 the US government is still separating migrant children from their parents and imprisoning them in squalid concentration camps. In Portland, Oregon, in July, federal agents without badges or insignias forced protestors into unmarked cars and whisked them away. Right-wing vigilantes have repeatedly assaulted and killed peaceful protestors. Dozens of attacks involving vehicles plowing into demonstrations have taken place, including as recently as September 23. Trump’s incitement is getting shriller. Remember: Mussolini and Hitler seized power when fascists and anti-fascists were battling in the streets.
