Comrade Meerpol wrote, "... the other danger from Trump is that he has created a ROAD MAP for the next fascist to steal the next election --- If he escapes unpunished (the way Biden is leaning) there will be no stopping the next fascist --- "
If Trump can overcome his looming legal problems and sets up a constant feedback loop that the media buys into, then we run the danger of his supporters being transformed into a cohesive social movement with political heft and influence. A movement that sets its sights on blocking everything and anything that Biden attempts and that looks toward taking back the 7-seat majority in the House in 2022 (something very doable). In short, we are nowhere near being off the hook either politically or health-wise. If Trump stays in the game he freezes the Republican Party in regard to 2024. Which means he dominates Republican Party politics right through the mid-terms. The Democrats, meanwhile, are left with a country where, thanks to Trump, some 50 million or more believe Biden is illegitimate and should be left for dead. And while we have dodged the bullet of a Trump coup, the last month if not the last four years has revealed a United States that *could* slip into authoritarian rule much easier than most of us previously thought. We have seen a mainstream Republican Party willing if not eager to discard democratic and constitutional norms. A contemporary frieze of the GOP would reveal it to be in transition to a “fighting party,” a quasi-insurrectionary political organization dedicated to the overthrow of any Democratic administration and loosely but irretrievably tied to armed groups in the street. We have seen local and state officials, Republicans, readily accede to Trump’s authoritarian instincts often time surpassing him in his zeal. We have seen all the structural and legal flaws in an electoral system that is beyond obsolete and quite vulnerable to high jacking and mischief. No national election standard. No central nonpartisan election authority. A ridiculous primary system granting extraordinary power to two small unrepresentative states and then leading to a truly absurd electoral college that makes exactly zero sense today and that our political class has zero intention of getting rid of it. And worse of all, there is a significant shift in popular consciousness after four years of this ghastly regime. We now have tens of millions of Americans who Trump has liberated from any notion of a social contract or any commitment to anything bigger than themselves. For proof of that statement, take a look out your window at the zombies walking around without masks. Or those who still proclaim the pandemic a hoax. This Trump constituency floats free in the air, unencumbered by most of reality. Who knows if they will disperse, or if they we will gel into something coherent, or maybe they will splinter like a dropped glass jar. At a minimum, for half the population, Trump has successfully redefined liberty and freedom as doing whatever the fuck YOU want to do with no regard for the consequences to others. Or as the Trumpies like to sloganize: Fuck Your Feelings. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#4864): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/4864 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/79226820/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
