While Americans watch football or Dancing With the Stars, Donald Trump is building a wall. The name of the wall is fascism, and he’s surrounding himself with it one block at a time, seemingly with impunity.
In her book Fascism: A Warning, Madeleine Albright outlines the gradual ascent to power of the 20th and 21st centuries’ most destructive fascists, from Mussolini to Maduro and Duterte. Trump’s actions follow this progression, more boldly in recent months. Helped by Attorney General Barr, Trump has circumvented or flouted the rule of law and the authority of Congress. He discredits mainstream news reporting and the intelligence community, and packs the lower courts with sycophants. He consorts with our enemies and allegedly suppressed a whistleblower complaint crucial to national security and fair elections.
Apparently, few are disturbed by Trump’s push to consolidate power in the Oval Office at the expense of democracy. The Democrats appear to be impotent, lacking the will to take decisive action in the face of overt and demonstrable high crimes and misdemeanors. Republicans are complicit in their silence. We’re on our own.
The American people stood against President Nixon after the Watergate break-ins, and hit the streets to protest the Vietnam War. Now, the Democracy Project survey reported that only 40% of millennials and Gen Z value democracy. So for those of us who find Trump’s affinity for fascism abhorrent, it’s time to become activists, pushing Congress to impeach, the only way to hold Trump accountable.
CHRISTINE HAGUE
Weare