Fighting fascism – Day Fifty-Three – A Reckoning

In my initial blog, written after the inauguration on January 21, 2025, I stated: “The new American administration intends to constrain civil liberties, freedom of speech, and opposition. It will remove economic opportunities for those who are not already rich and protections for minorities. It plans to undermine the nation’s education system, health care system, social safety net, and other institutions that provide support and reassurance to the average person. It will try to reverse efforts to protect the environment. It will “deregulate” or, in other words, remove guardrails that prevent the greedy from further ravaging our land, people, and spirit. It seeks to orient the justice system to protect the interests of the few rather than everyone and to weaken the rule of law. It will more readily resort to violence. It will try to undermine our democracy. It will try to stay in power forever. This is fascism.”

The question for today is how far along have we slipped towards fascism in the U.S.? As I wrote in an earlier blog post, I have been counting the days since the inauguration of the current president because Adolf Hitler was able to establish his fascist regime in 53 days. Well, today’s blog on Day 53 is a reckoning.

The good news is that we are nowhere near where Hitler stood 53 days after he was appointed chancellor. He was able to take advantage of weak opposition, a constitution he twisted to his ends, economic and social chaos and a well-organized and loyal party base to essentially establish a fascist regime. I do not believe that the U.S. have fallen that far yet, although we have certainly made a lot of “progress” in the wrong direction. The administration has successfully taken action on many fronts that represent a definite slip towards fascism.

• The administration’s purge of the civil service and the witch hunt of those in the Department of Justice and the FBI appear to be proceeding according to plan.
• The dismantling of USAID and other federal agencies has left thousands unemployed, key programs in tatters, and beneficiaries bereft of much needed and promised assistance.
• The defunding of scientific research and the removal of data sets from the public view. The emasculation of the CDC. All this will contribute to an attack on the health of the American public.
• DOGE has been one of the most controversial actors put in play by the administration, what with the unequal power and responsibility that has been given to Elon Musk, an individual who has not been vetted by any government institution.
• Deportations seem to be proceeding more slowly than expected, but the administration will certainly want to do everything it possibly can to accelerate. In any case, the fear that has been spread throughout the immigrant community is tremendous.
• Trans persons have been singled out as being practically inhuman.
• The continuous onslaught on free speech has been crowned with a particularly egregious act: undermining the right to protest at universities. Behind flimsy excuses that this is in fact a call to combat antisemitism, we know that the freezing of grants to Columbia and threats to other universities is just a test case for squashing any future student protest.
• The U.S. government’s attempt to silence Mahmoud Khalil, a peaceful protester, by stripping him of his legal residency and deporting him. This is an attack on the First Amendment that sets a particularly dangerous precedent.
• The administration has literally turned the international order on its head as the president demonstrates over and over again that he is in fact a Russian asset. Allies are re-assessing their relationship with the U.S., bracing for trade wars, considering the potential end of a world order that was established by the U.S., and reeling in disgust as they watch the U.S. drift towards fascism. The irony is that this administration may end up becoming the great unifier of Europe. Of note: We’ve learned that there are a number of American researchers that have asked the Marseille-Aix University to accept their applications.
• The list goes on.

The Democratic Party has not yet stepped up to truly play the role of an opposition party. But there have been many actions taken across the country to protest the administration’s fascist tendencies. Boycotts and demonstrations, disruptive townhall meetings, a vibrant resistance movement at local levels, mostly theme oriented, and the development of media sources that are outside the mainstream. Bernie Sanders and others have been holding rallies all over the country as part of a “Stop the Oligarchy Tour”. State level authorities in California, Oregon, Minesota and New York appear to be taking the lead on many issues, although there are also states that are at the forefront of eroding democracy (Florida, Texas, and others that have restricted voting rights, for example).

The court system has been fully mobilized to fight the administration’s constitutional overstep. According to the litigation tracker, 119 cases are currently winding their way through the justice system, many led by a grouping of state attorneys. These cases are challenging everything from the very existence of DOGE to the constitutionality of executive orders on birthright citizenship, punishment of sanctuary cities, expedited deportation, disclosure of personal and financial information, defunding of USAID, termination of probationary employees, the ban of transgender individuals serving in the military, immigration enforcement at schools and places of worship, denying press access to the White House, banning of DEI programs, removal of information from websites, actions against FBI/DoJ employees, as well as many others.

There have been some wins, but time is working against us. The administration is aggressively carrying out its self-anointed “mandate” and not waiting for (and might not have any intention of complying with) the results of these cases. There have been some bright lights, such as the recent Supreme Court case and that of lower courts that have challenged the cancelling of foreign aid. The trillions of dollars question: will/can the administration ignore these rulings? If they do, that will be a clear indication that fascism is taking hold. The administration has requested the Supreme Court to rule on the executive order regarding birthright citizenship – it will be very telling how it rules on this.

Will it take 100 days rather than 53? I’ll stop counting but will continue to post blogs. I have encouraged readers to resist in any way they can and even take small steps – every day: writing or phoning congresspersons and state delegates to express disfavor on select issues, engaging in boycotts, signing petitions, attending demonstrations and townhall meetings, talking to strangers and focusing on both the local and the national, and supporting organizations that are taking on the fight. Of course, at this point, it is easy to get discouraged. However, they expect us to “roll over and play dead” – the infamous advice of James Carville. The goal of attacks on free speech, for example, is largely to get Americans to self-censor. If we collectively refuse to do so, then these attacks on the First Amendment will fail. We must continue to resist. We can’t depend on anyone else to do this for us.