The Republican Party and the larger neofascist movement it represents are boldly, shamelesslyand relentlessly attacking American democracy. The campaign is nationwide and multi-spectrum: Almost every aspect of American society is being targeted. This includes basic understandings of reality and the truth, science and expertise, democratic institutions, education, public health, the environment, the economy, the free press and the First Amendment, civil and human rights, pluralism and secularism, and the social contract and the Common Good more generally.
These attacksalso involve political violence in its many forms, including the insurrection of Jan. 6 and the slow-rollingcoup attempt associated with it, a long history of stochastic terrorism, inspiring and unleashing right-wing street thugsand various other acts of violent intimidation and threats.
Journalist and author Jeff Sharlet recently offered an ominous observation on Twitter:
At this point, it's unremarkable. Most of us just roll our eyes, & even as we loathe this, accept it as inevitable. We've normalized Chekov's gun the one in the 1st act & we continue as if the next act isn't coming....
Many reassure themselves that the rightwing cosplayers with assault rifles aren't "real" soldiers. Neither was Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two. And, unfortunately, a fair number do have military training. The threat isn't apocalyptic, but it's real.
The Republican-fascistmovement's end goal is to reduce American society to rubble in order to rebuild it in their ownimage. Theywill not stop until they win or are comprehensively defeated and vanquished from public life.
There can and will be no compromise: The Republican-fascist movement sees its war against multiracial democracy as an existential struggle to protect "Westerncivilization"against "white genocide" or "replacement."
That no such thing is happening white people maintain control and dominance over every aspect of American society is irrelevant. Fascismis not based on the truth or reality; it is a self-contained lifeworld.
The Republican-fascist movement isso confident in its ultimate success that it announces its plans and intentions to the world. Why not? There is verylittle sustained opposition -- at least to this point. Joe Biden is president and the Democrats technically hold (exceedingly narrow) majorities in the House of Representatives and the U.S.Senate. But the Democrats' tenuous hold on power weakensunder the looming shadow of the Age of Trump. When the Republicans in all likelihood regain control of the House next year,that looming shadow may become a lead blanket.
It is a sad thing to see how theDemocrats have the Republican-fascist movement's playbook in their possession but are unwilling or incapable of using it themselves.
For at least five years, Donald Trump and his spokespeoplerepeatedly announced that he would not respect the results of any election if he did not win.
The fake "audit" in Arizona (coming soon toTexas and other states) is part of a much larger strategy of delegitimizingdemocracy and replacingit with a Republican-fascist autocracy.
For more than fiveyears a chorus of public voices, including mental health professionals, repeatedly warned America and the world that Trump was suffering from mental pathologies, and might be a sociopath or psychopath. They also observed that he feelscontempt for democracy, is an instinctivewhite supremacist, iscapable of destroying American society and the world in service to his own narcissism and rage,and that his presidency would lead to national or global disaster. All of that was true.
Democrats and the "resistance" also have access to the many books, articles, policy briefings, videos and other information that detail how for decades the Republican Party, "movement conservatives"and their allies have been planningto overthrowAmerica's multiracial democracy. Too many mainstream liberals and progressives convinced themselves that those plans were idle fantasy. The horrors are real.
Salon executive editorAndrew O'Hehir recently describedthe perilous position of the Democratic Party as it faces the Republican-fascist movement, first observing the Democrats' repeated pattern of winning electoral majorities and then failing to govern effectively:
More important than any of that, although absolutely related, is how Democrats have responded to the obvious Republican assault on democracy over the last couple of years, in the manner of a truckload of Brookings Institution scholars stuck in cold molasses, determined to consider all sides of the question fairly and not to let anyone accuse them of acting hastily. I'm not suggesting that Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer haven't expressed genuine alarm or said more or less the right things, because they have. But as you have perhaps observed, they haven't leveraged those words into action: They haven't ditched the filibuster or expanded the Supreme Court or passed any of the bills in front of them that are meant to fortify the right to vote, for the love of Jesus Christ.
This isn't a nice thing to say about a bunch of mostly sane and approximately reasonable people, but here's the truth: If you set out to design a left-center political party that was fated to surrender, little by little, to authoritarianism because of circumstances beyond its control, because of internal indecision and ideological fuzziness, because it faced an entrenched and deranged opposition party, because of whatever you could hardly do better than the current version of the Democratic Party.
If Democrats lose conclusively to those people, then they deserve it. That's a dark path, perhaps darker than any of us wants to contemplate. But I think there's no avoiding this date with destiny, for the Democrats or the Trumpers or our entire so-called democratic experiment. If you see another one, light the way.
As O'Hehir describes, the Democratic Party is hunkered down in its own version of the Maginot Line while the Republican-fascist movement has outmaneuveredandencircled them. What canthe Democrats do at this point to fight back and defend American democracy? First, they need to reorganize and rally their forces.
They must counter the Republican-fascist movement at every point across the political battle space. Corporeal politics are essential here: Democrats and other pro-democracy forces actually outnumber the fascist-Republican forces, but the latter are betterorganized, better financed, more clearly focused and possess a clearerunderstanding of optics andpropaganda. As a result, they are able to amplify their power far in excess of their actual level of public support.
At Trump's rallies, when his right-wing street thugs and other followers march and otherwise assert themselves;at public hearings and other political gatherings;and across society more generally, Americans who support democracy mustmake their presence feltin large numbers.
Corporeal politics in this moment of crisis will also necessitate a nationwide campaign of direct action, including sit-ins, protests, mass marches, a potential nationwide strikeand boycotts targeting the companies and individuals who finance the Republican Party, the right-wing propaganda machineand theneofascist movement.
Ultimately, because Joe Biden and the senior leaders of the Democratic Party appear unable, unwilling or unprepared to take the bold actions necessary to save American democracy for starters, ending the filibuster, expandingthe Supreme Courtand enacting laws that protect and guarantee the right to vote the American people must force them to act.
I am not prepared to succumb to defeatism yet. But at this point, wemustconfront the possibility and perhaps even probability that today's Democratic Party isfundamentally incapable of doing what is necessary to protect American democracy against the Republican-fascist movement.
In boxing and other combat sports there is the truism that "styles make fights."Today's Democratic Party and its leaders may simply not possess the style that is required to defeat the resurgent and highly organized forces of the right. Another lesson may be drawn fromboxing as well. Sometimes a once great fighter, perhaps on a subconscious level, wishes that the fight would just end. He is being pummeled by hisadversary andconvinces himself that being knocked to the canvasand left staring up at the lights will offera form of dignified relief.
I don't thinkthat the Democratic Party has quite reached that point.But based on its leaders' unwillingness tofight back effectively against the Republican-fascist movement, I worry that sooner or later and probably sooner the decision to surrender and negotiate a form of "peace in our time" will be made.
Continue reading here:
Democrats have the GOP playbook: They know how to fight back, but just won't do it - Salon
- Biden Wants To Avoid a First Amendment Showdown Over WikiLeaks - Reason - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson raises eyebrows with comment that First Amendment 'hamstrings' government - Fox News - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- West Texas drag show becomes a First Amendment battleground - The Texas Tribune - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Requiring ugly images of smoking's harm on cigarettes won't breach First Amendment, court says - The Associated Press - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- The First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, and Substantial Encouragement - Reason - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- News/Media Alliance Joins Brief Defending First Amendment Editorial Rights of Documentarians - News/Media Alliance - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- The State of the First Amendment: Free Speech - University of Colorado Boulder - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Justices Seem Likely to Side With N.R.A. in First Amendment Dispute - The New York Times - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh loses patience with the judiciarys far right - Vox.com - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Justice Jackson ripped for worrying about the First Amendment 'hamstringing' government: 'Literally the point' - Fox News - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Analysis: SCOTUS Oral Arguments Bode Well For NRA First Amendment Claim [Member Exclusive] - The Reload - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Supreme Court to hear First Amendment challenge to New York's financial 'blacklisting' of NRA - Fox News - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- NRA Goes To The Supreme Court Today In First Amendment CaseHere's What To Know - Forbes - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Supreme Court to hear case of former Castle Hills councilwoman who claims First Amendment rights were violated - KSAT San Antonio - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Supreme Court to hear arguments in key First Amendment case challenging Biden admin teamwork with Big Tech - Fox News - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- "Black Lives Mat[t]er" + "Any Life" Drawing "Not Protected by the First Amendment" in First Grade - Reason - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Requiring ugly images of smoking's harm on cigarettes won't breach First Amendment, court says - KXLY Spokane - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Supreme Court hears free speech case that united the NRA and the ACLU - The Washington Post - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Supreme Court Wary of States' Bid to Limit Federal Contact With Social Media Companies - The New York Times - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Opinion: A First Amendment Fizzle at the U.S. Supreme Court - The Atlanta Journal Constitution - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- The First Amendment is under attack in Americas Oceania - Washington Examiner - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Education Institutions Grapple With Overlap of First Amendment and Anti-Discrimination Laws - JD Supra - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Requiring ugly images of smoking's harm on cigarettes won't breach First Amendment, court says - The Caledonian-Record - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Note to Justice Jackson: First Amendment Should Hamstring Biden - Daily Signal - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Requiring ugly images of smoking's harm on cigarettes won't breach First Amendment, court says - KEYT - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- The First Amendment Supreme Court case right wingers are crazy for - The Independent - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Ketanji Brown Jackson concerned First Amendment is hamstringing government from censorship - Washington Examiner - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Justice Jackson: First Amendment "Hamstringing" Federal Response To "Threatening Circumstances, From The ... - RealClearPolitics - March 22nd, 2024 [March 22nd, 2024]
- Opinion: Sen. Chuck Grassley should stand up for the First Amendment and support the PRESS Act - The Gazette - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- The Supreme Court must protect the First Amendment in Murthy v. Missouri - Washington Examiner - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- A Hillsborough judge invokes the First Amendment in a case related to a 2022 election campaign - WMNF - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- John Stockton's lawyer claims first amendment violation as basis for COVID-19 lawsuit - KXLY Spokane - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Scientology Scores A First Amendment Win Over Leah Remini, But Harassment Claims Against Church Still Stand, Judge Rules - Deadline - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Supreme Court to hear First Amendment cases, weigh in on Texas immigration law - MSN - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- 7 Expert Takeaways As the Supreme Court Considers Government Influence on Content Moderation - Just Security - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Conflict between First Amendment and discrimination on Broadway | Strictly Legal - The Cincinnati Enquirer - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Maryland fraternities petition federal judge - Baltimore Sun - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Supreme Court to debate whether White House crosses First Amendment line on social media disinformation - News-Press Now - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Broadway Actors Race Discrimination Claims Sent Back to the Underworld in the Face of Producers First Amendment ... - JD Supra - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Congress Should Give Up on Unconstitutional TikTok Bans - EFF - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- U.S. House Votes in Favor of TikTok Ban Bill Amid First Amendment and Other Questions - Democracy Now! - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Review of Amicus Briefs Filed in Murthy v. Missouri Before the Supreme Court | TechPolicy.Press - Tech Policy Press - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Supreme Court defines when it's illegal for public officials to block social media critics - The Verge - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Doctor sues state of WA for his First Amendment rights - KXLY Spokane - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- ACLU To Defend NRA as Supreme Court Weighs Whether New York Violated Gun Group's First Amendment Rights - The New York Sun - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- U.Va. alumna settles First Amendment lawsuit against the University after her expulsion in abeyance - University of Virginia The Cavalier Daily - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- The Oregonian/OregonLive wins First Amendment ruling in Nike documents case - OregonLive - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Progressive attacks on the US constitution escalate - UnHerd - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Artificial intelligence: Tennessee ELVIS Act threatens First Amendment - Tennessean - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Eighth Circuit: Fun With the First Amendment - Law.com - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals: First Amendment doesn't protect senators who walked out from consequences - Herald and News - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- What Is at Stake in the Florida, Texas First Amendment Cases - Disruptive Competition Project - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Poll: Almost a third of Americans say the First Amendment goes 'too far' - Reason - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Who will protect the First Amendment? - Voz Media - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Certainty and uncertainty: The tech platform cases First Amendment News 413 - Foundation for Individual Rights in Education - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Social Media Content Moderation Laws 'Strike at the Heart of the First Amendment' - PEN America - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Does the First Amendment apply to social media moderation? The U.S. Supreme Court will decide - 25 News KXXV and KRHD - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Jacob Sullum - Sacrificing the First Amendment to save it? - Defiance Crescent News - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- God Help Us, but Brett Kavanaugh Could Save the First Amendment - The Daily Beast - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Editorial (N.Y) Daily News: The Supreme Court's sticky web: The First Amendment protects social media - The Daily News Online - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- In Supreme Court, Texas and Florida's Argument Against Big Tech Content Moderation Runs Afoul of First Amendment - Free Press - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Two students suing SUNY Cortland over alleged First Amendment violation | 870 AM 97.7FM News Talk WHCU - whcuradio.com - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Expert calls for Supreme Court to find middle way on First Amendment tech cases - ideastream - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Supreme Court social media cases could put some First Amendment claims in the firing line - Freedom of the Press Foundation - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- One-third of adults say the First Amendment 'goes too far' - Washington Times - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Does the First Amendment apply to social media moderation? The U.S. Supreme Court will decide. - Palestine Herald Press - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Supreme Court digs into Big Tech censorship and First Amendment - Washington Times - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- The Supreme Court's sticky web: The First Amendment protects social media - Shelbynews - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Supreme Court to decide how the First Amendment applies to social media - redlakenationnews.com - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- United States Mint Announces Release of Fourth Coin in Platinum Proof Series Celebrating Five Freedoms of the First ... - GlobeNewswire - February 9th, 2024 [February 9th, 2024]
- UNM Law professor joins amicus brief in Trump v. Anderson Supreme Court Case - UNM Newsroom - February 9th, 2024 [February 9th, 2024]
- CNN's Clarissa Ward Named a Recipient of the RTDNA's 2024 First Amendment Award - Adweek - February 9th, 2024 [February 9th, 2024]
- A new Supreme Court case threatens to take away your right to protest - Vox.com - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- No, Blocking Traffic Is Not Protected by the First Amendment - Reason - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cable Giants Insist That Forcing Them To Make Cancellations Easier Violates Their First Amendment Rights - Above the Law - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Star-Spangled Fascism: Extremists and the First Amendment - GBH News - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Know Your Rights: Students in Higher Education & the First Amendment - New York Civil Liberties Union - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- SPJ co-authors legal brief supporting First Amendment right to record and publish livestreamed court hearings - Society of Professional Journalists - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- SPJ co-authors legal brief supporting First Amendment right to record and publish livestreamed court hearings - Editor And Publisher Magazine - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- FCC's Jessica Rosenworcel On Trump Broadcast License Threats: First Amendment Guides Us. - Insideradio.com - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]