Slip, slip, slipping away, down that fascist slippery slope

benfell

See updates through June 7, 2021, at end of post.

Voting reform is not really a topic I want to get into, because for practical matters, in this constitutional oligarchy,[1] we are given a choice between awful and awful.[2] It’s just generally been really hard for me to get too terribly worked up about which awful major party wins.

That’s not to say there isn’t something to worry about. I think of the Capitol Hill coup attempt,[3] of the ongoing risk of further attacks on politicians[4] or another coup attempt, indeed, of Donald Trump campaign flags that continue to fly nearly seven months after his defeat while he tells people he’ll be “reinstated” as president in August and fringe lawyers promising to present evidence to the Supreme Court that will supposedly compel them to overturn the election, of a return to the Jim Crow standby of voter suppression,[5] and a return to one set of awful people obstructing the other set of awful people by any means necessary, simply because they aren’t the awful people in power, and it’s difficult to escape that the constitutional oligarchy[6] is, at best, marginally functional even on its own terms.

The weird part, of course, is that whatever emerges from all this, the rich really have little reason for concern. The divisions in our society serve their purposes admirably in multiple ways, but most importantly, to distract us from their crimes. Even now, we rarely speak of class even as political and economic power are profoundly implicated in those divisions.[7] I see no sign of an imminent class uprising but worry a great deal about white supremacists, including so-called “police,” and their evident quest for a race war.[8]

That likely leads to an even greater degree of fascism than that which we already have.[9]

Update, June 2, 2021, revised June 7, 2021: The original text has been modified to reflect Bess Levin’s report in Vanity Fair and Alex Shepard’s report in The New Republic that Donald Trump has been saying he’ll be “reinstated” as president in August, indeed that many of Trump’s supporters would support a coup to that end and that Republican-sponsored voter suppression efforts are meant to delegitimize Joe Biden’s November 2020 election victory.[10]

The best thing I can do here is recommend actually reading the articles:

Because I just don’t see any way around that this is becoming seriously worrisome.

Not because the efforts will succeed, but because

  1. they reflect an unwillingness on the part of a significant portion of the population to accept the November 2020 election results, and
  2. I can only imagine more violence regardless of the outcome.

Update, June 5, 2021, revised June 7, 2021: If there is indeed such a thing as an addiction to grievance,[11] Donald Trump might well be another step beyond it.[12]

I’m remembering that the psychologists I’ve spoken with generally are not fond of diagnoses, seeing them as not really helpful, but Trump has racked up a few that, as a non-psychologist myself, seem to me to fit really well, including narcissistic rage,[13] addiction to grievance,[14] obsession, delusion,[15] and psychosis.[16] And I’m just guessing we might be able to fit in a few more.

It’d be one thing if it were only Trump.[17] Jonathan Chait says that Trump’s sycophants—Chait’s term, not mine, but it works—have been trying and, of course, failing to get Trump to focus on something besides his election defeat last November and maybe not suggest quite so loudly that there will be a coup to restore him to power in August.[18] and as it happened, at the speech everyone was worried about, he did actually manage to talk about other grievances in addition to the election.[19] But the trouble remains, of course, that Trump isn’t the only lunatic.[20] There are others advocating the restoration of Trump to the presidency in various, at least mostly non-electoral ways,[21] and in truth, we don’t know how many they are, let alone what capability they bring to try to make it happen.[22] See that blog post about what we don’t fucking know.[23] It applies here as well.

That’s not to say the efforts seem likely to succeed. Chait certainly doesn’t think so[24] and I doubt anyone else who’s serious thinks so. I’m thinking the most probable worst case scenario is an attempt on the order of January 6, which was certainly scary for folks on Capitol Hill, but lacked any coherent plan for keeping Trump in office.

January 6 didn’t make any sense. And August, as far as anyone seems to know, makes even less. But here’s the thing: We don’t know until we know.

It really has to be something that this man is still so scary, even out of office, even obviously insane.

Update, June 7, 2021: I have added a citation to and edited and updated the text of the previous update of June 5 for better flow. I have also added two articles[25] to the list of articles in the update of June 2.

  1. [1]David Benfell, “A constitutional oligarchy: Deconstructing Federalist No. 10,” Not Housebroken, May 10, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/04/22/a-constitutional-oligarchy-deconstructing-federalist-no-10/↩
  2. [2]David Benfell, “The lesser of two evils? The more successful con artist,” Not Housebroken, May 15, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/05/15/the-lesser-of-two-evils-the-more-successful-con-artist/↩
  3. [3]David Benfell, “Riot or insurrection? Lies or madness?” Not Housebroken, January 22, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/01/12/riot-or-insurrection-lies-or-madness/↩
  4. [4]Jason Wilson, “Police records show threats to kill lawmakers in wake of Capitol attack,” Guardian, May 23, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/23/police-records-capitol-attack-lawmakers↩
  5. [5]Stephen Collinson, “Revolt by Texas Democrats heaps pressure on Washington to act on voting reform,” CNN, June 1, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/01/politics/texas-democrats-voting-reform-pressure/index.html; Fred Kaplan, “How the Military Should Deal With Its Michael Flynn Problem,” Slate, June 1, 2021, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/06/michael-flynn-coup-court-martial.html; Bess Levin, “Trump Has Reportedly Been Telling People He’s Going to Be President Again by August, Which Would Suggest He’s Planning a Coup (Or Has Fully Descended Into Madness),” Vanity Fair, June 1, 2021, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/donald-trump-august-reinstatement; Alex Shephard, “Trump’s Republicans Want a Coup,” New Republic, June 1, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/162586/michael-flynn-trump-myanmar-coup↩
  6. [6]David Benfell, “A constitutional oligarchy: Deconstructing Federalist No. 10,” Not Housebroken, May 10, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/04/22/a-constitutional-oligarchy-deconstructing-federalist-no-10/↩
  7. [7]David Benfell, “We ‘need to know how it works,’” Not Housebroken, March 19, 2012, https://disunitedstates.org/2012/03/19/we-need-to-know-how-it-works/; David Benfell, “About that alleged ‘labor shortage,’” Not Housebroken, May 17, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/05/09/about-that-alleged-labor-shortage/; Herbert J. Gans, The War Against The Poor (New York: Basic, 1995); Jeffrey Reiman, The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, 7th ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2004).↩
  8. [8]David Benfell, “Donald Trump’s ‘brown shirts,’” Not Housebroken, May 14, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/08/30/donald-trumps-brown-shirts/↩
  9. [9]David Benfell, “A simple definition of fascism,” Not Housebroken, July 7, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/07/06/a-simple-definition-of-fascism/↩
  10. [10]Stephen Collinson, “Revolt by Texas Democrats heaps pressure on Washington to act on voting reform,” CNN, June 1, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/01/politics/texas-democrats-voting-reform-pressure/index.html; Fred Kaplan, “How the Military Should Deal With Its Michael Flynn Problem,” Slate, June 1, 2021, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/06/michael-flynn-coup-court-martial.html; Bess Levin, “Trump Has Reportedly Been Telling People He’s Going to Be President Again by August, Which Would Suggest He’s Planning a Coup (Or Has Fully Descended Into Madness),” Vanity Fair, June 1, 2021, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/donald-trump-august-reinstatement; Alex Shephard, “Trump’s Republicans Want a Coup,” New Republic, June 1, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/162586/michael-flynn-trump-myanmar-coup↩
  11. [11]James Kimmel, Jr., “What the Science of Addiction Tells Us About Trump,” Politico, December 12, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/12/trump-grievance-addiction-444570↩
  12. [12]Jonathan Chait, “Trump Sycophants Pleading for Less Coup Talk at Saturday Rally,” New York, June 4, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/06/trump-sycophants-plead-for-less-coup-talk-at-saturday-rally.html↩
  13. [13]George Simon, “Understanding and Dealing with Narcissistic Rage,” Counselling Resource, July 24, 2017, https://counsellingresource.com/features/2017/07/24/understanding-narcissistic-rage/↩
  14. [14]James Kimmel, Jr., “What the Science of Addiction Tells Us About Trump,” Politico, December 12, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/12/trump-grievance-addiction-444570↩
  15. [15]Michael Kruse, “Is Trump Cracking Under the Weight of Losing?” Politico, December 20, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/20/trump-white-house-losing-448903↩
  16. [16]WebMD, “Psychosis and Psychotic Episodes,” July 13, 2019, https://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/guide/what-is-psychosis#1↩
  17. [17]Max Boot, “Too many people are still underestimating the Trump threat,” Washington Post, June 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/07/too-many-people-are-still-underestimating-trump/↩
  18. [18]Jonathan Chait, “Trump Sycophants Pleading for Less Coup Talk at Saturday Rally,” New York, June 4, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/06/trump-sycophants-plead-for-less-coup-talk-at-saturday-rally.html↩
  19. [19]Meredith McGraw, “Trump reemerges on the trail and plays the hits of yore,” Politico, June 5, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/05/trump-north-carolina-speech-gop-492000↩
  20. [20]Max Boot, “Too many people are still underestimating the Trump threat,” Washington Post, June 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/07/too-many-people-are-still-underestimating-trump/↩
  21. [21]Max Boot, “Too many people are still underestimating the Trump threat,” Washington Post, June 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/07/too-many-people-are-still-underestimating-trump/; David A. Graham, “This Isn’t Normal, Either,” Atlantic, June 5, 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/isnt-normal-either/619102/; Fred Kaplan, “How the Military Should Deal With Its Michael Flynn Problem,” Slate, June 1, 2021, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/06/michael-flynn-coup-court-martial.html; Bess Levin, “Trump Has Reportedly Been Telling People He’s Going to Be President Again by August, Which Would Suggest He’s Planning a Coup (Or Has Fully Descended Into Madness),” Vanity Fair, June 1, 2021, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/donald-trump-august-reinstatement; Alex Shephard, “Trump’s Republicans Want a Coup,” New Republic, June 1, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/162586/michael-flynn-trump-myanmar-coup↩
  22. [22]Max Boot, “Too many people are still underestimating the Trump threat,” Washington Post, June 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/07/too-many-people-are-still-underestimating-trump/↩
  23. [23]David Benfell, “On the origin of COVID-19,” Not Housebroken, June 4, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/06/04/on-the-origin-of-covid-19/↩
  24. [24]Jonathan Chait, “Trump Sycophants Pleading for Less Coup Talk at Saturday Rally,” New York, June 4, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/06/trump-sycophants-plead-for-less-coup-talk-at-saturday-rally.html↩
  25. [25]Max Boot, “Too many people are still underestimating the Trump threat,” Washington Post, June 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/07/too-many-people-are-still-underestimating-trump/; David A. Graham, “This Isn’t Normal, Either,” Atlantic, June 5, 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/isnt-normal-either/619102/↩

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