It is genuinely horrifying to realize how fully the doctrines of anti-democratic extremism have become entrenched in the highest offices and agencies of the US Federal government. The basic structures of a fascist state have been layered into the governing institutions of our government that will be difficult for even the overwhelming majorities the Democratic party will soon have in both houses of Congress to reverse.
Begin with the office of the president. Donald Trump himself is an unrestrained racist, willing to engage in the most vile racist diatribes against his enemies, against immigrants, and against Muslims. Vice President Vance is eager to emulate his boss, and the racism and sexism he expressed during the recent election campaign show his own moral corruption.
But who is actually wielding policy power and influence in the executive office? It is Stephen Miller. Now Miller is Chief of Staff and clearly guiding and controlling the addled Donald Trump. Miller is the vitriolic advocate and promoter of the most strident and violent anti- immigrant policies our country has ever seen, leading to unhinged violence in cities throughout the United States and to numerous deaths, as well as the policy of family separation in the first Trump administration
And who are the agents of this brutality? They are the corps of DHS and ICE agents, untrained, heavily armed, and contemptuous of the rights of the people they tackle, beat, ram, and shoot. They are the SS force of this lawless administration. And their funding is greater than the US Marine Corps.
What about the administration of justice? All in the hands of unprincipled Trump loyalists, including Todd Blanche, who explicitly regards himself as Trump’s personal lawyer, and Kash Patel, director of the FBI and entirely willing to use the resources of the FBI to pursue Trump’s enemies. None of these executives believes in the fundamental requirement of neutrality in the enforcement of law or the separation between the demands of the increasingly unhinged president and loyalty to the Constitution and the impartial rule of law.
What about issues of the use of military force and the initiation of war? Turn to Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defence and barely qualified to serve as night bartender in a small rustbelt city. A man whose military wisdom extends only to pullups and grooming. A man whose racism and sexism are grossly evident in his groundless interference with the promotion of high military officers based on their race and gender. A man who has given orders to attack and kill the crews of boats at sea, including the infamous “double tap” that led to the death of defenseless victims in the water — an unequivocal war crime. A man who brings his extremist Christian nationalism with him to the highest reaches of the Pentagon. A man whose signature sneer expresses his contempt for congressional oversight. And, of course, the architect of the impulsive and disastrous war against Iran.
And finally, the staggering level of financial corruption and influence peddling that permeates this government. Trump’s cultivation of the tech oligarchs has been visible since his inauguration, along with evidence of quid pro quo exchanges. Trump’s own conflicts of interest and the explosive growth of his wealth are well known, as are the corrupt activities of his family and their businesses. Inside trading seems to be business as normal. But financial misdeeds and scandals have become weekly occurrences throughout this administration.
These are all signs of incipient right-wing dictatorship. Remember the Reichstag fire (1933) and the Nazi seizure of power, and recall the prescient warnings of the possibility of American fascism offered in 1935 by Sinclair Lewis in It Can’t Happen Here. And recall Ernst Fraenkel’s realtime description of the “dual state” in Nazi Germany in the 1930s (link). Here s how Fraenkel describes the “prerogative state”:
By the Prerogative State we mean that governmental system which exercises unlimited arbitrariness and violence unchecked by any legal guarantees, and by the Normative State an administrative body endowed with elaborate powers for safeguarding the legal order as expressed in statutes, decisions of the courts, and activities of the administrative agencies. (ix)
Ziblatt and Levitsky warned of the looming threat of authoritarian dictatorship in the United States in How Democracies Die and Tyranny of the Minority (link, link). Key to the story they offer is the complicity of legislators and other political actors who silently facilitate this process. That has been all too evident in the behavior of the Republican-controlled Congress in the first two years of the Trump reign. There will soon be decisive Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. But is there time enough and leverage enough for them to reverse this slide towards a white supremacist authoritarian state? Our future as a free and democratic people depends upon their success, and upon defeating the forces of brutality, racism, and indifference to the rule of law in the current administration. Hegseth must go, Blanche must go, Miller must go, and ICE must go.
