It’s here. Stop all the useless debate. Whether it’s a consolidating dictatorship, as Rachel Maddow says, or an illiberal democracy, or an electoral autocracy…

If masked and plainclothes secret police arresting undocumented immigrants, students, and citizens alike, including members of Congress, aren’t a clear enough indication, then the military takeover of Washington DC, citing lies about the crime rate, is.

America has become a fascist state. How fascist is irrelevant; the question serves only as an excuse, a way to tag out and wait for things to blow over. It’s not that bad.

So it’s here. It’s here thanks to President Donald Trump. What did we expect? It’s here thanks to his enablers, most prominent among them, Republican members of Congress. It’s here thanks to Republican voters and nonvoters alike, whose apathy in the last election should not be forgiven.

If anything, with approval ratings rock bottom, Democrats would be showing that they aren’t as feeble as they currently are and have been.

It’s here thanks to the ignorant and indifferent, the dumb and deluded, the hateful, scornful, spiteful, shortsighted, racist, militaristic, misogynistic, misguided…

Democrats—failed candidates and sitting representatives—are at fault too. For never putting up an effective fight despite all the warnings they gave us, despite all the warnings we gave them, pleading for proper change; who, even out of power, continue to resist with little ambition or desperation, strongly-worded letters a testament to what they are or have become: slaves to donors, the corporate class, and their own irrelevancy. Hello, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)

This needs to change. It’s starting to, maybe. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has offered a bit more fight, but he feels so very performative, both eyes on the presidency. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker feels a bit more honest—maybe it’s the belly—but as a billionaire, he’s also part of the problem.

A few others seem genuinely genuine, and are channeling, for once, the frustration of those they represent—or hope to—which happens also to be their own, rather than chiding us or assuring us that all is well. Hello, Zohran Mamdani.

So there’s some hope, however slim. The midterms loom. Republicans are scared. Trump aside, whose handling of the Epstein scandal has isolated even the most MAGA, his policies are unpopular. They will only grow more unpopular as their effects kick in; they can’t all be delayed until after the midterms. The reality of them will only grow more stark as ordinary people begin to suffer and Republicans and Fox News struggle to skew the story, losing track of their own lies. But only if Democrats make a concerted effort to connect the dots.

Avoid Town Halls, Republicans have been advised. It’s easy to see why. The few representatives to hold them regardless have been heckled and booed, called out for what they are: liars. Shameful. They’ve been called worse.

They’re scared. Which is why the party is trying to gerrymander their way out of a potential midterm defeat, to secure the one-party system they crave, a facade of democracy that will allow them, like other autocracies, to persist.

It’s here where Democrats and even Independents—elected representatives and prospective ones, organizers,........

© Common Dreams