Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week claiming to designate antifa as a “domestic terror organization.” On Thursday, he issued a directive for his government to pursue antifa. Talk spread of another, imminent order on dismantling left-wing groups. It was the culmination of years of obsessing over antifa.

As someone publicly associated with anti-fascist organizing, the proclamations weren’t the greatest shock. The repression is to be expected.

The reaction to Trump’s nakedly illegal designation from progressives, liberal media, and left-leaning think tanks, however, has given me a sense of dread.

That’s because opponents of MAGA have embraced a dangerous narrative: The antifa designation is moot because there is, simply, nothing to designate. “Antifa,” in this telling, will simply be used as a catchall to repress anyone opposed to Trump when, in truth, it’s just an idea with no concrete grounding in the world.

Trump will indeed label just about all his opponents “antifa,” but the terms “antifa” and “antifascist” aren’t hollow references to mere ideas.

Contrary to Republicans’ portrayals, there is no overarching antifa organization or official network. The terms “antifa” and “antifascist,” though, do reflect an actually existing world of activists, researchers, thinkers, and organizers at real risk of persecution and dedicated to a specific politics.

If left-wing organizing is to be defended against Trump’s repression, denying their existence will only do further harm.

What Liberals Get Wrong

Anti-fascism was one of the most unifying and electrifying banners to organize under during Trump’s first administration. We may already be losing that framework, as Trump certainly hopes, to a deliberately nebulous sense of criminality associated with its language and symbols.

Instead of recognizing this, corporate media, mainstream commentators, and liberal voices have largely dismissed antifa

Consider how Luke Baumgartner, a research........

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