OPINION: The GOP is the American Fascist Party
Fascists run the Republican Party. Not every republican voter is fascist. The vast majority of Americans do not support fascism, but a significant portion of the population does by proxy, whether they realize it or not. When you look at the GOP today, when you look at what they stand for, this isn’t what was mainstream even 20 years ago at the height of post-9/11 paranoia. There were always elements of it, but it was never the mainstream opinion of the GOP. Even now, we see articles and new stories being printed that say the majority of Republicans realize just how insane all of this is, and they do not support it, yet they keep enabling it and empowering it.
Over the last year, we’ve all seen the Republican primary shift from a coalition against Donald Trump to numerous candidates like Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy arguing that Trump isn’t right-wing enough. The right-wing pariahs of 2012, like Mike Pence, are no longer loved because he dared to foil the January 6th Coup Attempt by Donald Trump. The so-called “moderates” of the race, like Nikki Haley, are stumbling around trying to balance support with the anti-trump crowd and MAGA wackjobs and failing miserably. We have seen the “freedom caucus,” a minority wing of the GOP in the House, send us into chaos by ousting Kevin McCarthy because he dared to govern with Democrats to prevent the government from shutting down and sending the American economy into a death spiral. They see every act of bipartisan governance as a loss; they see every act of sensible policymaking as collaboration with the enemy. From the paranoid surveillance state and rise of the unitary executive theory under the Bush Administration, the rise of the Tea Party in 2010, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum in 2012, the rise of revenge politics under Mitch McConnell’s policy of obstructionism and Eric Cantor’s defeat in 2014, John Boehner’s resignation in 2015, The rise of Donald Trump in 2016, the normalization of white supremacist/christian nationalist/neo-confederate talking points under his administration, the rise in punitive federalism during the Covid-19 pandemic, the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, the bullying of Republican power players to back him or lose their careers, the rise of self-described MAGA Republicans exemplified by figures like Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz, the recent expulsion of Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker and the turmoil that followed, replacing McCarthy with the far right Mike Johnson, project 2025, and now the possible expulsion of Johnson from the speakership for working with democrats to pass a budget all highlight the decades-long radicalization of the Republican Party into what it is today.
Democrats and voters at large, however, seem to believe still that we are dealing with everyday politics. Until Biden's recent speech on the subject, Democratic leaders have seemingly ignored how bad things have become, choosing to focus on party infighting. Donald Trump is openly calling himself a future dictator, he is openly seeking revenge against the American people because they voted him out, and he is openly saying that he deserves power regardless of what the people say. Yet his grip on people is so firm that the truth seems like lies. His cult of personality is so vast that the typical response to this information falls somewhere along the lines of “he never called himself a dictator, and even if he did, he should be one to restore America to its former glory.” This isn’t normal or okay. Political violence has been normalized on the right and is lambasted if done by the left when no one should be violent.
It is very easy to be disheartened by what is going on. The future of American democracy is in the hands of a flawed justice system that, at its highest level, has been stacked with Republican Supreme Court justices. Three by Donald Trump, a man who did not win the popular vote, two by George W. Bush, a man who won the popular vote once in ’04 (and that can be chalked up to rallying around the leader in the aftermath of 9/11), and one by George H.W. Bush, that being Supreme Court Justice Clarance Thomas, who allegedly sexually harassed a woman and is accused of taking bribes from billionaire republican donors. This majority on the Supreme Court is the same majority that took women’s reproductive healthcare away and will be tasked with determining whether or not Donald Trump, a man who has repeatedly been charged with legal and constitutional violations, is eligible to run for president again.
Despite these obvious problems, champions for bipartisan good governance like Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown (D) and Montana Senator Jon Tester (D) are projected to lose reelection. Republicans like Mitt Romney and Liz Chaney, voices for basic governing in Congress, were effectively forced into retirement by the MAGA wing. The plan by radical elements to take over the GOP, force government dysfunction to garner support, normalize political violence, and oppose civil rights movements to rally the base and garner support has worked. The mythologizing of Donald Trump, the Constitution, and American History to create support for an American Dictatorship has found serious support in recent years. It is easy to be disheartened by all of this, and it can feel overwhelming because it is. There is some hope still worth fighting for.
The Supreme Court has traditionally been seen as a singular entity above external influences, including ethics oversight or congressional regulation. In 2011, Chief Justice John Roberts even argued against the need for an ethics code for the Supreme Court, stating that justices were capable of self-policing. However, by 2022, with several justices facing allegations of ethical misconduct, Roberts adopted the first ethics code in the Court’s history. This move is an acknowledgment of ethical concerns. However, it lacks enforcement mechanisms and is simply a watered-down version of the lower courts’ standards. These recent actions have shown that public outcry and debate about the court’s bias and lack of accountability have led to actual changes and reforms in the right direction.
Various scholarly debates and proposals for reforming the Supreme Court have gained traction in recent years. These range from structural changes like rotating panels of justices, stripping the Court of jurisdiction over specific issues, or revising the appointment process to more drastic measures like imposing term limits, reducing the Court’s power, or expanding the size of the Supreme Court. We can continue to challenge Republicans who may not be entirely on the democrat’s side but are scared by the rise of American fascism by running on broadly popular policies like Build Back Better, being tough on China, supporting Fair Trade, etc. Those who won’t budge and continue to ally themselves with fascism to rise through the ranks of the GOP must be forced to take unpopular positions like opposition to legal marijuana, opposition to abortion, opposition to gay marriage, opposition to healthcare, opposition to education funding, and then highlight these examples to a national audience and their constituents repeatedly to sway public opinion away from the growing fascist elements of the GOP and hopefully convince some republican politicians to put themselves on the right side of history. There are political challenges in implementing any reforms, particularly in the aforementioned deeply divided Congress and an uneducated public that is only beginning to learn and engage in these debates. Still, meaningful reform can happen with broad public consensus and a proactive approach to capitalize on political opportunities as they arise. Democrats must continue to take responsibility for creating a roadmap to these reforms and educating the public to stop our descent into chaos. If they fail to do so, the great American experiment might go down in a hail of bullets or, worse, with cheers.
