In order to prevent the United States’ further slide into totalitarianism and economic collapse, we must overthrow President Donald Trump’s fascist regime. I hope this can be accomplished through legal or nonviolent means, but I know from reading history that change isn’t always possible through such ideal methods.
When we dislodge the cohort of gangsters running our government, we must ensure their kind of authoritarian movement is never able to take power again. At the most basic level, that means imposing consequences. For my entire life, Republicans have grown increasingly radical and, frankly, anti-democratic.
Time and time again, Democrats have sought to turn the page following catastrophic instances of conservative extremism and illegality. Republicans have interpreted such moves not as acts of mercy or patriotism, but as evidence of weakness. It’s only emboldened conservatives to push the envelope further.
With America currently at the brink, we can’t allow this cycle to repeat again. I’m reluctant to wish ill on anyone, however, for the sake of the rule of law, I believe Trump and many of his most prominent lackeys need to be imprisoned. Speaking in Christian terms, this is a regrettable concession to a fallen world.
Beyond that, we need to fundamentally reimagine our society, as prior generations did following the American Revolution and Civil War. For instance, I believe we need to eliminate or transform those anti-democratic elements of our political system which have played roles of varying importance in Trump’s rise.
I’m talking about institutions like the Electoral College, the two-party system, the Senate and the Supreme Court. More broadly, though, we need to address America’s cavernous wealth inequality, which, besides being immoral in my view, has proven itself to be nationally destabilizing, creating conditions ripe for fascism.
Americans are justifiably angry about the state of the country. However, Trump, like right-wing demagogues before him, has successfully redirected this inchoate populist rage away from its true capitalist culprits, toward powerless, vulnerable groups — in this case, immigrants, transgender people and others.
I’d like America to move toward socialism, by which I mean democratic ownership and control of the economy. But, at the very least, we must get rid of billionaires as a category. People like Elon Musk amassing the level of political power they have, solely due to their wealth, is incompatible with representative government.
The anti-fascist coalition has a wide variety of goals. For instance, I want to see a massive infusion of public funding into cultivated-meat research, which I view as the most promising means of advancing animal welfare, my electoral priority. However, none of our aims can be achieved under a right-wing authoritarian state.
That’s why we need to overthrow the Trump regime. Again, I hope this can be done through the existing political process or mass peaceful demonstrations, but I know from history that would-be dictators like the current president don’t always allow such change to come about, absent the threat of some degree of physical force.
I’m reminded of a quote from President John F. Kennedy, who said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” In recent years, I’ve grown more interested in the religious left, which is frequently pacifist. However, I can’t countenance America under a Trumpian dictatorship.