There has been little effective, determinative resistance to the fascist coup underway since Trump’s inauguration on 20 January
~ Louis Further ~
Articles of impeachment have been filed. Bodies have been established and expanded to monitor and tabulate the administration’s crimes, and to co-ordinate responses. Token marches have taken place in cities across the country—to express general dissatisfaction; in response to the anti-immigrant raids; in response to government overreach; and following specific crimes by Trump/MAGA. Some of those organisations protesting are offering practical and even financial aid to those worst affected by the Trump/MAGA sadism—particularly at the state and local levels.
But, as is to be expected, the two most prominent pressure groups, Indivisible and Democracy Forward, are working on the principle that, if only a stable voting system can endure over the next four years, everything will be OK. Both put great store on strategising and “holding [bad actors] to account”—whatever that means. These actions appeal for ‘solutions’ to the very forces, agencies, parties, bodies and élites which have brought about the situation in the first place.
In 2015 Democrats and Republicans could have snapped Trump’s reach into politics in half. But a majority welcomed his brand of supremacism and oppression, without really knowing what it was. For the rest, it seemed inconceivable that such a figure could win again, although he already had won in 2016! They also failed to look at what is happening the world over… Brazil, Chile, France, Hungary, Italy, Turkey and the rest.
The shower of Executive Actions can be tracked here; while the Lincoln Project’s video, ‘Aftermath‘, released well before last year’s election, repays viewing again now: many of its predictions have already been proven accurate. Indeed, the United States has already been put on at least one watch list as an attacker of the rule of law and civil rights. There is also increasing ‘concern’ in legal circles about the Trump/MAGA lawlessness.
Oppression
As predicted, the Trump/MAGA administration is showing itself to be all about revenge, slogan, dogma, vindictiveness and bigotry. Censorship is being increased. The severity of raids targeting non-white guest workers is being hidden. Consumer rights are disappearing.
English is now the only ‘official language’ of the US. Academics who speak up for Palestine are being removed and colleges are losing funding; ‘investigations’ into many others are also reported. Blocking employment for students who successfully graduate from institutions advocating tolerance is also on the rise. Those institutions which promote diversity and equality may lose their funding; similar racial discrimination is being promoted at institutions recognised as ‘Historically Black Colleges and Universities’. A ‘letter‘ sent last month by Craig Trainor, an acting assistant secretary in the Education Department, makes it plain that policies or teaching material aimed at addressing racial inequities in schools, colleges and universities are illegal.
Were images of the Hiroshima bomber flagged for deletion? Photo: Wikimedia commons
States like Iowa are avidly removing rights for non-gender-conforming individuals. Their voting rights may also be curtailed nationally as intentional transphobic attacks take place in Congress. Also at the state level, undocumented refugees’ and migrant workers’ rights to bring lawsuits are being curtailed. Businesses are being sued in states like Missouri for tolerating non-whites. Trans women are being deliberately transferred to men’s prisons, despite court rulings blocking such sadism. Lawsuits have begun to protect their place in the arts.
Incompetence
Meanwhile, the unsuitability of many of the staff (selected for loyalty) to their new jobs also does great harm. Mistakes (sometimes massive mistakes) are constantly being made. The DOGE website, for instance, has both been defaced and left open to ‘contributions’ by the public: apparently it lacks competent software engineers to build and maintain it. Some DOGE statistics were inaccurate by a factor of a thousand. Also, technical ‘expert’ Musk didn’t realise that a long-established computing convention is to flag the records of people for whom there is no known/recorded birth by assigning to them an impossibly early birth date, typically 150 years ago. He took (or pretended to take) this as evidence of fraud.
Staff sacked from several government agencies in error have had to be re-hired—including some with positions sensitive for US weaponry and the nuclear arsenal. Rehiring is not proving easy. What’s more, insiders at several government agencies have begun to report that they and their colleagues are now being asked to sign written oaths of allegiance to Trump if they want to get their jobs back, or even if they want to keep them.
Perhaps most worryingly, residents’ health is being threatened by the withdrawal of vaccination programmes and the advancement of quack remedies as official ‘policy’. Similarly, notices of the extent of the spread of diseases—especially ‘bird flu’ and ‘measles’—are being suppressed, or ‘going missing’. A crucial health and safety issue is the sterilisation of medical implements and environments; but these are now being cut in the agency which oversees and is supposed to look after military veterans.
Environment
Arguably the longest-lasting and most serious damage is that to the planet. As ecosystems, the American forests in which Trump has authorised logging are all-but irreplaceable. Many specialists are already gone. Most senior management roles in the environment sector are now going to fossil fuel advocates or companies with an interest in global destruction.
Like petulant children, Trump and his cult members proudly bruit their ignorance and refusal to acknowledge the climate crisis. The gathering of much (most?) environmentally-relevant data (including meteorological data) is likely to be stopped, and existing data may be destroyed. On the other hand, ‘data’ from denialist think-tanks is being incorporated into government sites and operations.
A decision by the US Supreme Court earlier this month has also made it easier to destroy and compromise water supplies: this is the first case since the disastrous striking down of the Chevron doctrine by the same court last July, which significantly reduces the powers of regulatory agencies and bodies, and hands them to vested interests.
Although Trump/MAGA’s acceleration of environmental collapse hasn’t received much attention so far, lawsuits are beginning to be filed. But the strong possibility that the administration won’t abide by courts’ findings suggests that such legal action may not have much effect. Trump believes himself to be above the law—and may turn out effectively to be so.
MAGA
A small number of members of the government, including senior figures in some of the agencies that are being demolished, have murmured dissent. Several other politicians—like Connecticut senator Chris Murphy, Illinois governor JB Pritzker, and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich—have spoken out a little more loudly. But they are few. Even fewer are those who articulate the enormity of the coup; and/or put it in the necessary historical context.
All this is having little effect. Spontaneous public meetings—almost always with larger-than-expected numbers attending—have quizzed and challenged Republicans, only to be dismissed or mischaracterised as being illegitimately fomented by “paid agitators”. In many cases Republican/MAGA speakers have just walked out, or failed to show up.
The entire Republican party in Congress, the Executive branch (the president and vice president) and much of the senior judicial branch have all been sucked into the fascist lie. The MAGA agenda, based largely on what was laid out in ‘Project 2025‘, is rapidly taking over many functions of public life—from a likely ban on teaching Black history in schools through renaming the Gulf of Mexico and supporting Putin’s Russia over Ukraine to austerity because of a flawed and largely unworkable economic policy.
Greater censorship of the media is coming. After all, TASS was at the recent attack on Zelensky in the Oval Office, while the Associated Press and Reuters were banned. Plans to deport those protesting against the genocide in Gaza are apparently afoot as threats against those opposing leniency on the insurrectionists from January 6 2021 increase.
Those in a position to monitor and temper the destruction, the inspector generals in the armed forces, for instance, who advise on the legality (or otherwise) of orders from the President, have been sacked. Similarly, databases like that recording police misconduct has been discontinued.
Sadism lies at the heart of the MAGA cult. Last month a video was released by the White House, for example, glorying in the humiliation of asylum seekers as they were being forcibly expelled from the US; and children to a camp in the jungle in Panama. Similarly, as the Department of Education is abolished, it will be the poorest, least able and disadvantaged pupils who will suffer the most.
The vast bulk of the national propaganda outlets is behind MAGA. The only vaguely left-leaning cable TV network, MSNBC, recently announced an “exciting re-organisation” of its schedules which eliminates several of the more honest (which means outspoken) presenters… Joy Reid, for instance; her colleagues took the almost unheard-of step of criticising their employer on air for removing her.
MAGA protesters wave flags at Minnesota State Capitol
Photo: Chad Davis CC-BY-2.0
The Washington Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, announced that the formerly well-respected daily will now more closely reflect the current administration’s ‘priorities’—drawing more subscription cancellations and resignations by journalists (with Amazon also targeted by boycotts).
As for the roughly half the adult population of the United States who are adherents to the cult, it’s unlikely that their deception can ever be loosened by reason. This is because they have not reached their positions by reason; but through ignorance, ‘faith’ and emotion. Although inflation is rising and stocks are falling, there is only scrappy evidence that Trump’s approval ratings are falling. It may take catastrophic developments before MAGA, Musk and Trump supporters realise how comprehensively they have been tricked.
At a very poor second ‘best’, a significant portion of MAGA lawmakers in both houses who abandoned their positions might just be able to skelter through the turmoil and manage to return things to the (highly unsatisfactory) status quo ante. There are ‘off-year’ elections in 2025 which might produce reactions sufficiently critical of the coup that the MAGA hierarchy would ‘think again’. That’s unlikely, however: the plan laid out in Project 2025 is largely one-way and not dependent on favourable election results for the direction in which it continues.
When watching the MAGA mob bellow “USA! USA! USA!” at Trump’s recent rally in the guise of an address to Congress, it may be re-assuring to remember how far out of balance things are. In common with philosophies like Taoism, anarchism sees balance as an inevitability. The MAGA cult is built on a sandcastle of lies, fear and bigotry. Although we may not yet see how, it too will collapse.
Top photo: FMT CC-BY-4.0