If only they would’ve done literally anything when they were in power.

Probably quite a bit, given how the liberal mainstream media just spent 10 years refusing to reckon with this idea.

Google: trump fascism before:2016-01-01

Why you should stop calling Donald Trump a fascist. December 4, 2015

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/04/why-you-should-stop-calling-donald-trump-a-fascist/

Donald Trump Isn’t a Fascist; He’s a Media-Savvy Know-Nothing. December 28, 2015

https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/donald-trump-isnt-a-fascist-hes-a-media-savvy-know-nothing

Whose Fascism Is This, Anyway? Dec. 15, 2015

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/16/opinion/whose-fascism-is-this-anyway.html

Is Donald Trump leading a proto-fascist movement? August 28, 2015

https://theweek.com/articles/574097/donald-trump-leading-protofascist-movement

Trump May Be a Loudmouthed Demagogue, but Is He a Fascist? Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric has his opponents likening him to Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. Such comparisons may be misplaced.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/12/09/trump-may-be-a-loudmouthed-demagogue-but-is-he-a-fascist/

Is Donald Trump a Fascist?

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-fascist-354690

200 NGOs Oppose Biden’s Historic Expansion of ICE Detention System: “Detention should not be about politics.”

ICE records show Biden admin plans could give Trump a head start on deportations

President Biden Signs Anti-Immigrant Spending Bill Reaching Trump-Era Highs

Biden’s Emergency Funding Proposal Seeks $14 Billion for Immigration System From Congress

Tom Homan - Border Czar was originally appointed by Obama

Keep in mind, these democrat moves to bolster ICE were happening while the right was blatantly telegraphing their moves to immediately weaponize ICE once they took power. Project 2025 came out and promised to use ICE to plunder and abuse Americans. Biden and team then spent the next 4 years not only failing to prepare for Trump, but preemptively strengthening the mechanisms Trump would eventually use to carry out project 2025. The democrats are controlled opposition.

Sure, maybe we wouldnt be seeing this intense of immigration enforcement if Kamala were in charge, but if she were, she’d be working behind the scenes to ensure the right had all the tools they needed when the time was right.

The democrats are controlled opposition and the American electoral system is kabuki theater. The fascist descent is the only logical conclusion to the American political experiment- which was predicated on the wholesale genocide of Native American Indians and quickly pivoted to enslaving an entire continent.

You realize what the only logical conclusion to your “pragmatic liberal utilitarianism” is, right? I give it 4 years before youre chiding leftists for not voting for dem candidate Ted Cruz as he campaigns against republican candidate Mecha Hitler. Youll still see nothing wrong with that. You will sell out the victims of American Imperialism to buy yourself 4 more years of political waffling - just as you did with Palestinians.

The point is not to shift blame to the democrats. The point is to make light of the fact that the dems are controlled opposition, and they still serve the same capitalist class that maga does.

Until we abandon the capitalist, bourgeois parties, the descent into fascism will continue - as the democrats ensured after waffling each time they were in power these past few decades. No amount of lesser evilism or electoralism will get us out of this.

I don’t like the Democratic Party, I don’t like most of its elected officials, most of its policy, but I refuse to give it up

And that’s just pure liberalism. The complete unwillingness to do any sort of action outside of the ballot box.

“Sure, we just careened of the cliff of fascism by having blind faith in liberal electoralism, but I still believe that liberal electoralism is the only way to proceed”

Until you obtain revolutionary politics and read Marx, youre going to be lost and confused as to why our “enlightened civil society” is going backwards at light speed.

If you are really interested in another perspective, I can provide reading.

democrats are by far the largest political party that has the capacity to fight the current administration

I think a democratic party filled with socialist thinkers is going to be more successful

And there’s the blind hope. It’s faith, essentially. I dont think youre picking up what I’m putting down. You’re suggesting we put our effort into a party that just cemented our fascist descent - as if you haven’t been trying that for the entirety of the last couple decades.

Oh, I have plenty of hope for socialism. What I dont have hope for is the democrats or America. And at this point, it’s downright painful to see posts like this specific OP that are still placing their bets on the democrats.

the thing you should never let them take away is hope

“We have to let go of our relentless positivism, our absurd mania for hope, our naive belief that with grit and determination we can solve all problems. We have to face the bleakness before us. We live in a world already heavily damaged by global warming, which will inevitably get worse. Refusal to participate in the further destruction of the planet means a rupture with traditional politics. It means noncooperation with authority. It means defying in every nonviolent way possible consumer capitalism, militarism and imperialism. It means adjusting our lifestyle, including becoming vegans, to thwart the forces bent upon our annihilation. And it means waves of sustained civil disobedience until the machine is broken.”

Chris Hedges

The hope to reclaim American “democracy” via electoral means plays into the hands of the fascists. At this point, it should be crystal clear that neither the democrats, nor electoralism, nor a blind faith in some abstract concept of “hope” will save us. Nothing will meaningfully change until the rich and powerful fear for their lives. This includes the democrat pundits who many incorrectly see as our only means of escaping the fascist backside. Everyone should be getting armed and organized.

should start preparing now

The time to prepare was when the Democrats were in power. It’s now too late. MAGA in 2019 could not have telegraphed their moves harder. The plan was always to massively bolster ICE and commence rapid, racist deportations and death camps. And not only did Biden and democrats fail to prepare for this (dismantling ICE, jailing MAGA, chickenshit prodecutor Garland, etc…), but they carried out the biggest federal law enforcement blunders in US history.

On top of this, Biden expanded ICE during his time in office, and literally built the camps that Tump is now utilizing.

It’s just downright pitiful to see a headline saying that “now is the time to act”, as if the people we’re begging to act didnt just spend the last 4 years collaborating with fascists.

Shoutouts to the the fucking masked videographer.

Some commenters in the thread you linked are claiming that the videographer was working for ICE for a promotional video.

Honest, genuine question: would there be any point in this descent into fascism where you’d give up on this tactic?

I suppose I can still understand it at this stage: most conflict is still abroad, only 9 months in to the presidency, and the Epstein revelations are still fresh, but how long will you push this?

Will you still be shouting about Epstein once the first protestor is killed by ICE? What about after the first civilian doors are busted down? What about after trans people are definitively criminalized? What about after the first train is loaded up? What about after the first mass grave is discovered? What about after a few tens of thousands of Americans have been exterminated?

I’m not saying everything above is going to happen, but supposing they did, would you still be shouting Epstein? Because at this point, it appears as if you, along with the rest of the Epstein crowd, will be shouting about it regardless of however far we are into the fascist descent. I dont understand that.

Why are you getting snippy and evasive? My question was honest and genuine. Will you answer it?

Honest, genuine question: would there be any point in this descent into fascism where you’d give up on this tactic?

I suppose I can still understand it at this stage: most conflict is still abroad, only 9 months in to the presidency, and the Epstein revelations are still fresh, but how long will you push this?

Will you still be shouting about Epstein once the first protestor is killed by ICE? What about after the first civilian doors are busted down? What about after trans people are definitively criminalized? What about after the first train is loaded up? What about after the first mass grave is discovered? What about after a few tens of thousands of Americans have been exterminated?

I’m not saying everything above is going to happen, but supposing they did, would you still be shouting Epstein? Because at this point, it appears as if you, along with the rest of the Epstein crowd, will be shouting about it regardless of however far we are into the fascist descent. I dont understand that.

Nope. We only use identity politics to explain political failings here.

/s

Pathetic. I expect the democrats will soon be pushing a law forbidding ICE from brutalizing citizens for more than 30 minutes.

Every democrat in power should be lighting shit on fire until ICE is abolished.

If nothing anyone does could possibly matter, what avenues are there to get rid of Citizens United?

In what way has this Taco truck charade been “effective”?

And after you leave a voicemail, the rep will task an intern with spending 15 minutes clearing out all messages.

If Bernie would’ve been warning about this in 2023, he would’ve been called red fash.

Lmao, the psychologist is telling us we can halt fascism by “setting boundaries”, “having faith” and “saying no”. Lmao. This article is like concentrated liberalism.

Buy a gun.