I think this is the ultimate red line that the US crossed from a democracy to a fascist authoritarian country. Here are my points:
- Trump is a known criminal who encouraged a terrorist attack against the government and government officials. The fact that he was not only free of punishment but also legible for running as president shows that the democracy was already extremely vulnerable to a hostile takeover.
- Trump before that has repeatedly tried to convince the public that the election he lost was rigged, this is a blatant attempt to hurt the government and derail the people twoards an insurrection. At the very least he should have been investigated for conspiracy against the government (If he was muslim he would have been fucking assassinated as a terrorist already)
- The insertion of an unelected and unqualified person into the government and letting him run around and fuck with confidential and extremely sensitive systems and data (Elon) is something that should have been stopped way before he was able to start gutting public services.
- Trump did a pump and dump on NFTs, meme coins, and most recently the literal US economy. He is not even investigated for securitys fraud.
And now the really really bad things:
- Deported legal residents without due process and with secret “evidence” that no one is willing to share past “terrorism and national security”
- Ignored the supreme court and deported innocent people to a literal concentration camp. This is the 101 of a democracy being shattered, the authority ignoring the law and the police (ICE in this case) listening to the authority and not the law.
- Has now publicly and shamelessly announced that legal, US born citizens are next. This is past illegal, this unconstitutional and is the very thing the founders of the USA had in mind when writing the constitution.
And all of this without mentioning Trump as a private person being a convicted felon, rapist and a failure of a businessman to a degree that any sane person wouldn’t let him run a fucking easy-bake oven bakery.
So, am I crazy or did we just witness the actual moment that historians would label as the fall of the US democracy?
Rage, disappointment, fear. Also for now the strange feeling that despite everything my life isn’t any different than it has been for the most part. I do feel some hope as I have been going to protests and watching the numbers of people there rise every day.
The scariest thing about everything is just how absurdly powerful the US military is, and knowing that they have chain of command which has Donald Trump at the top. My instinct keeps telling me I should flee, but to where? Canada? I could see a possible future where that would make sense, but I also see a possible future where Canada becomes just as bad.
I know someone that fled Croatia in the 50s to become a refuge and a stateless person. He made his way to the US via Germany, eventually getting naturalized and having a successful life and family.
This may be the last path open to us: Flee to a rational Euro country and seek asylum. Be the refugees that they push us to be.
European countries are also passing laws preventing mass-immigration through their borders. Of course, they are responding to Muslims and other brown people, but really, their fear of losing their culture is aimed at all foreigners equally. I’m not sure that asylum will be available or that current citizens will be welcoming to incoming American refugees.
Honestly, I’d be happy to become truly integrated into another culture and country and land. Like, if I end up as a refugee in another country, don’t naturalize me, don’t give me the right to vote until I’ve forgotten American values and culture. I don’t wouldn’t want to taint my new home with the same American biases that led to fascism. I want to learn better values and ways of relation.