I believe that fascism is an existential threat to America’s democracy and it is no longer a forgone conclusion that America will remain a democracy for the duration of my lifetime. In an attempt to alert the American public of my concern, I have written many articles on this subject and list some at the bottom of this blog posting.
I am aware that some (many, most, or all) of my readers think that my concern about the end of democracy in America is a result of either politically naiveté or being overly histrionic. To address this concern, I have created a list of reputable thinkers and politicians who are similarly concerned that authoritarian and fascist ideologies have made inroads into America’s political system and are now a serious threat to the future of America’s democracy. It is my hope that the gravity of the intellectual talent enumerated below will convince the American electorate that authoritarianism and fascism will be the single most important issue facing the American electorate in the 2024 election.
The Atlantic magazine’s January/February 2024 issue is entitled “If Trump Wins” with essays on various topics including:
- David Frum on autocracy
- Anne Applebaum on NATO
- McKay Coppins on the loyalists
- Caitlin Dickerson on immigration
- Barton Gellman on the Justice Department Sophie Gilbert on misogyny
- Zoë Schlanger on climate
- George Packer on journalism
- Sarah Zhang on science
- Franklin Foer on corruption
- Michael Schuman on China
- Adam Serwer on the courts
- Juliette Kayyem on extremism
- Elaine Godfrey on abortion
- Megan Garber on disinformation
- Clint Smith on history
- Ronald Brownstein on partisanship
- David A. Graham on normalization
- Vann R. Newkirk II on civil rights Spencer Kornhaber on freedom
- Tom Nichols on the military
- Helen Lewis on the left
- Jennifer Senior on anxiety
- Mark Leibovich on America’s character
Added 12/28/2023
Damon Linker: a former columnist at The Week, writes the newsletter Notes From the Middleground.
Get to Know the Influential Conservative Intellectuals Who Help Explain G.O.P. Extremism
“…many of the right’s most prominent writers are ceasing to behave like citizens … in favor of thinking and acting like commissars eager to serve a strongman.”
Added 11/4/2023
Bill Kristol, neoconservative writer, commentator, editor
Anne Applebaum, Journalist, historian
“almost every democracy in history ended in authoritarianism”
Book: Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lose of Authoritarianism
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Historian at New York University
Book: Strongmen
Michael Beschloss, Presidential Historian, author
Democracy Is On The Ballot and Fascism Lingers In The Shadows
President Joseph Biden
Secretary of State Hillary Rodam Clinton
David Frum, Political commentator, author, speechwriter for President G.W. Bush
Book: Trumpocalypse
Jonathan Haidt, Social psychologist, author at New York University
“We now have a Republican Party that describes a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol as “legitimate political discourse”
Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, Political scientists at Harvard University
“Donald Trump is very much – is a pretty authoritarian figure.”
Book: How Democracies Die
Jon Meachum, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, at Vanderbilt University
Book: The Soul of America
Yascha Mounk, Political scientist at Johns Hopkins University
Book: The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure
Book: The People vs. Democracy
President Barack Obama
Obama to Tim Kaine in October 2016 “You’ve got to keep a fascist (Trump)out of the White House.’”
President Obama Asks Red & Blue America To Unite For Democracy
George Packer, Journalist, National Book Award winner
Book: Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal
Jonathan Rauch, Author, Journalist
“a second Trump term could bring about the extinction of American democracy…Trump has demonstrated in the United States … [t]he public will accept authoritarianism, provided it is of the creeping variety… Trump and his followers openly plan to emulate Orbán” who ended democracy in Hungary,
Book: The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth
Book: The People vs, Democracy
Senator Mitt Romney, Utah and former Governor of Massachusetts
“… preserving liberal democracy is an extraordinary challenge …authoritarianism is in ascendency”
Timothy Snyder, Historian at Yale University, award winning author
Book: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Laurence Tribe, University Professor Emeritus of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School
If Garland doesn’t prosecute Trump, the rule of law is “out the window”
I intend to add, subtract, and correct entries on this list as additional information becomes available.
Below are a some of my writing in which I address issues relevant to America’s downward spiral from democracy and evolving into an illiberal democracy, authoritarian or fascist government.
- Fascism is Coming to the U.S.A.
- The Negation of Expertise Precedes the Rise of Fascism
- Our Illegitimate, Illogical, and UnAmerican Supreme Court
- Donate Now. Inaction is Tantamount to Complicity.
- A New American Patriotism and The American Flag
- Move Presidents Day to Election Day
- Federal Red-Lines and Massachusetts’ Relationship to the Federal Government
- The Republican Party has become “The Party” of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eight-Four
- How to End Gerrymandering, Big Money and Americans’ Distrust of Federal Institutions
- Biden’s Most Important Political Priority
- 8,300 House of Representatives Will Help Fix America’s Democracy
- Democracy in America was Fantastic!!
- and many others.
For additional writing on this subject, see the New York Times Reading list, It (fascism) Can Happen Here: 8 Great Books to Read About the Decline of Democracy.
Hayward Zwerling
3 April 2023