To date, Trump has crushed his opponent in all the Republican primaries including the one in Missouri. Nikki Haley has only won the Washington, DC primary. That wouldn’t ordinarily be surprising for a former president. What is shocking is that Trump is facing 91 criminal charges, 600 possible years of prison, a half billion dollars in legal penalties and millions more in legal fees. What is frightening is that he’s destined to become the GOP’s presidential nominee, paving the way to the U.S. presidency once again.
This man is dangerous for sure. He has boldly and loudly laid out his plan to turn this wanna-be democracy into an oligarchy or worse, an autocracy. A Trump dictatorship would look like an American version of Russian Vladmir Putin’s.
It is the wave of supporters that Trump and the extremist wing of the GOP have methodically amassed and indoctrinated over the last decade who are far more dangerous. They give the orange man his power and more importantly, they influence the party politics. They reward those who hold the party line and carry out their anti-Black, anti-women, anti-gay, anti-Muslim agenda. They severely punish those who don’t. Those who want to make America white again aka MAGA have waged a successful coup of the Republican Party. And won!
Conservatives are playing the long game that centers white supremacy, a pathological ideology that employs fear and hate, as the prevailing unifier. The Democratic Party and our righteous social movements are supposedly rooted in pluralism, equity and justice—all the good stuff, right? But we are playing to tactics, not a bodacious strategy. This has proven to be insufficient and ineffective as we continually fight to maintain our past gains.
These folks must be confronted not only by protests but by a highly organized, consolidated force of conscious people who are committed to the idea of democracy and who are willing to fight for their beliefs by any means necessary.
Our side is stuck on mobilizing people, mainly to get to the polls and vote for the lesser of two evils. Our base of supporters must be continuously educated and politically engaged around the lofty goals of participatory democracy. We must continue to deepen and expand this empowered base.
There are some who have wished for Trump’s demise in order to slow down the march to fascism in this country. Such a thing would only embolden and agitate this base who are loyal to the goal of making American white again, not to any specific single leader.
Our side is prone to reacting to every issue and injustice thrown at us. Then we waste valuable time and concede precious ground having pity parties when we lose. Our base must be clear on what must be done, how it must be done and why it must be done.
The tensions around 2024 elections are real. We hear chatter about states seceding from the union, about people preparing for civil war in this country. We who believe in freedom must hit the reset button. Ours is the task of strategically building people power and moving as if we truly understand this current threat against our democracy. Let’s be serious about accepting the imperative to build a civil and just society for generations to come.
