America’s democratic foundations have collapsed, according to journalist Garrett Graff. The United States has crossed the threshold into authoritarianism under President Trump’s second term. From military occupations of opposition-led cities to arbitrary detentions and corporate extortion, the U.S. is looking a lot like Germany in 1933.
Graff presents the evidence in his piece, “America Tips Into Fascism“:
Military occupation of cities: “American fascism looks like the president using armed military units from governors loyal to his regime to seize cities run by opposition political figures”
Threats against states: “Word came over the weekend that the president is now drawing up plans and explicitly threatening domestic political opponents like the governors of California and Illinois with similar military occupations”
Arbitrary stops and ID checks: “America has become a country where armed officers of the state shout “Papers please!” on the street at men and women heading home from work, a vision we associate with the Gestapo in Nazi Germany or the KGB in Soviet Russia”
Abductions without due process: “masked men wrestle to the ground and abduct people without due process into unmarked vehicles, disappearing them into an opaque system”
Corporate extortion: “It looks like a president, who is supposed to be the figurehead of the party of small government, is extorting US companies for the regular act of doing business — earning his good will in recent weeks has required seizing parts of major US companies or imposing bizarre taxes on others.”
Purges of officials: “agency by department, people who try to uphold the rule of law are being purged — sometimes for nothing more than personal friendships or because they voiced an inconvenient fact“
Attempts to control culture: “Trump assumes he can control and dictate our history, what books we read, our arts, and even our sports heroes“
Graff concludes, “Where America goes from here is a story yet to be written. It will surely get worse — Trump’s push now is clearly focused on locking in an illegitimate claim to power. Whether we can come back from this moment is a story yet unknown. But it’s clear today America is different and, even if we fight our way back, it will never be the same again.”
