Over the last couple of days, we’ve been talking about the indictment of Donald Trump. I want to offer a few closing thoughts — for now, anyways. How much does this matter? A great, great deal. To understand why, really, though, consider the context, which goes like this. America’s in a pitched battle — still — for the survival of its democracy.
In an irony that would’ve made Marx proud, America’s fanatics have learned to seize control of the means of democracy itself. They’re taking control of the basic workings of democracy from the bottom up. Fanatics contest school board seats, shouting death threats at teachers. In Wisconsin, a figure who was involved in putting forth fake slates of electors is now…in a heated race for sitting on the state Supreme Court. In Florida, of course, the laboratory of American extremism, Ron DeSantis has become an expert in decentralizing power, and handing it to fanatics, who are then able to ban books, words.
What was once a battle for American democracy from the top down has become one from the bottom up. State after Red State is turning dystopian, at light speed — banning everything from womens’ rights to LGTBQ rights. Parents and kids are scared. Teachers and classes are criminalized. There seems to be no end or bottom to this race. Vigilante paramilitaries. Tip lines. Shadow institutions, reminiscent of Gestapos and SS’s. And this contest is about taking inalienable rights — which belong to everyone — away.