by Jon Hochschartner
In order to prevent the United States’ further slide into totalitarianism and economic collapse, we must overthrow President Donald Trump’s fascist regime.
I hope this can be accomplished through legal or nonviolent means, but I know from reading history that change isn’t always possible through such ideal methods.
When we dislodge the cohort of gangsters running our government, we must ensure their kind of authoritarian movement is never able to take power again.
At the most basic level, that means imposing consequences.
Time and time again, Democrats have sought to turn the page following catastrophic instances of conservative extremism and illegality.
Republicans have interpreted such moves not as acts of mercy or patriotism, but as evidence of weakness. It’s only emboldened conservatives to push the envelope further.
We need to fundamentally reimagine our society, as prior generations did following the American Revolution and Civil War.
For instance, I believe we need to eliminate or transform those anti-democratic elements of our political system that have played roles of varying importance in Trump’s rise.
More broadly, though, we need to address America’s cavernous wealth inequality, which, besides being immoral in my view, has proven itself to be nationally destabilizing, creating conditions ripe for fascism.
Americans are justifiably angry about the state of the country.
However, Trump, like right-wing demagogues before him, has successfully redirected this inchoate populist rage away from its true capitalist culprits, toward powerless, vulnerable groups — in this case, immigrants, transgender people, and others.
I’d like America to move toward socialism, by which I mean democratic ownership and control of the economy.
But, at the very least, we must get rid of billionaires as a category.
People like Elon Musk amassing the level of political power they have, solely due to their wealth, is incompatible with the representative government.
The anti-fascist coalition has a wide variety of goals. However, none of our aims can be achieved under a right-wing authoritarian state.
That’s why we need to overthrow the Trump regime.
Again, I hope this can be done through the existing political process or mass peaceful demonstrations, but I know from history that would-be dictators like the current president don’t always allow such change to come about, absent the threat of some degree of physical force.
In recent years, I’ve grown more interested in the religious left, which is frequently pacifist. However, I can’t countenance America under a Trumpian dictatorship.
Any opinions, advice, or statements contained in our Open Forum section are
those of the author and/or the organization represented, and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of the Hawaii Filipino Chronicle’s editorial staff and
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JON HOCHSCHARTNER lives in Connecticut. He is the author of several books, including The Animals’ Freedom Fighter: A Biography of Ronnie Lee, Founder of the Animal Liberation Front. Visit his blog at SlaughterFreeAmerica.Substack.com.
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