Lock up fascist criminals and rebuild America

By Jon Hochschartner 

We need to imprison the fascist criminals currently running the federal government and begin the process of rebuilding the country so the right-wing authoritarian takeover we’re now experiencing is never possible again. Any elected Democratic official who doesn’t comprehend this should be primaried by a candidate who understands the totalitarian threat we’re facing.

I’d prefer to advocate forgiveness toward such lawbreakers. It’s what the best of religious tradition calls for. However, President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have made it clear they can’t be swayed by appeals to reason or morality. The only thing they respect is raw power. Democrats must exercise this — if, with any luck, they’re provided another opportunity to do so.

Former President Joe Biden took what might be termed ‘the high road’ with ringleaders of the Make America Great Again movement, largely attempting to turn the page on their numerous crimes, including an attempted coup. Look where that approach has brought us. Now the fascists are once again in control of the government. Every day they push us closer and closer to dictatorship.

Beyond prosecuting Trump and his allies, Democrats must begin a rapid process of remaking this country to eliminate the threat of a similar right-wing power grab. One important step is packing the Supreme Court, which is fanatically conservative and deeply out of step with the American people. The existing justices will be an impediment to any forward progress we seek to make.

Ideally, Democrats would work to abolish the Senate, which advantages small, Republican states to an outrageous degree. At a minimum, they should try to add new, potentially liberal-leaning states to the Union, like Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Democrats must aim to to eliminate the Electoral College and create a modern, multiparty, parliamentary system.

To a certain extent, rage fueling the fascist movement is a product of economic inequality. The trouble is right-wing leaders are all too able to redirect this inchoate anger from where it belongs, on obscenely rich capitalists like Elon Musk, toward powerless groups, like immigrants and transgender people. Reducing economic inequality will, among other things, limit the appeal of fascism.

Personally, I’d like to see the United States move toward socialism, by which I mean democratic ownership and control of the economy. At the very least, however, some significant reforms of the capitalist system, on the level of the New Deal, are needed to stop the spread of right-wing authoritarianism. In order to save the country, Democrats must become genuine champions of the working class.

The anti-fascist coalition has a wide variety of policy goals. For instance, as an animal activist, I’d like to see a massive infusion of public funding into cultivated-meat research. If readers are unfamiliar with the term, cultivated meat is grown from livestock cells, without slaughter. I view the technology as the most promising means of reducing nonhuman suffering and premature death.

That said, no policy goals of the anti-fascist coalition can be achieved under a right-wing dictatorship. This is why elected Democrats have to be prepared to lock up the fascist crooks now running the federal government and rebuild the country so the ongoing totalitarian assault is never feasible again. Liberal politicians not on board with the broad strokes of the plan should get out of the way.

Jon Hochschartner lives in Connecticut. He is the author of a number of books, including The Animals’ Freedom Fighter: A Biography of Ronnie Lee, Founder of the Animal Liberation Front. Visit his blog at SlaughterFreeAmerica.Substack.com.