I was napping when they broke into the Capitol. My wife, Martha, woke me to tell me the news. At that point, the riot (or “insurrection,” if you prefer, although I wasn’t thinking of it in those terms at the time) was a couple hours old; it appeared that Congress was safe, our representatives tweeting and cuddling each other in their undisclosed safety bunkers. Ok, I don’t remember any reports of “cuddling,” but I like to think of Susan Collins and Chuck Schumer holding each other tight.
Martha said she thought we were watching an important moment in American history. I said I didn’t think so; there’d already been so much insanity during Trump’s four years in office that the scene struck me as just another example–though a particularly dramatic one–of MAGA’s criminal exuberance. It was, I thought, Trump’s political death knell.
Five years after the fact, with our criminal president reinstated for a second term, I understand that day—and especially its aftermath—differently. January 6, 2021 was the day America broke.
Archive: http://archive.today/L3hAL
Well, fascism in America, like fascism in Germany and Italy, like any disease, is a spectrum. You’re running a mild fever one day, the next day your neck feels stiff and the third day you call your boss to tell them you’re staying home with the flu - and the official day your flu starts is day 3.
America in the 80’s was all kinds of messed up but it wasn’t fascist. It had fascistic traits, which wasn’t really obvious if you didn’t pay attention (I admit I didn’t) and are really obvious now with the benefit of hindsight, now that we’re all stuck in bed with a full-blown fascist fever.