Those fearful at Trump’s victory may be reminded of Margaret Attwood’s renowned sci-fi novel and TV series, The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood’s vision of the imposition of fascism takes the form of an ultra-misogynistic clampdown with women being turned into baby machines and driven out of the workplace.
In a real Gilead, the imposition of fascism would likely be across a much wider political front. But in the 2019 book Creeping Fascism to which ACR authors contributed, the central argument is that modern fascism would likely proceed by the conquest of government and then the conquest of the state apparatus from within.
Neil Faulkner explains this policy, in relation to Germany in 1933 as follows:
A process gleichschaltung followed – that is, the construction of a totalitarian state by a process of merging of party and state and the purging of state institutions of oppositional elements by a mix of dismissal, intimidation, and indoctrination. The process was more protracted and incomplete in Italy than in Germany, but in both cases we can speak of a one-party fascist state.
But there is no point in a purely semantic debate about how to classify extreme right governments. Everyone knows that Hitler-style fascism is not likely to emerge in the short term. The real issue is whether the far right is proceeding to conquer the state from within, moving towards an historic breach with post World War 2 liberal democracy. Posed that way, Gilead is a process already under way. According to extreme right wing ideologue Steve Bannon, the difference between the first and second Trump governments is that now they know what they are doing: the programme is clear and the right personnel have been chosen.
“The real issue is whether the far right is proceeding to conquer the state from within, moving towards an historic breach with post-World War 2 liberal democracy.”
The Maximum Programme for an incoming Trump government has been written by the right-wing think tank, the Heritage Foundation, called Project 2025. Some of its key proposals, including the mass deportation of ‘illegal’ immigrants, have become central ideas for Trump and his team, although he denies all knowledge of the project.
The Trump programme will benefit from the fact that the Republicans now control both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court. Thousands of government jobs are likely to be reclassified as being ‘political appointees’, much easier to replace and staff institutions with Trump loyalists. Therefore, there will be far fewer avenues for resistance by defeating Trump’s programme through institutional means. Key items almost certainly to be pushed through are listed below.
A key marker for authoritarian intent is likely to be Presidential pardons for people sentenced over the January 6 2020 storming of the Washington Capitol building. More than 1200 people were charged over the riot and 478 were jailed. The harshest sentences were the 18 years given to Enrique Tarrio, leader of the extreme right racist group Proud Boys, and 24 years to Stuart Rose, key leader of the Oath Keepers, another extreme right group.
The key items for the new government are likely to be:
- The (re-)opening of massive attempts to deport millions of ‘illegal’ immigrants that will involve the abolition of the right to American nationality by birth, and the deployment of the military to assist the Customs and Immigration Enforcement agency (ICE). It is likely that this will involve full-scale raids on large workplaces. Attempts by local Democrats to resist deportations through ‘Sanctuary communities and sanctuary states will be the target` for Republicans, because immigration law is federal and local administrations can be compelled to collaborate by providing information about undocumented workers to ICE. The military will be mobilised to carry out deportations and guard the Mexico border, to back up the Border Patrol in dealing with attempted migrants. It is estimated that through the deportation of undocumented workers, and the delegitimising of the children of those who have green cards (i.e. permanent residence without citizenship) will amount to 12+ million target deportees. Thrown into the mix are foreign students and others who are found to have criticised or demonstrated against Israel, so-called ‘anti-semitic’ crimes. The logistics of deporting this number of people are very difficult, so the plan is to build huge camps as holding areas for the pre-deportation ‘illegals’’. A truly dystopian prospect.
- Trump’s victory is likely to embolden reactionary forces, particularly evangelical religious groups, to stage new attacks on women’s reproductive rights. This is almost certainly going to include state-level attempts to restrict abortion rights, in an attempt to make it even more difficult for women seeking a safe, legal abortion. An article by Anna Bernstein explains in detail how access to women’s reproductive rights are likely to be severely restricted.
- The incoming administration is likely to initiate its ‘’anti-woke” campaign by an offensive against universities, threatening to defund them over pro-Palestine demonstrations on campuses. The key accusation will be that of ‘antisemitism’, which will also be used against the pro-Palestinian movement as a whole. Prepare for a giant witch hunt against all those who don’t support Israel’s ethnic cleansing and mass murder in Gaza.
- The attempted decimation of government employment by the imposition of new ‘efficiency’ rules. The supremo in charge of this will be Elon Musk, able to give full reign to his anti-worker, anti-trade union bigotry. The sweep of national and local government employment is unlikely to include police and military agencies.
- The stepping up of tariff wars against China in particular.
- A deepening assault on the independence of schools and colleges in terms of what they can and can’t teach. This will all be wrapped up in the cloak of fighting ‘critical race theory’. Trump’s victory will encourage and enable local challenges to the content of education.
- The abandonment of all Biden-style doubletalk of restraint on Israel’s widening Middle East war towards an unlimited support for ‘do everything necessary to defeat Hamas and Hezbollah. The chances are that this will involve a big strike against Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities, but probably not against its infrastructure. It will also probably include doubling down on sanctions against Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.
- Pulling the United States out of the Paris Agreement that underpins the COP process of setting climate goals internationally. It might also involve a new purge of the Environment Protection Agency, or even its abolition.
This programme amounts to the most right wing US government since the 1920s There are two crucial issues facing radicals in the United States and internationally. First, why did Trump win and what needs to be done to resist the extreme right in the United States and internationally?
“The programme amounts to the most right-wing US government since the 1920s, with policies ranging from mass deportations to attacks on women’s reproductive rights and education.”
Why did Trump win? Left-wing senator Bernie Sanders said ‘Because the Democrats abandoned the working class, the working class abandoned the Democrats.’ Probably true, but a little misleading in so far as people in households earning less than $100,000 a year split 50/50 in the election. Certainly there was some working class desertion of the Democrats because, while the USA is a world leader in economic growth, this growth didn’t trickle down to the poorest who are disproportionately hit by inflation and job losses in key swing states..
But there is more to it than that. Trump put forward a narrative based on anti-immigrant racism, and ‘anti-woke’ social conservatism. It is likely that this ‘anti-wokery’ appealed to men across ethnic boundaries, blinded by hyper masculine tropes in popular culture.
As James Daniel Hoff points out, Trump won greater percentages among Black men and Latino people, especially men, than he did in 2019. The Trump campaign successfully tried to split these voters by anti-woke and anti-trans narratives.
“Trump’s narrative of anti-immigrant racism and ‘anti-woke’ social conservatism appeals to a broader cross-section of voters, exploiting divisions and amplifying reactionary forces.”
The powerful right wing American media will now swing behind Trump’s anti-woke attacks.
Mobilising the broadest possible campaigns against deportations and in defence of pro-Palestinian activism will be key elements in an anti-Trump fightback.
Part 2 of this article will appear soon.
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