Democracy Diary: The US is in fascism's legal phase

If Canada is thinking about what to do about US authoritarianism, shouldn't we?

In a recent newsletter, I talked about The Guardian’s excellent coverage of the creeping authoritarianism we’re already living under in the US, with gerrymandering and voter suppression widespread.

This article, by a Canadian professor, lays out why a full-on authoritarian regime in the US is very possible by 2030. (You get a certain number of Guardian articles, and then you have to register. That doesn’t mean you have to pay, but please subscribe if you find the articles valuable and have the financial ability to do so).

That strikes me as a long-view estimate. If Trump is reelected in 2024, we’ll get there almost immediately. Trumpists already control the Supreme Court, many of the lower courts due to years of an effective right-wing strategy to slow Dem appointments, and have gerrymandered and suppressed voting in many states to solidify the right’s control of state legislatures. Trump already practiced how to dismantle federal agencies and use administrative procedures (i.e., refusing to allow the administration to assist the incoming Biden administration).

It may already be too late for Congress to pass Voting Rights legislation to overcome these — meaning that we are very likely simply living in the waiting room of authoritarianism.

If the Voting Rights legislation does not pass by the end of February, the sensible thing would be for those opposed to authoritarianism to declare a state of emergency and organize massive strikes and civil disobedience. What worries me is that I don’t see anyone who seems to be planning to do that. Let me know if you see something different.