Nearly a year before he accepted the Republican nomination for president, Donald Trump’s authoritarian impulses already were too obvious to be ignored. By then he was encouraging physical attacks on undocumented immigrants, demanding the deportation of millions more, and constantly appealing to hatred and bigotry. He bragged of being the “most militaristic” candidate and denigrated the free press. So extreme was his rhetoric during those months that prominent conservatives — including several who now spinelessly truckle to him – warned of what his rise to power might portend.
His campaign reeked of an ideology that today can be named without hesitation. Trump has cultivated a constituency for fascism in America — and his most fanatical followers may soon pose a real threat to the republic.
Having lost a fair election by millions of votes and an Electoral College margin that Trump himself has defined as a “landslide,” he has mounted a campaign to discredit democracy with false allegations of fraud. Defeated repeatedly in courts and counting rooms run by Republicans, he has refused to desist from these debunked claims. Even as his followers threaten GOP election officials with mayhem, Trump has continued to stoke their rage. And now we are entering the darkest dimension of politics, as his henchmen predict “civil war” and demand that he impose “martial law.”