Dissent

It is tempting to call our new president a fascist. Yet nailing the F-word to Trump is a temptation we should resist. While thoroughly abhorrent, he does not live down to the standard of tyranny set by erstwhile dictators in Germany or Italy, or their latter-day disciples in other parts of the world. What’s more important, a fixation on Trump’s authoritarian personality obscures the real menace that he, with support from nearly every Republican officeholder, represents. We have to keep building a movement of resistance. Our main target must be Trump’s awful policies, not the despicable performer who boasts about his greatness, while his reactionary party is busy trying to make America meaner and less equal again.