So in an environment of constant pushback, I will push back against the pushback, or pushpushback, or pushbackback, to render the struggle into Orwellian Newspeak.

I don’t think there is any particular need to add the words “conspiracy theories” to the word “authoritarian.” Authoritarianism is bad enough, all alone, naked and unencumbered by conspiracy theories. And speaking of naked, it’s there on display, as naked as the Emperor’s new clothes, with no need for theories, conspiratorial or otherwise.

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When the press contradicts Trump, they are the enemy. When the courts block Trump, they are the enemy. Anyone who stands in Trump’s way is his enemy. And Trump has made it clear that you hit your enemies in a way that destroys them, including people and institutions who are there to protect the public interest. Authoritarianism, anyone?

And every bit as bad as the punishing of enemies is the relentless assault on facts and reality. Why does Trump continue to say things he knows can’t be true? Because his real target isn’t the thing he’s talking about, it’s the very concept that there is a reality separate from the one that issues forth from his circular cheerio lips. And together with his friends in the GOP and the conservative media, he is about halfway to his goal of confounding public discourse to the point of complete dysfunction. Authoritarianism, anyone?

Trump has made it crystal clear that he is not about trying to understand policy questions. He is about implementing whatever his whims and prejudices are, and to intimidate or destroy, insofar as possible, any effective check on his prerogatives. And the only way he can succeed is by dividing and picking off his opponents one at a time.

And the only way to stop him is to become, and stay, united in blocking his path to authoritarianism, this time, every time and all the time.