Fascists Are Rallying Around Donald Trump

We must fight!

by ANDREW DOBBS

There was real fear in the weeks between Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States and his inauguration that he would install an autocratic government. Instead his administration has come across as more incompetent than tyrannical.

One key factor preventing the worst from coming to pass is that Trump hasn’t yet built an independent base of mass political power willing to use force as he dictates.

Mussolini had his Blackshirts. Hitler, the S.A. Other despots have had goon hordes that they could point at their political opponents or critics and force compliance. It becomes pretty moot what Congress or the courts or Constitution say when anyone stopping the leader gets the shit beaten out of them or worse. Such a force is indispensable for anyone trying to transition a democracy into a dictatorship.

Now, however, this mass element seems to be organizing itself, and fascists are taking to the streets with unprecedented audacity. In Austin, a May Day demonstration was trapped by a superior fascist force — a major turning of tables from past experience, when antifa elements overwhelmed the right.

Seattle has hosted its own militant May Day demonstrations for several years now, but this year “pro-Trump” forces joined in the fray, violently clashing with Leftists downtown. “Make America Great Again” marches on March 25, 2017 saw violence between fascists and anti-fascists in Denver, Philadelphia and Milwaukee, according to the anarchist anti-fascist website It’s Going Down.

At one especially disturbing rally in Huntington Beach, California, far-right demonstrators pepper-sprayed, kicked and beat several counterdemonstrators, and even attacked reporters and news photographers.

This followed a series of clashes in Berkeley that began with a substantial advantage for leftists but have shifted to a more evenly-matched conflict.

Two things are clear here. Whether or not Trump has called them forth, a violent, far-right mass movement is coalescing right now in the streets, and Trump is the unifying symbol animating them.

These groups seem to be very eclectic, made up of traditional neo-Nazis and Klansmen, alt-right internet trolls come up from the basement, frat guys, conspiracy theorists, bikers, the hard-right remnants of the Tea Party, pro-police advocates, “patriot” movements and militia-supporters and open-carry and gun-rights activists, among others.

The media has taken to calling them “pro-Trump” demonstrators because support for Trump is what they have in common — and because their unifying symbols seem to be “Make America Great Again” hats, Trump signs and the U.S. flag.

They also seem to be coordinating through various online channels. They’re mobile — in Austin, at least, we discovered that fascist protesters had come from hundreds of miles away.

And make no mistake, they are violent. Even more than the scrapes and scuffles and beatings they perpetrate during demonstrations, there have been credible reports of hate crimes in the hours after their actions.

Oftentimes these victims aren’t reporting the crimes to the police, considering law enforcement’s affinity for Trump. There have even been out-of-town law enforcement officers among the fascists’ ranks at some clashes.