Is this really the dynamic that is driving so many "captains of industry" to throw in their lot with the fascists? Just some time at the trough of government money? Not even into their own pockets, but to prop up the balance sheets of their companies? Is that how little ideals mean to these people? "Good times create weak men", indeed.
The writing is on the wall. The opposition does not have any viable candidates, so it'll be 7 more years of Republican rule. What would you do if you were a large capitalist mega-corp? You wouldn't have much of a choice here.
I don't think repubs will be able to cross the midterms barrier! 7 years is just too far out. As sexist as it sounds, any male presidential democratic candidate would easily beat anyone from the other side in 2028, including the tanned guy.
This really depends, doesn't it? A GOO billionaire now owns the largest voting machine network; the GOP has a case in front of SCOTUS asking if they can intentionally racially segregate voting districts; Trump is deploying the military against US citizens with made-up cause while building an unaccountable secret police that require no warrants or habeus corpus.
If any of those are "fruitful" so-to-speak, Democrats may never have power again.
Remember, Donald Trump has tried:
1. A lightweight coup on J6 through supporters, but also by attempting to have secret service whisk away the VP before ratification of the election results.
2. To demand election officials "find" votes in Georgie.
3. Habitually denying the results of the election, including ones he won.
4. Claiming constitutional limits can be subverted by technicalities to allow lifelong rule with plenary authority (unitary executive + vice president handoff).
Now his head of the Department of Justice is outright stating that the majority of Democrats are criminals, Hamas terrorists, or illegal immigrants without evidence or even meaningful pushback. Which sounds an awful lot like what you say before using your gestapo to prevent them from winning elections...
I certainly wouldn’t “pitch” an idea about how to help further oppress the population of my country unless maybe, I agreed with the oppression and wanted to help. This is far from a Tim Cook “thank you for your leadership, here’s a nice plaque, can you not destroy us with tariffs plz” moment. This is a guy who called for having the military police SF.
2028 is 2 years away. In 2006, Obama was a U.S. Senator with less than 10% national name recogition [1]. In 2014, Trump was--at best--a political commentator.
Election cycles are getting longer. But social media also rewards meteoric rises that eclipse public vetting.
It didn't last 8 years last time, and Covid was one hell of an excuse. I'm not saying that the Democrats have a backbone for passing the type of opinionated legislation needed to repair most of the damage, but the clock is also ticking on how long overt fascism keeps hold appeal for its easy answer of might makes right and performative cruelty. Twenty years after the Iraq War and you won't find many people still thinking supporting that was the right side of history.
> Not even into their own pockets, but to prop up the balance sheets of their companies?
Capitalism's biggest moat - a monopoly on the taxpayer teat. This monopoly is best enabled by corrupt government officials who are willing to trade the teat for political gains.
For what it's worth, yes I have also characterized that mingling of corpo and bureaucratic government power as fascism. But I wasn't surprised by the upper class's embrace of bureaucratic authoritarianism, as it provided the stable foundation upon which they were able to thrive.
Autocratic authoritarianism is right on target of the original definition of that word "fascism" though, rather than having to stretch a bit. And with autocratic authoritarianism, red in tooth and claw, now running our society into the ground, I'm certainly not going to wax nihilistically about "both sides". Do you know what the Trump regime calls its equivalent of The Twitter Files? A Tuesday.
