Nothing about this is normal.
On Saturday, Donald Trump returned to Butler, Pennsylvania, and held a rally at the same location where he survived an assassination attempt last July. He was greeted by the many thousands of gathered MAGA fans.
Fascism is a form of religious politics; it exists outside of the normal politics of voting, campaigns, parties, “the presidential horse race” and public opinion polls that the mainstream news media are so obsessed with; on Saturday, Trump was elevated, even closer, to full God King status.
To that point, Trump’s return speech was accompanied by an operatic “commemoration” to mark the exact moment that the assassination attempt occurred in July. This was surreal and frightening, a fascist spectacle right out of Mussolini’s Italy and a Dario Argento Italian horror movie. I am surprised that the MAGA people in Butler did not lay prostrate before Trump so that his feet would not touch the ground when he walked or tried to touch his clothes so that they could be blessed and/or cured of some horrible disease.
With less than 30 days until Election Day, Trump and his surrogates are in full-on attack mode as their feral politics are turned up to the extreme. If put back in power, Trump and his regime will work tirelessly to end America’s multiracial pluralistic democracy. The events at Trump’s return rally in Butler are a preview of what will happen to the country as he becomes a dictator who rules by claiming divine authority and permanent emergency powers both to serve his authoritarian and fascist political agenda and advance his corrupt and perverse personal goals.
Donald Trump and his forces (and their allies abroad) are opposed by Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party, the larger pro-democracy movement, and those everyday Americans who understand the existential danger that Trumpism and the MAGAfied Republicans and the larger neofascist movement represent. The question is, are there enough of these Americans who will vote on Election Day (especially in the battleground states that will decide the final outcome in the Electoral College) to stop them?
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In an attempt to make better sense of this unprecedented and truly historic election and where we are as a nation in these remaining weeks, the larger democracy crisis, our collective feelings and anxieties, and what may happen next, I recently spoke to a range of experts.
Steven Beschloss is a journalist and author of several books, including "The Gunman and His Mother." His website is America, America.
Based on all the available data, I am convinced that Kamala Harris will win the election, even as the tight polling in battleground states remains worrisome. Her remarkable, joyful campaign and likely win is a reason for optimism, of course. Her large rallies, which I’ve attended, are an extraordinary outpouring of relief and hope for democracy. I am........