If you would be so kind, can you please explain your thoughts as to why? I am really pessimistic about it and would very much like not to be. Recent events like
what occurred in Hungary makes me very worried that more countries are going to slip into fascism - including the US - and it could lead to those entities (in some way) attacking others and the world, or allowing another superpower - most likely China - to become a far more influential leader which would be very very bad.
I have a real problem with people throwing around the term "fascist" knowing very little on the subject. Could the US slip into fascism? Yes but that could have happened at any time. Is Trump a fascist? No, I doubt he even grasps what it is. But there are people very close to him that certainly do and that are creating policy and donors that very much want, at the least, an authoritarian president.
The GOP and most Dems are actually to blame here - they allow this to run unchecked because they all benefit from it. The ones that try to fight it are outgunned and they eventually give up to varying degrees. I want people to understand what actual fascism is, how it generally fails when democracy is strong and how the resistance to it have been with us all along. Everyone in the US should be inherently anti-fash, we fought a war against the ideology. Because why wouldn't you be?
Here are some positives:
There is a political uprising coming. COVID made it unstoppable. 6.6 million newly unemployed as of today. Bet against it at your own peril.
The de-militarization of American patriotism - More people will start to understand patriotism more as cultivating the health and life of your community, rather than blowing up someone else’s community. Perhaps (and I have already seen this) people will direct that - Thank you for your service - to doctors, nurses and health professionals that have been saving, not killing people.
A return of serious science and expertise - The US has become a fundamentally unserious country, mostly due to Trump and the MAGA movement being taken seriously and handed power and people actually thinking their opinion carries as much weight as expertise and knowledge on matters they have NO idea about. .Why does everyone know Dr. Fauci? Because he's an expert. Why are there death threats against Dr. Fauci? The same reason Trump is president.
Elections and voting - this will completely change. Online, mail, election "day" will now be election "month". This is already happening in many states, it will be national as people experience the convenience of early voting and/or voting by mail, they won’t want to give it up. More convenience will generate higher voter turnout, potentially transforming partisan competition in America.
A roll back of hyper-individualism - I think that a lot of people see that when this ends, the need will be to reorient our politics and make substantial new investments in public goods—for health, especially—and public services. You are watching in real time what happens when this is ignored.
Civic federalism - This is something I have been learning about and working towards for awhile. Civic federalism in which states and localities become centers of justice, solidarity and far-sighted democratic problem-solving. There are localities handling the pandemic better than others and often much better than the federal government.
Health care - A more efficient, far more resilient government approach will replace our failed, 40-year experiment with market-based incentives to meet essential health needs. Full stop. No one requires further explanation on this.
One idea I have heard about would be fantastic. Virtual congress. Congresspeople to return to their districts and start the process of virtual legislating—permanently. It's medically necessary at the moment but imagine - Lawmakers will be closer to the voters they represent and more likely to be sensitive to local perspectives and issues. As they should be. A virtual Congress is harder to lobby, as the endless parties and receptions that lobbyists throw in Washington will be harder to replicate across the whole nation.
It may also help solve a large problem - The House has not grown meaningfully in size since the 1920s, which means that a representative, on average, speaks for 770,000 constituents, rather than the 30,000 the Founding Fathers mandated. If we demonstrate that a virtual Congress can do its job as well or better using 21st-century technologies, rather than 18th-century ones, perhaps we could return the house to the 30,000:1 ratio George Washington prescribed.
I'm not saying these will happen the day after Covid is done. But most are going to be inevitable. Trauma always invokes change.
