The Acceleration of American Fascism

Demagogues Don’t Want To Be Above the Law. They Want To Be the Law.

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By now, you’ve seen the tweet above (can we still call them tweets?) That’s Donald Trump, saying that he’ll “be coming for” anyone who “goes after” him. In response, Jack, the Special Counsel prosecuting him, took out a protective order. And of course the internet lit up in outrage — many said that this was a clear violation of Trump’s terms of release, which include not…trying to intimidate witnesses and prosecutors.

What’s all this about? Some have said: it’s about Trump not being above the law. And this kind of thing — a not-so veiled threat — is a way that such figures like try to put themselves above the law. In fact, as an observer, a witness, and a scholar of social collapse, something much worse is afoot here.

It’s not just about demagogues being above the law. It’s about demagogues becoming the law. Let me explain. These are different things, different degrees of authoritarian collapse, and the latter’s much more severe than the former. Above the law means, of course, laws don’t apply to you. But becoming the law means you make them — you set the rules by which the rest of society then has to abide. See the difference, and how much worse the latter is than the former?

Let me illustrate with an example.

What happens when Trump-like figures aren’t just above the law, but become the law? We don’t have to think very hard. Look at Florida. Ron DeSantis’s Florida. The strange, beleaguered, bewildering place it’s become. Florida’s been mismanaged to bits — leprosy, of all things, is on the rise, it has the highest insurance rates, it’s living standards are plummeting, and so forth. That’s because DeSantis wasn’t just above the law — he became the law.

And instead of managing his state for any degree of modern sanity, progress, prosperity — he focused on a bizarre series of “culture wars.” Every group in society is fair game for hectoring, abuse, and harassment — right down to a mega-corporation like Disney. Teachers, professors, doctors, families — they’ve all been criminalized. Special police forces are being constructed. Certain ethnicities can’t buy property anymore — think about that for a second. First, books were banned — now high school classes in psychology are. “Don’t say gay” became the law — and it wasn’t an ending, it was just a beginning.

That’s what happens when demagogues become the law.