The Trial Lawyer Winter 2022 | Page 95

OUR NEXT STRUGGLE : DeSantis Inheriting Trump ’ s Fascist Mantle

By Thom Hartmann
The elections appear to be a mixed bag , with young people and women , in particular , rejecting the rightwing Supreme Court Dobbs abortion decision . The early youth vote in Wisconsin , for example , was 360 % higher than in 2018 according to Ben Wikler , the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party .
It ’ s a good start toward returning sanity to our nation , although even in Wisconsin , that state ’ s House , Senate , and delegation to the US House of Representatives all remain in Republican hands because of massive gerrymandering .
And Donald Trump says he ’ s going to make a “ major announcement ” next week . If Republicans seize control of the House ( as it appears they will do when all the election results are in ), the January 6th Committee will be shut down , and with it much of our nation ’ s ability to publicly hold Trump accountable for his crimes in office .
This may be the political end for Donald Trump — although that proclamation has been made prematurely many times before — but if Trump collapses because so many of his candidates failed , Ron DeSantis is now in the strongest position ever to inherit Trump ’ s fascist mantle .
And make no mistake about it : DeSantis has been a careful student of Donald Trump ’ s successes and imitates him right down to wearing similar suits and using identical hand gestures and rhetorical flourishes .
Because of our flirtation with Trumpism , we now have two systems of government in a duel with each other in America today : Trump / DeSantis fascism and democracy .
In those mostly-Blue states whose leadership believes in democracy , a primary goal of government is to make it as easy to vote as possible for the largest number of citizens .
In those mostly-Red states whose leadership believes in Donald Trump ‘ s American version of fascism , the goal is to prevent as many people as possible from voting , reserving that right exclusively to a specific in-group .
Democracy holds that the will of the people — as expressed through free and fair elections with the widest possible
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