What can we do?
How can we stop the fascist coup that is underway?
What can we do?
It is clear that a fascist coup led by Donald Trump and Elon Musk is currently underway1 Each day the fascists and their brilliant circle of implementers launch a new attack on the pillars of our democracy and the core principles of our democratic culture.2
What can we do to halt the fascist onslaught?
We described the danger of what was developing. We warned of the risks of a fascist takeover. Now we are witnessing that takeover in progress.
Margaret Sullivan quotes Norman Ornstein as follows:3
The scholar Norman Ornstein had this to say: “We are in the middle of a fast moving putsch, a right wing authoritarian coup, a five alarm fire, and our media are treating it as if it were a little backyard bonfire.”
These are decisive hours for the future of our democracy, and indeed democracy throughout the world. As much is at stake as was at stake in the Battle of Britain, (1940) when Britain stood alone against the bombing of its cities by the German Luftwaffe (air force).
Younger readers who don’t know much about the Third Reich and World War II should start reading up on that history, which illustrates the enormity of the evil we faced then, which is comparable to the evil we face now.
If we are to survive the challenges that lie ahead, drawing inspiration and hope from the leaders and peoples who overcame the Nazi challenge will help us find our way.
What can we do?
The most important thing we can do is to understand the dire situation we are in, and the true dimensions of the catastrophe that lies before us if nothing changes.
It will not be sufficient to describe and analyze the daily depredations of a fascist movement which now controls the Executive Branch of the government of the United States.
Reporting the truth and analysis of developments is important, as only a true understanding of the challenges we face can successfully guide our actions.
But we must replace astonishment at what Trump and the fascists are doing with a grim and iron determination to halt their further advances and to roll back their gains as we gather strength.
The first imperative is to remove 47, the wrecking ball in chief, from the Oval Office, at the earliest opportunity.4
The second imperative is to remove Elon Musk from the White House, and from the government altogether. He understands media, propaganda, and information flows. He seems to be a unreconstructed white supremacist from South Africa. He is a brilliant strategist. As the richest man in the world he has become a megalomaniac.
Given his recent Nazi salutes before a rightwing audience and his support for the far-right AfD party in Germany, many may now question whether he is a neo-Nazi himself. He may represent a threat to democracy and the rule of law that is even greater than that of Trump.
The third imperative is to break up the band of billionaire oligarchs who currently back Trump and the other fascists.
No one should even think about buying a car from Tesla.
A boycott of Facebook and Meta platforms is a further possibility. As the anti-fascist movement gains strength, a boycott of Amazon is conceivable. Even a boycott of Google and its main products could become possible.
But just to list these possibilities, except for the Tesla boycott, is to grasp how formidable the challenge is that we face.
The first and most important step is to cast aside all illusions and to grasp the fact that the United States is now governed by a fascist regime.
The challenge is no longer how to prevent a fascist takeover. That has already happened.
The daunting challenges now include that of how to stop further damage from the democracy wrecking ball of Trump, Musk, and their fascist supporters.
The greatest challenge, of course, is how to wrest power from their iron grip.
See James Rowles, “Building the Techno-Fascist state? Elon Musk takes sole control of the Orwellian Department of Government Efficiency, Trenchant Observations, January 23, 2025 (8:13 a,m,);
See Andrew Duehren, Maggie Haberman, Theodore Schleifer, and Alan Rappeport, ”Elon Musk’s Team Now Has Access to Treasury’s Payments System; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave Mr. Musk’s representatives at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending,” New York Times, February 1, 2025.
Margaret Sullivan, “The split personality of Big Journalism in covering this nightmare; The reporting is essential. But what about the ability to make sense of the chaos and sound the alarm?,” February 3, 2025.
See James Rowles, “Is it too soon to speak of removing 47? REVISED; Better too soon than too late, Trenchant Observations, January 29,
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James Rowles is a former Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and professor of international law at other universities.
He studied the history of Nazi Germany at Stanford, and has studied and worked on human rights, judicial reform, and access to justice projects in many countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and in Afghanistan and Russia. At Harvard Law School, he taught a course on “Law, Human Rights, and the Struggle for Democracy in Latin America”.
At the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the OAS, he worked on human rights cases involving forced disappearances, executions, and torture in a number of authoritarian countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Recent Books by the Author
James P. Rowles, The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021 (2024). Available on Amazon, and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
James P. Rowles, Don’t Be Stupid. Pay Attention, Damn It! Advice for Undecided Voters and Voters Leaning Toward Trump (2024). Available on Amazon,and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
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