What Would America Look Like if the GOP Won Again?
France is the answer.
America has, time and again, given the benefit of the doubt to the party that’s deserved it the least. In the face of catastrophic prediction after prediction, it’s doubted whether things would actually be that bad. It was only when it saw how dreadful Trump was becoming, coupled with the death toll from the pandemic, did it decide to act. But now you find many falling into the same trap they once fell into in 2016 — one of complacency. They find themselves wondering whether the evil has left with Trump when it so obviously hasn't. They find themselves wondering whether “everything has gone back to normal” when it so obviously hasn't.
Because not only are the GOP more daring and less empathetic, they’ve now got young blood that’s ever-willing to carry the Trump legacy. That means more racism, lies, conspiracies and potential violence.
Logic therefore begs the question, will America make the same mistake in 2022? And what sort of a place would it become if it did? Let me show you what happened to a rich country when Far-Right authoritarianism wasn’t stopped dead in its tracks. A country that’s, in some ways, sunk further down the black hole of fascism than America did.
It’s one you probably associate with the words “liberty, equality and fraternity.” Well, not anymore. The very moral fabric of French society is being eroded by the Far-Right as we speak. The machinery of the state has been turned into a machine gun with the end pointed firmly at France’s 5.7 million+ Muslims. Their rights to practice elements of their faith are being prohibited by law. Devoutness is now being confused with extremism. The country’s largest anti-Islamophobia organisation was shut down by the government. Intellectuals having the courage to stand up to French fascism are being labelled “islamo-leftists.” And all for what?
Power. This is how the Far-Right spreads fear through the electorate in order to win votes. Remember how Trump said America had to build a wall to keep Americans safe from Mexicans? Or how it had to stop Muslims from coming into the country? It’s how Far-Right authoritarians establish themselves as “defenders of the people.” In France, Macron said the headscarf wasn’t in line with “French ideals.” He said he wanted to create “French Islam.” Doesn’t that do exactly what Trump did? Reinforce the notion of “us vs them?”
Does it surprise you then that an Islamophobic culture has become so entrenched that the French Senate voted to prohibit women under the age of 18 from wearing a headscarf in public? Regardless of the fact that the Lower House still has to vote, doesn't this show you how easily the Far-right can curtail the freedoms of over 5.7 million people?
Take into consideration how France’s other Islamophobe — Far-Right leader Marine Le Pen — is now neck and neck in the polls with Macron and you realise just how effective fascists are at selling their authoritarianism to the public.
And you’ve seen it before. Just like Trump gaslit Americans, the French Far-Right is gaslighting its people into believing they’re protecting their freedoms by taking away their freedoms.
What you end up with is a culture of fear. After all, this is only happening because you have to be “protected,” right? And Americans will be well aware of what a culture of fear does to a society. In one word — racism. America’s rife with it. But so is France. Between 42 and 58% — that’s at least 2.3 million people — have experienced discrimination simply because they were Muslims. That’s how hungry the Far-Right is for power.
And truth be told, you've already seen the warning signs in your own country. You’ve seen the GOP stoop lower than you ever thought they could. They let Trump incite racism. They let him spread lies about the election. They facilitated his coup. They acquitted him after. They’re the roadblock in America’s path to gun reform. They left an entire state to freeze to death. And you and I both know that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Which means, and you do have to ask, can you really put what’s happening in France past them? Can you really say they don’t have it in them? Know that the only way you can answer in the affirmative is if you take the GOP’s actions at face value — and that’s something you can’t afford to do. Why? Because there’s a string of events, a pattern behind their relentless assaults on democracy and morality. And that pattern dictates they’re only going to get worse.
Take Trump’s second impeachment as an example. When the Senate refused to convict, it told the world that an American president can incite a coup and get away with it. What something like that does is embolden both Trump and the politicians who stood by him.
You see, when politicians break democratic norms, they set precedents. That holds especially true if they were never held to account. You’ll know this if you've lived under authoritarianism like I have. You’ll know things like this don’t happen out of the blue. It’s a culture of authoritarianism that breeds such blatant disrespect for democracy.
Take it back even further to January 6. That coup didn’t happen out of nowhere. It was years of Trump’s authoritarianism being left unchecked that emboldened him. Before the coup, it was lies about the election — where no one stopped him. Way before that, it was the Wall on the Mexican border. No one stopped him there either. Then there was the Muslim Ban. You get the picture.
It’s this consistent betrayal of democratic norms and the notion of accountability that has allowed Trump to leave behind a playbook on how to get away with authoritarianism in America. On how to sell racist policies to the American public as measures designed to “protect” them. And do you know what that means? Boebert, Cruz, Greene and Hawley don’t have to start from scratch. They get to pick up right from where Trump left off. And since he already went after Muslims, his successors get to cherry-pick from America’s multitude of marginalised communities.
Take Black Americans as an example. Wouldn’t the GOP back policy that discriminates against them? Especially with all that we know about its culture of white supremacy and the “relationships” of certain members with Far-Right militias? When we know individuals like Marjorie Taylor Greene represent some of the most racist constituencies in America? Which way do you think they’re going to vote to keep them happy?
Put differently, how can you expect a party not to stoop any lower than it already has when becoming more wretched with time is all it’s been doing? And once you consider how that party, while being in the minority, still has a big say in what does or does not happen in America, doesn’t logic dictate you’re going to get full-blown fascism with them in the majority?
I mean, look at France. No one stopped Macron or his predecessors in time. No one stopped Marine Le Pen from proposing Islamophobic policies. The end result? The Islamophobia in France has become more deep-rooted, vile and is gaining public backing. You’re watching a democratic society crumble because it didn’t stop authoritarianism in time.
And Americans have been reminded time and again that the same could become of them. Even outside their borders, they’ve had India to look at. Now France. They’re being shown what dangers the Far-Right brings with it when it sets out to curtail your freedoms, attack your religion, and undermine your democracy. The question now is whether Americans will take note. Because not only could the consequences of not doing so be severe, but in an age where news travels in an instant, they can’t say they were never warned.
