I’m sure you all know this, but US elections are just horrible things. We can’t just have candidates win by popular vote—they get put through the electoral college, an opaque system that weights certain states far higher than others because it’s what the founding fathers wanted to do. (Every day I become more sympathetic to the idea that American civics are just as much a religion as they are a set of political ideals.) Every election I’ve lived through has convinced me quite plainly that they are nothing but a farce.

Who knew that fronting an unpopular candidate would get less people to vote for you? Certainly not the democrats. Kamala’s campaign has been an absolute shitshow, to say the least—she’s positioned herself as being a cop, a “law and order” candidate that will stop a convicted felon, while exuding an exquisite sort of anticharisma in her sparse interviews. Despite holding the second highest seat of power in the US, people seem to think that she is, as of the moment, completely powerless.

And that’s to say nothing of Donald Trump, who has managed to escape any sort of accountability for his crimes, political or sexual, because he’s a billionaire—he’s rich enough to shirk accountability and just do whatever the hell he feels like.

A lot of people are terrified that Trump’s presidency will be the beginning of fascism in America, but those wheels have been turning for decades now, since at least the 1970s. Every major Republican win you’ve seen has been building one on top of the other—within recent memory, George W. Bush’s entire presidency was built around his loyalty to Christian nationalism; Trump’s policies, if they are to be shaped around Project 2025, are simply the culmination of decades’ worth of planning by fascist think-tanks.

Democrats, by contrast, have been entirely reactive—they’re just rolling with the punches, never trying to build any sort of coherent political project; the Democrats have hardly been left of Reagan since the 1980s, with their platform being more about respecting American institutions and traditions than a clear vision. Yet, their role in American fascism, by placing so much emphasis on law and order, is not insignificant. Democrats worship cops, the military, and other institutions that beat the government’s will onto the bodies of anyone who speaks out against it. Tim Walz, for instance, called the national guard on protestors in 2020. Even if they’re not calling for Christian nationalism, they have been building up the institutions that can enforce it. The national guard, armed with assault rifles, patrol New York City’s subways for no other reason than to stop Crime—and, on 2024-09-15, four people (three bystanders and one cop) were shot by the NYPD because some guy jumped a turnstile, because of a $2.90 faire. Kamala’s campaign had a huge focus on strengthening the US border, a move wildly unpopular in many parts of the Democrat party.

And all of this says nothing about how both Republicans and Democrats have enabled a genocide in Gaza. I don’t think there is any kind of commentary I could give about Gaza, because the inhumanity of the situation speaks for itself—America has funded approximately 70% of this genocide.

The US media landscape has not made this situation any better—legacy news outlets peddle insipid trash, while social media has completely poisoned our rhetorical situation.¹ Again, there is nothing original I can say here—just download a copy of The Dialectic of Enlightenment or something and give it a read.

While the far right is catching on in many parts of the world, I want to see about leaving the USA. Given its political instability and the overwhelming movement towards fascism, I don’t know if I can stay—I’m terrified that, in a few years, I might be sent to a state sponsored conversion therapy clinic; I’m terrified that abortions might be performed with coat hangars again. I feel completely hopeless about the political situation here.

A better world is possible, and will always be possible. As of now, I think our best bet is to do anything we can—this includes networks of mutual aid (beyond just spotting $20 to each other every now and again), educating each other (which includes actually reading Marx, Engels, and others, instead of regurgitating whatever Lasallean shit you heard people say on the internet), and defending each other when need be. Perhaps there will be no capital-R Revolution, one where The People win militarily over the government, but we can build new projects and new experiments—even if it would be more difficult than simply voting every few years.