Reposted from RefuseFascism.org

We Are the Only Force Left to Stop a Fascist Regime

By Sarah Roark

August 17, 2020 | revcom.us

 

Is anybody still unclear on this point?

I’m not saying don’t game out all the scenarios for

1) How Trump/Pence can and will sabotage the election

2) Whether and how Trump/Pence can be made to leave office after a loss

3) Whether the various armed bodies in the picture will side with the people or with the fascists.

Of course we have to game all that out. But if you do just a few of those, what you quickly realize is that shit is complicated; that a lot of this is ‘norms, not laws,’ or ‘a law, if you can enforce it;’ and that lawyers can make a case for just about anything to be legal or illegal, if they’re willing to do the contortions.

History has taught us this before, of course. But the last four years have been showing us in real time, in 4k HD, exactly how it will work in the 21st century.

NOBODY should still be unclear on the fact that power—neither law nor norm nor Reason nor human decency, but sheer raw naked power—will control the outcome of all this. And then the laws and histories will be written to retroactively conform to it.

This is, to be honest, how it usually works with humans anyhow. But when you have fascists in the picture, doubly so.

Lemme say that once again: Power, and only power, will determine the outcome here. All those other mechanisms will be employed to sanctify it after the fact.

I acknowledge this is the exact reverse of how society and democracy are supposed to work—i.e., laws, norms, decency and Reason determine the correct choices, and then power comes in (justified only by its principled submission to the democracy and its people) to enforce them. But never mind how things are supposed to work. This is how they do presently work.

I bring this up not to be more-cynical-than-thou but to make the case that if we want the human outcome, the humane outcome, the rational outcome, We the People in our sheer numbers are literally the only force left now that still has enough raw power to nonviolently make it happen.

Everything else can be and has been suborned, corrupted, and eviscerated by usurped state and ‘soft’ power. The bad guys are the ones with the greater will and ability to use unblinking, unthinkable violence to alter the balance of power in their favor. The only nonviolent counter that can outweigh that is us and our collective, flat refusal to go along. All other roads end in devastation. Our direct intervention is the one thing left that can actually prevent…well, horrors we frankly haven’t been able to imagine yet.

(Don’t scoff at me. How many of you have already said to me that you “never imagined” it would get as bad as it is right now? And somehow you still think your imagination can’t easily be exceeded again in the future?)

The good guys only prevail if we have the sheer raw naked power that…again…is what will truly determine the outcome here. The best means we have for claiming that power—the least damaging means, with the best potential for actually getting us all out of this mess—is sustained, nonviolent direct resistance from a true mass movement of the people. Should other methods also be employed? Of course. Harm mitigation? Yes. Procedurally delaying the worst? Fine. Voting? Oh, you bet your ass. But don’t kid yourself. None of those efforts can’t be wiped right back out by the fascists, if the masses aren’t standing up to stop them.

Look, it’s no use shooting moi the messenger on this, I’m just conveying the facts. The facts don’t care what is convenient. They don’t even care what’s just, or kind, or reasonable. They don’t care what preconceptions you need nurtured, or what positive illusions you’re desperate to cling to. They don’t care about ANY of our entirely understandable objections to being thrown into this horribly unfair situation that most of us never, ever asked for, and damned few of us deserve.

They don’t care. It’s annoying, but yeah. They’re just sitting there, being facts. What can still be altered is our response.

But we’re running out of time, gang.