This is Bob Avakian—REVOLUTION—number 105: answering some big questions, and refuting dangerously wrong arguments.

First, this basic question, which many people are not clear about: What is fascism—and what specifically is this Trump/MAGA fascism?

Fascism is the open, undisguised dictatorship of an oppressive system. Trump/MAGA fascism represents the open, undisguised dictatorship of the system of capitalism-imperialism that rules in this country—the country that is the world’s most powerful capitalist-imperialist plunderer of people and the environment.

In my messages numbers 82, 83 and 84 I go into this more extensively, but to summarize here some crucial points:

Despite constant attempts to mislead people away from a true, scientific understanding of this, the rule of the capitalist class, in any form, is actually a dictatorship: it is the monopoly of political power by the capitalist class—and in particular its monopoly of “legitimate” armed force and violence, by its police and military. This dictatorship is based on the domination of the economy by the capitalist class: its ownership and control of what is produced, how it is produced, how goods and services are exchanged (sold) and the profits that come from this.

In the “democratic” form of this capitalist dictatorship, people are, to varying degrees, allowed certain rights, and the “rule of law” is applied as a general principle, even while all this is based on, confined within, and conforming to the rule of the capitalist class and the oppressive relations of the capitalist system. (In today’s world, this is the system of capitalism-imperialism. Capitalism-imperialism refers to the fact that capitalism has, for some time, been an international system of exploitation and oppression.)

In the fascist form of capitalist dictatorship, the “rule of law” is essentially what the fascists say it is, and the rights of people are more or less openly limited to what is allowed by the fascists, while such rights are only extended to those who go along with the rule of the fascists.

As I made clear in my 2017 speech about the first Trump regime (The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!—available at revcom.us), the program and policy of Trump/MAGA fascism is:

relentlessly assaulting civil rights and liberties and openly promoting bigotry and inequality; acting with callous disregard or cold-blooded malice toward those they consider inferior and a drain or stain on the country; on a mission to deny health care to millions who will suffer and many who will die without it; crudely degrading women, as objects of plunder, breeders of children without the right to abortion or birth control, subordinate to husbands and men in general; defying the science of climate change, attacking the science of evolution, and repudiating the scientific method overall... intensifying state terror against Muslims, immigrants and people in the inner cities; unleashing and giving encouragement and support to brutal thugs spewing vile “America First,” white supremacist, male supremacist and anti-LGBT venom—a regime that boasts of all this and declares its intention to do even worse.

And, although, in the recent election, Trump posed as some kind of “anti-war” candidate, during his first time in power he ordered a number of acts of war—and he threatened more than once to use nuclear weapons.

Now, with Trump coming to power again—having learned from his previous experience, having “vanquished his enemies” electorally, and moving to do so in the legal arena, with the vengeance he has openly proclaimed—Trump will be determined to do far worse.

As I emphasized in Hope For Humanity On A Scientific Basis (also available at revcom.us), while capitalist dictatorship in any form is very oppressive of the masses of people, and needs to be overthrown, an overt fascist dictatorship will mean that the oppression, atrocity, plunder and destruction that is built into this system will be carried out more openly and aggressively, without the usual pretense of rights for the people or concern for the environment.

All this is the answer to those who, in one form or another, argue for going along with this fascism, or “playing by the rules of this system” in opposing this fascism—when it is this system that has given rise to this fascism, along with all its other atrocities.

As I spoke to in message #103, the leaders of the Democratic Party, after finally feeling compelled to speak to the reality that Trump is indeed a fascist, are now aiding and facilitating this fascism.

Some who are tied to, or resist breaking with, the Democrats, and the system they represent, make this argument: “We are going to be ok. We survived Nixon and Reagan, and we can survive Trump.”

This ignores the very important reality that what is represented by Trump/MAGA fascism, especially this time around, is in a whole different dimension, and on a whole other level, than what was involved with Nixon and Reagan.

It is crucial to understand this analysis from my speech The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!: Nixon represented a move of the Republican Party in the direction of fascism, and with Reagan there was a further move in that direction. And, after George W. Bush took things still further in a fascist direction, the Trump/Pence regime, which came to power in 2017, made the leap into all-out fascism.

Now, with Trump coming to power again, after his loss—and his refusal to accept his loss—in 2020, there has been another major, qualitative leap: fascism with a vengeance, making clear that it will not accept any limits or restraints on this fascism.

Trump is determined, and already making preparations, to carry out his horrific fascist program. Only determined resistance, involving growing numbers of people and becoming truly massive, holds the possibility of creating a situation in which he will be prevented from doing so.

All this is the answer to the perverted argument that Trump won the election this time, so “in the name of democracy,” we have to accept the results and let Trump carry out his program. Well, Hitler also came to power through the “normal, legitimate” processes of democratic (“Weimar”) Germany in the 1930s, so should people have accepted that—with all the horrors it involved?!

If, in this country today, the fascist Trump is coming (or returning) to power as a result of the “normal” processes of this system, that does not make this fascism legitimate and something people should accept—instead it reveals the thoroughly rotten and fundamentally illegitimate nature of the system of capitalism-imperialism as a whole.

This powerfully demonstrates that, while a determined fight must be waged against this Trump/MAGA fascism—uniting all who can be united in this fight—in order to uproot the basis for this fascism, along with all the other atrocities of this system of capitalism-imperialism, it is necessary to finally abolish this system, and bring a much better system into being.

Coming Soon: Defend the Rights and Lives of People Targeted by Trump/MAGA Fascism. Take the Offensive in Opposition to This Fascism And The System That Has Given Rise to This Fascism.