Proto-Fascism Unleashed: How the Republican Party Sold Its Soul and Now Threatens Democracy

Abstract This essay argues that some forty years ago the Republican Party struck a Faustian bargain whereby it traded tolerance and democratic integrity for tax cuts and a corporate dominated economy. Now, the Republican party is reaping the consequences of that bargain in the form of its capture by Donald Trump and his followers. However, it also means we are all threatened as the party has unleashed and legitimized proto-fascist tendencies that risk destroying democracy and tolerance, and replacing them with intolerance and authoritarianism. The U.S. is now fighting a war for its own soul. At issue are two core questions. One, will the U.S. remain committed to true democracy? Two, will the U.S. aspire to having a decent society with shared prosperity? The one upside of Trump and his purging of the old guard Republican Party is that he compels welcome clarification of those questions, which can no longer be evaded by the Democratic Party and the chattering class.