So-Called Anti-Fascists Not Too Concerned About Fascism

The Democrats put up little protest as Trump arrests political dissident Mahmoud Khalil.

During the 2024 election campaign, the Democrats went on and on about the existential threat Trump posed to the republic, labelling him a fascist. Yet they were unwilling to decouple themselves from very unpopular policies and messaging tactics, instead sticking to a strategy that was bound to put Trump back in power. One would think that a party that’s primarily concerned with preventing a fascist takeover would be willing to pull out all the stops to win. But no, the Democrats refused to budge. And now that Trump has begun to use fascist tactics—like detaining political dissident Mahmoud Khalil without due process—the Democrats are largely complacent.

The Failed Anti-Fascist Campaign

During the 2024 presidential campaign, the people running the Democratic Party had plenty of information at their disposal that suggested their electoral strategy was doomed. Despite labelling the election “the most important of our lives” many times, the Democrats failed to tweak their strategy, behaving as if losing the election wasn’t a huge concern.

Of course, the greatest condemnation of the Democratic Party’s dysfunction was its inability to recognize that Biden was a liability until it was far too late. But the Democrats’ failure to adapt their policies and messaging suggests that stopping Trump and thwarting fascism were not as important to the party leaders as they claimed; rather, sticking to the core policy commitments of the party establishment was prioritized. And I’m not trying to claim that the Democrats should have fully swung to the left—to the contrary. They should have sought to put their policies in line with the majority of the voters they were trying to win over. Two examples:

First, despite a large majority of Americans disapproving of the IDF’s conduct and wanting to cut military aid to Israel, the Democrats maintained steadfast support for the war in Gaza, refusing even to let a Palestinian speak at the DNC. Trump miraculously managed to paint himself as the pro-peace candidate, promising to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza (and it seems he might actually pull this off). The Democrats, on the other hand, sent Bill Clinton to the swing state of Michigan to scold Arab and Muslim voters, telling them that Israel was forced to kill Palestinians and that the Israelis “were there first—before [the Muslim] faith existed.” In the election, Muslim voters abandoned the Democratic Party en masse.

Second, despite data repeatedly showing that populist messaging and progressive economic policies were popular with working class and swing voters, the Democrats veered away from populist messaging and toward pro-democracy and anti-fascist rhetoric—deemphasizing progressive policies like the child tax credit and the small business tax deduction. Perhaps that was popular with the people who run the party, but it was a wrongheaded electoral strategy.

Why are the Democrats allergic to popular messaging and policy? It might have to do with the party leaders—Pelosi and Schumer, namely—who represent strongly blue districts and states. They have little incentive to discipline the party because they don’t get electorally punished when the party loses.

Pelosi, Schumer, and Jeffries had each warned that Trump posed a grave threat to the United States and its democracy. And Joe Biden and Kamala Harris went so far as to label Trump a fascist. But their behaviour suggests they valued ideological purity over combatting fascism. The Harris campaign had been warned by its donors that attacking Trump as a fascist and neglecting to emphasize the needs of everyday Americans was a bad strategy. And the data convincingly showed that continuing Biden’s hawkish foreign policy was very unpopular.

It seems the Democrats preferred to valiantly lose while defending Israel and the economic status quo rather than shift their strategy to stop fascism. It’s either that or they’re so clueless they couldn’t read the data showing their electoral platform would fail.

Feckless as Trump Arrests Dissident

Well now we might have some evidence of why the Democrats failed to prevent what they labelled a fascist takeover: they don’t care that much about anti-fascist liberal ideals in the first place. On March 9, the State Department ordered the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia graduate who had led anti-war protests there. ICE officers entered Khalil’s university-owned building and detained him there.

According to Khalil’s lawyer, the officers claimed to be acting on orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa. Upon being informed that Khalil was a permanent resident with a green card, the officers said they were revoking that too. When Khalil’s attorney requested in a phone call that a copy of his arrest warrant be emailed to her, the agent from the Department of Homeland Security hung up on her. The State Department does not have the power to revoke green cards; only immigration courts can do that.

The federal government has been explicit in its aims to clamp down on political speech that it doesn’t like. Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweeted “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported".

A White House official admitted to the Free Press that the “allegation here is not that [Khalil] was breaking the law.” Rather, Khalil “was mobilizing support for Hamas and spreading antisemitism in a way that is contrary to the foreign policy of the US.”

As Michelle Goldberg wrote, “If someone legally in the United States can be grabbed from his home for engaging in constitutionally protected political activity, we are in a drastically different country from the one we inhabited before Trump’s inauguration.”

Trump is not trying to hide his attempts to curtail speech.

This goes directly against the president’s pledge to “[stop] all government censorship and [bring] back free speech in America.” I almost feel ridiculous bringing this up. Obviously, Trump is being a hypocrite. Obviously, he’s ignoring the Constitution. It’s not at all surprising that a politician as treacherous and contemptible as Trump would renege on a promise to protect free speech.

But it’s also not surprising, to me at least, that the Democrats have hardly put up a fight against Trump’s authoritarian gambit. Only 14 Democratic members of Congress signed a letter calling for Khalil’s release. For comparison, 95 House Democrats voted for a resolution in 2023 that declared anti-Zionism to be antisemitism, which dangerously curtails free speech by attempting to render verboten certain kinds of political speech.

Chuck Schumer waited two days to condemn Khalil’s arrest, and began his condemnation by saying that he abhors Khalil’s beliefs. Nancy Pelosi, who in the past has denounced pro-Palestinian activists by baselessly claiming they have ties to Putin, has still said nothing regarding Khalil’s arrest. Ann Coulter, for crying out loud, condemned the arrest before Democratic leaders did.

The supposed anti-fascists have gone limp just as the authoritarian tactics begin. Why? Because the Democrats and Republicans have virtually identical positions regarding criticism of Israel: it’s illegitimate speech that must be punished.

While we already knew the Republicans had zero backbone, it’s clear that the Democrats, too, will abandon their principles when it comes to Israel.

Democrats and Republicans were united in sanctioning the use of police force to shut down anti-war protests on university campuses last year. They were united in weaponizing antisemitism to repress free speech, effectively labelling any criticism of Israel as hateful and as support for terrorism.

As

Ben Burgis

rightly noted:

In the decades since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, both Democrats and Republicans have gone along with the idea that saying the magic word “terrorism” amounts to a permission slip to undermine core freedoms.

Republicans have promised to continue going after dissidents whose speech they disapprove of. Without vigourous opposition from the anti-fascist party, Trump will surely move on from arresting green card holders to citizens too. If Democrats allow him erode First Amendment rights by curtailing the speech they don’t like, who’s going to protect them when Trump goes after them for their own speech?

Mealymouthed condemnations, that criticize Khalil as much as they criticize Trump, are not going to cut it. Standing up for free speech means forthrightly defending it even when you disagree with it.