Hi james,

How do you know if you’re on the wrong side of history? One fairly reliable way to judge is by looking at your political beliefs through the prism of World War II. If for any reason you find yourself defending the fascists, it’s safe to presume that you’ve more than lost your way. It’s a simple test — and one that Republicans are failing in droves.

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Last week, President Biden marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day with a powerful speech celebrating the brave heroes who stormed the beaches of Normandy to defeat Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Even in our hyper-polarized political landscape it should have been a moment for unity and a communal celebration of American valor. Instead, Republicans used the opportunity to throw a fit about Biden’s language because they now see celebrating democracy and condemning authoritarianism as partisan messaging.

Though he didn’t once mention Donald Trump by name, conservatives interpreted Biden’s praise of selflessness as a coded attack on MAGA. Embedded in this assumption, whether they realize it or not, is the knowledge that Trumpism is a fundamentally selfish movement. It’s defined by cruelty, greed, and bigotry. Republicans saw the President of the United States attacking fascism and immediately interpreted it as an attack on them. That tells you everything you need to know about the political valence of the current GOP.

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Regardless of where one falls on the American patriotism scale — and there are certainly cogent, historically-literate, well-intentioned criticisms that one can level against this country — the rescue of Europe from fascism is one of the few historical moments that we should all feel unequivocally proud of. By most metrics, it’s the most important thing that the United States has ever done for the world. The fact that Republicans now associate more with the Germans manning the machine gun nests at Normandy than the heroic American boys storming the beaches below should chill us all to the bone.

I’ll even go a step further. If the war were fought today, there’s good reason to believe that Trump’s MAGA acolytes would not only refuse to come to the aid of Great Britain and France, but may very well play footsie with the Nazis on the other side. One can easily imagine the breathless Fox News segments celebrating Hitler’s rejection of “wokeism.” They’d insist that they don’t agree with all of his methods, but hey, at least he “says it like it is.” Sure, he’s churning Europe into a charnel house, but look at the way he triggers the libs!

The gravest mistake we can make now is not taking these people seriously. They’re telling us exactly who they are and what they’ll do if Trump returns to power. His first term was an unmitigated, generationally destructive disaster but his second term would be far worse.

It’s comforting to think that our democracy is guaranteed, that it will last forever and that Trump is just a momentary deviation from the status quo, a bump in the arc of history bending towards justice. The truth is far more grim. We stand now upon the brink of fascism. The Republican Party wants to strip away our rights, kill our planet in pursuit of profits, and install a Christian Nationalist theocracy to rule in perpetuity. The first step to stopping them is taking them seriously. The second step is convincing everyone that you know to show up in November and vote for Joe Biden. The best way to save our democracy is by engaging in it. It falls to all of us to vote to save America. We won’t get another shot at it.

Stay focused, stay energized.

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