Fascists on the Supreme Court
Published at 07:51 on 5 May 2024
We are about to find out how many right-leaning justices are fascists and how many are just plain old conservatives. (I am reasonably sure we will find at least one fascist.)
Because really, there is simply nothing in American conservatism (conservatism, not fascism) compatible with deciding that a president should have basically unlimited power with no accountability under the law. Conservatism is all about conserving existing laws and institutions, such as a Constitution, a presidency with limited powers, and an independent judiciary.
A president with unlimited powers is a president whose will is above all written law. That is the Führerprinzip, a key aspect of fascist ideology.
And if there are enough fascists to sway the decision in favour of Trump, it will be game over for US democracy. Oh, formal elections and respect for their results may linger a while after the decision, but they won’t last long. All it will take is one fascist victory in the polls and it will become obvious to all that the corpse had been dead for some time, and it is only then starting to stink.