How it ends
If we’re thinking clearly and honestly, those of us who fight against fascism must confess that we comprehend its allure. If you doubt this, I remind you where we were at the start of 2023. Many of us were screaming for the immediate arrest and incarceration of the criminal called Donald Trump. Very few of us were content to allow Due Process to have its due process. We were sick of waiting.
Just for a moment, if only for a moment, we all wanted the Good Guys to behave a little more like the Bad Guys. We were tired of being nice and could’ve done with some good old-fashioned fascism.
This is natural. It is part of what makes us human. Allowing cooler heads to prevail goes against our more primitive instincts. But then, resisting and growing away from our primitive instincts is what evolution is all about.
Republicans surrender to their primitive instincts. Guns and vengeance and hate and murder, all cloaked in the ignorance and superstition of religion, is what they promote. Democrats embrace the nobler motives behind the pursuit of peace, forbearance and charity. Republicans represent our evolutionary past. Democrats represent our evolutionary future. We are evolving, they are not. We are growing up, they are becoming increasingly shrill and childish.
Positive growth is painful. It’s hard work. But it’s necessary for the preservation and promotion of democracy, the most evolved political system that Homo sapiens have yet to discover. In order to resist tyranny and promote democracy we must resist the temptations of our more primitive instincts.
If we fail to resist our baser impulses then we will have no real complaint should Republicans regain power and use those same primitive methods against us. We will find it harder to recruit neutral allies to our cause. We will find less that is right in our self-proclaimed righteousness.
Jack Smith has admirably represented our better angels for us. In pursuing Donald Trump Smith has remained strictly and properly within the law.
The struggle and patience of 2023 will soon pay off. The year 2024 will be our reward for not rioting, for not staging our own January 6th insurrection, for not surrendering to the rule of the mob but instead following the rule of law. The year 2024 will be our just reward for our patience and belief in that rule of law.
Think of what we have gained. A year ago, at the beginning of 2023, many of us wondered if Donald Trump would ever be made to pay for his crimes. Today, at the end of 2023, Trump has been criminally indicted in four jurisdictions for 91 serious charges. A fifth indictment could be just around the corner. We would do well to remember that justice came because of our highly evolved patience and willingness to carefully and peacefully follow the law.
Many greet the new year with gloom and pessimism. I do not. I think 2024 will be our finest hour. I think 2024 will be a recompense for our restraint. If we continue to believe in evolution and the rule of law, then the reward of 2024 will be the very justice we so richly deserve and have so nobly earned. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.