Yesterday, I wrote the following:
[T]he main worry I have is that the gap between disorganized political violence and organized political violence is minuscule, and is already being jumped over.
Today brings word that five people protesting police violence in Minneapolis were shot by three white supremacists in front of a police station. Some reports have the cops refusing to render aid to the wounded and macing the protestors, which is entirely believable. Thankfully, the specific Nazi scum that opened fire on the crowd are poor shots and those targeted were just wounded and not killed. However, this is not an anomaly but is instead a reflection of an ongoing march of right-wing political violence.
A man who believes myths about whites facing genocide marches into a church and murders nine people for nothing other than being Black. Another Nazi attempts to bomb the Martin Luther King Day parade in Spokane. A leading Presidential candidate suggests that a protester who was assaulted at a rally of his deserved the attack he faced and is pro-torture for interrogations and for the hell of it. And these are just three examples. In another hour, I could pull up another dozen.
I cannot state this any clearer: there is a rising fascist tide in the US, and if the Left is unable to form up and try and stem that tide, nothing will be able to stop it long-term from taking over. Political backlash from the fever swamps of the right kept the Department of Homeland Security from exercising any kind of scrutiny on the dangers of right wing extremism. Without organizing a broad political front to arrest the growth in support these folks have gotten in the past few years, they will eventually take power, and God help us when they do.
Malcolm Harris was absolutely right in this piece:
Anti-fascists like Jason Hammond don’t blind themselves to history or bind their hands with liberal tolerance. They know that now, as before, the swastika belongs under a hammer. As fascist elements organize, the violence required to confront and marginalize them only increases. As the antifa group One People’s Project puts it, “Hate has consequences.” Better to fight now.
The only way to defeat these people is to be ready for a fight. The longer we wait and equivocate and hope for these scum to play by the rules, the more powerful the fascist right will become. Best to get on with it already.
The South Lawn 
