You do not vote fascism away. Even though this feels obvious, the right-wing political establishment in the U.S. has accomplished something remarkable with the help of the Democratic Party. They managed to shift the discourse so far right that they normalized positions that were possibly once inconceivable for many liberal voters.

Democrat politicians have long tried to appeal to increasingly fascistic rhetoric by boasting about compromises and their conservative shifts on issues like immigration and foreign policy. Yet, Democrats are not in opposition in this regard, so they made this continual movement right some sort of deluded progress. This isn’t a theory; we have one giant right wing in the U.S. with different components. The party switches of the past that took place because of conflicts over slavery and the civil rights movement may pale in comparison to this event. Unpacking what just happened, what happened in that not-so-distant past, and what seems inevitable now will help us face a new, unsettling reality.