Donald Trump recently declared war on Antifa, but before we dig into that nonsense, I would like to mention that Donald Trump, who loves to declare war on just about everyone, appears to be so diplomatically impaired that one of the two wars he campaigned on ending “on day one”—the war in Ukraine—is raging on as we speak, and peace in Gaza—or more accurately, what is left of Gaza—is in its infancy and could easily backslide into renewed bloodshed at any moment. Given that this is exactly what has happened umpty-nine times since Israel was granted statehood in 1948, it would shock no one if the sniping and bombing resumed.
One suspects that when those wars have finally concluded, when the former residents of those two regions have either been permanently displaced or lie dead under miles of smoldering rubble, Donald Trump will send his sons to build golf resorts adjacent to the Black- and Mediterranean seas. He will pave over the dead bodies, plant some palm trees, drill 18 holes, install fountains and waterfalls, and construct hotels and club houses with gilded ballrooms where war profiteers will help themselves to champagne and caviar.
Trump Gaza and Trump Crimea are likely to be lucrative projects. War, genocide, and crimes against humanity are going to be very good for the Trump family.
OK, back to Antifa. Antifa is one of the red herrings that Trump likes to release into the political ecosystem whenever he wants to distract and shift blame from the chaos and brutality that occur wherever he directs his gaze. He blamed Antifa for the weeks-long riots in Portland, Ore., during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 (P.S., the riots were not caused by Antifa, nor were they caused by BLM protestors; they were caused by anarchists and a smattering of white nationalist extremists who deliberately escalated the protests into mayhem). He also blamed Antifa—along with the FBI—for the January 6 insurrection that was planned and executed, exclusively, by Trump and his MAGA militia.
There must be at least one intelligent person in the Trump administration. Clearly, it is neither Donald Trump nor lady-in-waiting Cleopatra Vance, but there must be someone, if only by accident, who knows that Antifa stands for “anti-fascist.” According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, fascism is a political ideology that embraces “autocratic government, dictatorial leadership, and the suppression of opposition.”
If this is the case, then no wonder Trump is anti-Antifa. Anti-fascists make fascists like Donald Trump unhappy. Other notorious dictators made unhappy by anti-fascists have included Italian fascist Mussolini; German fascist Hitler; Spanish fascist Franco; Russian fascists Stalin and Putin; Chinese fascists Mao and Xi; North Korean fascist Kim; Hungarian fascist Orban; and Turkish fascist Erdogan. It turns out that, in general, the soulless, malevolent tyrants who seek to smother dissent and liberty are not big fans of free speech, democracy, or free will, unless it is their own free will to which all others must bend.
Wikipedia defines Antifa as follows:
Antifa is a left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement. It is sometimes described as a highly decentralized array of autonomous groups in the United States. Antifa political activism includes nonviolent methods of direct action such as poster and flyer campaigns, mutual aid, speeches, protest marches, and community organizing.
In other words, Antifa functions as a loose, nonviolent, anti-totalitarian ideology rather than a hierarchical organization with clear leaders or specific aims; rather, anyone who stands in opposition to dictatorship, state-sponsored oppression, and racism is a de facto anti-fascist. There is no national organization. There is no director. There is no steering committee. Declaring war on Antifa is like declaring war on mist.
I searched for a centralized Antifa website, and what I found was this: Join Antifa. If you visit that website, you will find this, which I have directly copied and pasted here for your edification:
There it is: You can download and print the home-made doodle above, or you can draw your own Antifa card on a Post-It.
Donald Trump has declared war not on the chimerical Antifa, since it doesn’t really exist except on your home-made Post-It; he has declared war on United States citizens who are opposed to dictators, dictatorships, inequality and racism.
By labeling all dissent and resistance to autocratic rule as “Antifa” and relying on a profoundly uninformed public to buy the lie that Antifa is some sort of well-funded, subversive organization of political extremists, Trump hopes to provide sufficient cover for sending the military into the streets of your town to arrest peaceful protesters so that they can be silenced once and for all. Standing against dictatorship is hardly a left-wing, radical, or lunatic project—in fact, it is the founding principle of our constitutional republic—but he is hoping that his loyalists do not realize that anti-fascist demonstrations are not nearly the threat to our country as is the guy who is trying to strangle democracy by any means necessary.
Today marks another opportunity for all of us to attend one of the thousands of “No Kings” rallies taking place from sea to shining sea. In the absence of courage, or loyalty to their oaths of office, or even concern on the part of our elected representatives for the welfare of the constituents who elected them, it is we, the people, who now constitute the only resistance there is.
It is up to us now. The cavalry is not coming to rescue us; they are coming to arrest us. In this moment, we are all Antifa: undefined, ubiquitous, but united in our determination that American democracy shall not perish under the jackboots of Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Russel Vought, J.D. Vance, Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Kristi Noem, Tom Homan, and the rest of their fascist regime.
Let this be our “I am Spartacus” moment. Let us all stand determinedly in the public square today as American citizens and state, unequivocally and with pride,
“I am Antifa.”
“I am Antifa.”
“I am Antifa.”
“I am Antifa.”
