It isn’t tanks in the street. It isn’t an exchange of fire between opposing militia. If that should happen, that’s not the beginning. It’s the end of the beginning.
The conflict has already begun in small ways, like the school board election that most of us ignore. The local community library board of directors being infiltrated; the head librarian forced out.
When they come after books, it’s already begun.
Proponents call it “Conservative”. That’s the first lie. The trick is to make what’s radical seem legit. Like when the “Chamber of Commerce” President, George H.W. Bush, gave into the radical right by nominating Clarence Thomas to replace Thurgood Marshall in 1991, in hindsight, that may have been the beginning. Less than a year later, at 1992 Republican National Convention, Pat Buchanan gave his “Culture War” speech, normalizing white christian nationalism. From there, it’s a small step to American Fascism. This is the fertile soil that grew into Trumpism. The monster has turned on Dr. Frankenstein.
The movement has been decentralized and it is coming to a local election near you.
They do not now, and never will, command majority support. Neither did Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco, Pierre Laval, Adolf Hitler or Donald Trump. That does not keep them from winning elections.
The time to be alarmed is now. We have the responsibility to become activists: nonviolent revolutionaries getting into “Good Trouble”. We can no longer assume that the local candidate is a well meaning public advocate. This isn’t a spectator sport. The civil war in America has begun. Who will prevail is unknowable.