The Fascists Are Coming | Duly Noted

They’re marching.

They’re marching in Idaho, where their abortion ban enables relatives to sue anyone who “assists” the termination of a pregnancy after six weeks. They’re marching in Texas, where a similar law is in place — with no exceptions even for rape or incest. They’re marching in Wyoming where they’ve banned medication that triggers abortions. They’re marching with full bans on abortions in Wisconsin, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, South Dakota, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. 

They’re marching in Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott (R) ordered that parents can now be investigated for “child abuse” if they provide gender-affirming care for their children. 

They’re marching in Utah, Arizona, South Dakota, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, where bans on gender-affirming care have been enacted and in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Hawaii, and Georgia where similar bans are being considered. 

They’re marching in Oklahoma with a proposed bill that parents can sue teachers who educate students about things that contradict their “closely held religious beliefs” — like evolution. 

They’re marching in Texas where book bans have pulled hundreds of books off the shelves of school libraries that deal with racism or LGTBQ issues, including Michelle Obama’s biography and Alex Award-winner Lawn Boy.

They’re marching in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, Utah, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia and Florida where they’ve enacted new laws restricting access to citizens’ ability to vote.

They’re marching in Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and 17 other states where they’ve enacted laws restricting the right to protest — in many cases offering protections for people who hit protesters with their cars. 

They’re marching in Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Florida, banning teachers from discussing racism in their classrooms.

This list of encroaching fascism across the wide swath of red states in the U.S. is far from exhaustive. All across the nation, the GOP has completely abandoned the facade that it’s a “small-government, fiscally responsible” party, and instead laced up its jackboots, buttoned up its brown shirts, and taken to the state legislatures to wage culture war against anything remotely challenging to white, Christian so-called “values.” The rights of the individual are firmly in the sights of their metaphorical — and literal — assault rifles as they trample the rights they disagree with while clinging zealously to the only one that seems to matter to them, the Second Amendment. Even as they preach about “protecting the children” while they expand access to guns across myriad states. 

As Jon Stewart put it in his televised interview with Oklahoma Senator Nathan Dahm (R), “What’s the leading cause of death among children in this country… and I’m going to give you a hint: it’s not drag show readings… it’s firearms. More than cancer, more than car accidents… You don’t mind infringing on free speech to ‘protect children’ from this amorphous thing… but when it comes to children that have died, you don’t give a flying fuck to stop that, because, ‘that shall not be infringed.’”

The fascists are committed to this war in ever-growing numbers. 

They’re marching.