If Kamala Harris wins the election on Tuesday “a lot of us are going to be breathing an enormous sigh of relief — a lot of people are going to be celebrating” Chris Hayes said Friday night. Should she not, a second Trump term will “100% be more dangerous,” but “civil society does not dissolve in an instant because someone wins an election — even a wannabe authoritarian,” he later added.
“Fundamentally to my core, I do not believe America is a fascist country,” he continued. “I do not believe we want authoritarianism.”
If Trump should win, Hayes argued that this will almost certainly be thanks to the electoral college and not an actual majority of votes. “It will still be the case that slightly less than 50% of our fellow citizens voted for a man who is just dangerous and manifestly unfit for the job,” he said.
That reality will require the rest of the country “to reconcile with those millions of Americans through democratic means, persuasion and organizing and civil society and discourse,” he continued. In other words, the tenets of democracy will have to prevail whether Donald Trump likes it or not.
And should Trump be elected to a second term in office instead, he may do so “fair and square, because sometimes majorities do collectively make really bad decisions.” While another term under Trump will undoubtedly mean “he will absolutely try to do a lot of terrible, cruel and dangerous things,” Hayes added, “it is just not a foregone conclusion he will succeed in them.”
“Last time he failed to execute a lot of his bad ideas and yes, as we have learned on this program time and time again, there are going to be fewer guardrails this time. It will 100% be more dangerous than the last time.”
But that doesn’t mean democracy in America faces an immediate, and permanent end, he continued. There will still be means of pushing back, at least at first. “I have to stress that the other democratic mechanisms we have to protect ourselves and protect American democracy still exist,” Hayes said. “Civil society does not dissolve in an instant because someone wins an election — even a wannabe authoritarian.”
“Fundamentally to my core, I do not believe America is a fascist country,” he continued. I do not believe we want authoritarianism.”
“I still think no matter the outcome, the broad majority of this country wants democratic self-rule. That majority that wants democratic self-rule will still exist after Tuesday, after the winner is called, no matter who wins,” he added. “If it is Donald Trump, all of us in that pro-democracy majority will have to work together to thwart his worst impulses, because in the end, all we have in a Democratic Republic is each other.”
“Sometimes that can be really scary, even panic-inducing, but it’s what we have, and it’s better than anything else.”
Trump’s increasingly fascist rhetoric has been examined by his former chief of staff John Kelly as well as by Vice President Kamala Harris among others in the weeks leading up to the election. Kelly told the New York Times in October, “Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
The following night Harris was asked by Anderson Cooper, “You’ve quoted Gen. Milley calling Donald Trump a fascist, but you yourself have not used that word to describe him. Let me ask you tonight. Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?”
She quickly answered, “Yes I do.”
“I also believe that the people who know him best on this subject should be trusted,” Harris added. “With the exception of only Mike Pence, these were not politicians. These are career people, who have served in the highest roles in national security, who have served as generals in our military.”
You can watch the clip from Chris Hayes in the video above.
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