Trump and Barr are apostles of white supremacy, avatars of racial cleansing, and their lawlessness is a testimony to their belief in a politics of disposability. Nazi Germany proved with frightening clarity that the rule of law and its institutions can be easily transformed and implemented into agents of state violence, if not domestic terrorism. What Trump and Barr have proven with utmost audacity and little regret is that no institution is immune from the reach and power of a fascist politics. As William Robinson points out, one of the first elements of a fascist politics is the emergence of the state as a reactionary and repressive political power. In addition, the state is reconfigured to meet the needs of the financial and corporate elite, and on the cultural front the emergence and mobilization of fascist wannabe groups such as nativist movements, neo-Nazis, right-wing militia groups, and corporate controlled right-wing media apparatus.[17]
Trump and Barr support all of these elements, and wear their commitment to lawlessness and state violence like a badge. The thousands marching in the streets and the Black Lives Matter movement have forcefully maintained that lawlessness is not about the transgressions of a few bad cops, however egregious, or a few corrupt politicians such as Trump and Barr, or even a Republican Party dominated by white supremacists and Vichy apologists. They have made it clear that the struggle is about dismantling a system that has made violence its organizing principle and echoes a past in which horrors of that past must not be either normalized nor repeated.
Notes.
1... Adorno, Theodor W., "The Meaning of Working Through the Past," Guild and Defense, trans. Henry W. Pickford, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010), p. 213. Ã "'
2... Tamsin Shaw, "William Barr: The Carl Schmitt of Our Time," New York Review of Books (January 15, 2020). Online: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/01/15/william-barr-the-carl-schmitt-of-our-time/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NYR%20Daily%20Tamsin%20Shaw&utm_content=NYR%20Daily%20Tamsin%20Shaw+CID_fab36e70a506d2d42e8747691ecb4ebd&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_term=William%20Barr%20The%20Carl%20Schmitt%20of%20Our%20Time à "'
3... Eric H. Holder, "William Barr is unfit to be attorney general," Washington Post (December 11, 2019). Online: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eric-holder-william-barr-is-unfit-to-be-attorney-general/2019/12/11/99882092-1c55-11ea-87f7-f2e91143c60d_story.html à "'
4... James Risen, "William Barr Has Turned the Justice Department Into a Law Firm With One Client: Donald Trump," The Intercept (June 22, 2020). Online: https://theintercept.com/2020/06/22/william-barr-has-turned-the-justice-department-into-a-law-firm-with-one-client-donald-trump/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=The%20Intercept%20Newsletter à "'
5... Joan Walsh, "As Bill Barr Flails, Trump Is Losing His Roy Cohn," The Nation (June 22, 2020). Online: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/william-barr-berman-trump/ Ã "'
6... Jake Johnson, "'He Must Resign': Attorney General Barr Personally Ordered Police Assault on Peaceful DC Protesters, Report Says," Common Dreams (June 2, 2020). Online: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/02/he-must-resign-attorney-general-barr-personally-ordered-police-assault-peaceful-dc à "'
7... Cited in Susan B. Glasser, "#BunkerBoy's Photo-Op War," The New Yorker (June 3, 2020). Online: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/bunkerboys-photo-op-war à "'
8... Amy Goodman, "'A Declaration of War Against Americans': Trump Threatens to Deploy Military to Quell Protests," Democracy Now (June 2, 2020). Online: https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/2/trump_insurrection_act_military_against_protests à "'
9... Katie Benner, "Barr Says There Is No Systemic Racism in Policing," New York Times (June 7, 2020). Online: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/07/us/politics/justice-department-barr-racism-police.html à "'
10... George Will, "Trump must be removed. So must his congressional enablers," The Washington Post (June 1, 2020). Online: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-one-should-want-four-more-years-of-this-taste-of-ashes/2020/06/01/1a80ecf4-a425-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html à "'
11... Peter Wade, "Trump Sycophant Lindsey Graham: 'I Will Do Everything I Can to Make Impeachment Die Quickly' in the Senate," Rolling Stone (December 14, 2019). Online: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-sycophant-lindsey-graham-i-will-do-everything-i-can-to-make-impeachment-die-quickly-927279/ Ã "'
12... Anne Applebaum, "History Will Judge the Complicit: Why have Republican leaders abandoned their principles in support of an immoral and dangerous president?," The Atlantic (July/August 2020). Online: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/trumps-collaborators/612250/ Ã "'
13... Ibid. Ã "'
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