By Jon Hochschartner
The next Democratic president will need to ruthlessly prosecute the fascist criminality of President Donald Trump’s administration. Any progressive candidate who isn’t prepared to do that should do us all a favor and not bother running in the 2028 primary. I will be assessing the Democratic field on a number of important issues. However, the politician who convincingly pledges to lock up as many officials in Trump’s White House as possible will go a long way to earning my vote.
Speaking as a millennial, Republicans have been moving further and further right and flouting the law with increasing frequency for my entire life. American conservatives have learned there is quite literally nothing they could do that would make establishment Democrats speak above an inside voice, let alone hold Republican malfeasance to account. Now our democracy is at the brink. The Trump administration is occupying liberal cities and the leaders of the so-called opposition party are nowhere to be found.
Any Democratic presidential candidate who suggests they might ‘turn the page’ or ‘look forward, not backward’ when it comes to fascist crimes should be laughed off the debate stage. We’ve seen that approach before, most recently under President Joe Biden’s administration. Of course, by not vigorously prosecuting Trump and his goons, Biden allowed them to return to power and wreak the havoc we’re experiencing now. We will be lucky to escape the current authoritarian moment.
There are a number of ways Democrats might seek to ensure this crisis doesn’t happen again. For instance, they should add liberal-leaning states to the union, like Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Similarly, they must expand the Supreme Court, which will remain hopelessly partisan and corrupt absent intervention. However, there can be no serious effort to beat back the fascist threat that doesn’t include putting the authoritarian lawbreakers now occupying the White House behind bars.
This is regrettable. I don’t like to wish prison on anyone. That said, people like Trump, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and so many others have made clear they won’t respond to reason or moral appeals. They can’t be shamed. They will never stop. They can only be stopped. It’s up to the next Democratic president to communicate with them in the only language they understand, which is raw power.
Serious Democratic presidential candidates should be competing over who has the best plan to put the largest number of criminal fascist leaders in prison. Trump will likely pardon himself and everyone in his orbit before leaving office. I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t speak to the best way to work around this. Maybe these pardons could be ignored. Perhaps Trump and his allies could be prosecuted at the state level or turned over to the International Criminal Court.
But they must face justice.
Jon Hochschartner lives in Connecticut. He is the author of a number of books, including The Animals’ Freedom Fighter: A Biography of Ronnie Lee, Founder of the Animal Liberation Front.