The fascists are here. They have their hands on all three levers of federal power. I have to take them at their word when they tell me what is coming. What advice do you have? Wait until November? Trust that this is only bluster? I’m not sure those being kidnapped off the streets share your faith.

Don't wait until November, but focus on November. Engage in political activism and protest, but not because political activism and protest is a substitute for winning elections in November - because it will help win elections in November. The people you oppose have power because they won the elections, and they have the right to use that power in lawful ways because they won the elections. You can't lawfully stop them from using the lawful power that comes from winning elections. The only way to stop them is to be in a position to win the next election, and win it.

Take them at their word when they tell you what is coming if you want...but that doesn't mean that what they say is coming is here yet. And look at what they do, rather than just what they say. They want you to believe that they are super-powerful, that they have the strength to gut democracy...but when you take a look at how they never actually have the nerve to do it, keep in mind the possibility that they're trying to get you to believe something that isn't true.

As for fascism in Italy, I'm well aware that the law can be changed to be fascist. But that's my point. They haven't done that. Virtually everything that Trump has been doing is the exercise of laws already on the books. Laws that were passed by non-fascist Congresses. Laws that have always been in place (or at least, in place for many decades). They're not "kidnapping" people off the streets - the law has always been that people who are in the country illegally are subject to detention and have no enforceable legal right to be at liberty pending their various claims (certain exceptions not relevant here). Detaining those folks isn't kidnapping, it's the lawful exercise of statutory authority. And again, the difference between this and Italy is that these aren't fascist laws - these are laws that have been in place for many, many decades.

I like your quote, because it encapsulates my argument pretty well:

"Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege."

That's my argument in a nutshell. The Administration has not begun to destroy political democracy. They've passed no laws like the Acerbo laws, haven't dissolved Congress, hasn't ignored the authority of the Courts, hasn't jailed their enemies without trials, hasn't suspended habeas corpus. All they've done is won an election and used the powers that they are allowed to use under existing law. That is following political democracy, not beginning to end it. And if opponents of the Administration decide that they don't have to follow the laws and themselves observe political democracy by allowing the winners of the last election to exercise the power that inheres with winning elections, then they're going to create the conditions they ostensibly oppose.