On the Fascist Party’s Constituent Groups

by Bill Lasarow

June 6, 2026

Jenny Holzer, “Protect Me From What I Want,” 1987, embroidered hat. Courtesy of the University of Iowa Libraries.

But first … It is now well established that the billionaire Ellisons’ absorption of CBS, etc., was a political, not a business decision. The publicly stated reason for the cancellation of “Late Night with Stephen Colbert” was transparently false, and that has been followed by the effective cancellation of “60 Minutes.” Soon enough, this media conglomerate, which will also include CNN, will be unrecognizable, recast in accordance with the vision and at the order of one man using the power of the federal government to censor speech that he hates (truly). Does the eradication of the First Amendment remain in doubt? Former Republicans even now invoke the word “socialism” as though it were a curse word, even as the most socialistic government in American history calls private sector winners and losers. Let’s be clear: these people are just getting started. When First Amendment rights of speech and expression apply only to their own partisans, there are no First Amendment rights at all. And the murdering of 60 Minutes lays it all to rest.

I do have a rather obvious suggestion. Either NBC or ABC should poach the 60 Minutes team and simply move the program to its network. Good economics.

There are four major components that make up the Fascist Party’s constituency. The central and most militant group consists of the true fascists and Nazis, xenophobes at their core. Then there are the descendants of the traitorous Confederacy, who may have given up on slavery, but who persist in their deeply felt racism. Third are the homophobes for whom transgender female (formerly male) athletes serve their desire to end same-sex marriage and the legalized practice of homosexuality in any form. And fourth are the misogynists who favor the reduction or elimination of women’s rights — both reproductive and voting — and equal access to the workplace.

Nari Ward, “Duty Colossus,” 2011, dhow boat, metal, hemlock wood bamboo, metal chimney, copper drum, used furniture and Plexiglas. Courtesy of the artist.

I’ve left of the Christian fundamentalists for last because they have every right to their faith beliefs under the Constitution. As such, they are the one group that forms a legitimate opposition constituency. But their desire to impose their faith principles on the rest of us is wrong, both morally and in terms of the Founders’ Age of Reason principles and beliefs. Most were Deists (with some exceptions) who wanted nothing to do with the form of Christianity that modern fundamentalism represents. Today’s conservative Christians regard America as a Christian nation and strongly oppose the separation of church and state that the Founders stipulated. No, America is not a Christian nation; it was founded and conceived as a secular government that is legally constrained from imposing ANY religion upon its citizens.

Which brings me to the Democratic Party. It is easy to understand that the economy is, if anything, even more the issue of greatest concern to voters than it was in 2024. The actual policies, such as they are, of the Mafia Regime have noticeably weakened the economy, not to mention our national security. It does make sense that Democrats have been racking up off-year election victories on the mantra of affordability, with a strong side order of corruption. But the continuing and intentional dismantling of democracy and the rule of law are the real enemies from within that drive affordability, and I would like to see those dots connected by Democratic candidates.

Shahzia Sikander, “Pleasure Pillars,” 2001, vegetable color, dry pigment, and watercolor on tea-stained wasli paper, 17 x 12”. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Art, Houston.

I would like to see Democratic candidates explicitly reject the Fascist Party’s four major voting blocs and make it abundantly clear that they will find no home in the Democratic Party. Not now, not ever. Doing so would help draw the contrast between the Founders’ vision and the anti-American vision that each represents — xenophobia, racism, sexism, and homophobia.

I would like to hear Democratic Party leaders and candidates use that language and call out such voters as unwelcome in a democracy and specifically within the Democratic Party. I would like to hear them reject such voters and not back down. There remain millions of conservatives who simply do not have a political home, but that is their problem. They will need to form a new leadership with the patience and fortitude to rebuild. That is not the Democrats problem. Worse, to address voters as though this version of the former Republican Party were still the political opposition will make the much-needed blue tidal wave in November less likely and less massive.

Make no mistake, we need a massive blue wave this November, and that wave must continue for some years to come. The single greatest success of the anti-American Mafia Regime has been to energetically undermine free and fair elections, the most foundational ingredient of any democracy.

Consider the core falsehood that Caligula and his allies employ to undermine free and fair elections: fraud. Repeated without any evidence, it is a tactic that Republicans have used since the long-ago time of Newt Gingrich’s speakership. Gingrich’s big idea was to cast Democrats not as the loyal opposition but as the enemy.

Sung Tieu and Vu Thi Hanh, “They Have Eyes, But They See Not, They Have Ears, But They Hear Not,” installation view (left) and detail (right), 2026, aluminum foil, aluminum, wood, magnet, lacquer dimensions vary. Courtesy of Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg.

The history of health care coverage is a prime example of this shift. Bill Clinton sought to create a public health insurance plan in 1993 — referred to as Hillarycare because Hillary Clinton headed the Task Force on National Health Care Reform — that would have mandated employers to provide all employees with health insurance. There were conservative arguments against what they characterized as a “top-down big government” program, arguing that far from liberating families from the costs and uncertainties of the a profit-driven health insurance industry. It would do the opposite.

Two factors doomed that plan. First, congressional Democrats never fully unified behind it. Second was “Harry and Louise,” a TV ad that ran for a full year claiming that far from making life more secure Hillarycare would subject families to a confusing and repressive bureaucracy.

The formula has become all too familiar. Republicans characterize any major government program as “bureaucratic” and “socialistic” but offer no explanation or evidence how or why. Health care is such a pertinent example of malfeasance  because of the existence of Medicare and Medicaid. These are big government programs to be sure, and they work.

Yinka Shonibare, “Moving Up,” 2021, fibreglas mannequins, Dutch wax printed cotton textile, bespoke globes, brass, leather, hemp rope, paper, various toys, cotton, silk, steel, aluminum and painted wood, 90 1/2 x 141 3/4 x 98 1/2”. Courtesy of the artist.

But rather than keeping it simple by expanding both to include the broad working age middle class, Democrats sought to reshape health care to resemble the free market. As though universal health coverage paid for with tax dollars would somehow destroy the free market any more than public education or highways do.

If part of their intent was to soften Republican resistance or attract the moderate wing of those voters, instead it weakened the party’s political relationship with many of its own voters. Intended as a free market model, Hillarycare nonetheless allowed Republicans to ignore the details. Hillarycare was still “big government socialism.” Many liberals who had called for Medicare expansion for thirty years felt little excitement, and some felt politically homeless.

When we move ahead to the Affordable Care Act, which of course did finally pass in 2010, it was tagged by Republicans as “Obamacare” and was again intentionally based on a free market model. It was first designed by the conservative Heritage Foundation and implemented in one state by a Republican governor. In spite of making the same mistake, and very nearly being repealed in 2017 (but for John McCain’s famous thumbs down, it would have been), the law reduced the number of uninsured Americans by half and gradually gained the kind of polling numbers it enjoys today — about 59% favorability. That did not prevent Republican leadership from calling it a “train wreck” — as usual without any evidence or even an explanation, just the terminology.

Mierle Laderman Ukeles, “Ceremonial Arch Honoring Service Workers in the New Service Economy, Installation IV,” 2016–17, 5,000 hand-signed dirty work gloves from 13 New York City municipal and state agencies, steel armature. Installation at the Queen’s Museum, 2016-17. Photo courtesy of Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York.

This is essentially where we find ourselves today, only now confronted by the far greater evils of fascism and mafia criminality. No matter whether a given Democrat is a moderate or a social democrat, from Caligula on down the language of the opposition stays the same, marked by the same absence of evidence or a reasoned case.

Meanwhile, I worry that even following a successful wave election this November that Democrats may still fail to articulate their liberalism and demonstrate a commitment to what that means. As we draw deeper into the election season my hope is that Democrats will sell what makes them Democrats and not fall into an old trap. And while they are at it, let anyone who is a racist, sexist, xenophobe, and/or homophobe know that they should stay at home with the one party that wants them. They can have ‘em.

Bill Lasarow, Publisher and Editor, is a longtime practicing artist, independent publisher, and community activist. He founded or co-founded ArtScene Digest to Visual Art in Southern California (1982); the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (1987); and Visual Art Source (2009). He is also the founder (2021) of The Democracy Chain. In 2025 he relaunched SquareCylinder with co-publishers Mark Van Proyen and DeWitt Cheng.