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People hold signs as they gather for a"Save the Civil Service" rally hosted by the American Federation of Government Employees outside the U.S. Capitol on February 11, 2025, in Washington, D.C.I have to admit, I thought it would take more than a few short weeks for the richest man on Earth to expose U.
S. democracy as little more than a paper tiger. We have checks and balances, after all — the separation of powers, due process, a centuries-old Constitution — all no match, apparently, for “special government employee” Elon Musk and his brood ofinto oncoming traffic, Musk’s DOGE has run roughshod over federal bureaucracy, gutting the U.S. Agency for International Development ,close to $1 billion in Education Department contracts and promoting mass buyouts for government workers. In the process, DOGE employees have reportedlyMusk, of course, is not an elected official. He has not received congressional approval to reshape the federal government, and his authority has been granted by President Donald Trump alone. But on Tuesday, TrumpMany of the actions by Musk and the rest of Trump’s administration have already received significant legal pushback: Labor unions, Doctors for America, dozens of religious congregations, the American Civil Liberties Union and attorneys general from 22 states are among the groups that have sued. Legal, for the most part, have agreed. Court orders have temporarily blocked the federal funding freeze, Trump’s rescindment of birthright citizenship, Musk’s dismantling of USAID and DOGE staffers’ access to Treasury systems. But concerns are mounting over whether these legal measures will be enough to stop the Trump-Musk wrecking ball. The day before Trump bolstered DOGE’s workforce oversight a federal judgethat the president had defied orders to restart the flow of federal funds. That ruling sparked articles with headlines like “Trump insists that this is what voters wanted when they reelected him in November, and he says that Musk — who shelled out more than $250 million to help him win his presidential campaign — was always part of the deal. But while Trump’s approval rating hovers above 50 percent in a new, only about a quarter of Republicans have said they think Musk should have “a lot” of influence over government operations. Still, Musk has been granted far-reaching authority, and it could ultimately serve his own financial interests. Musk-led companies hold billions of dollars in government contracts and have been the subject ofof them, looking into the use of Starlink satellites in the war in Ukraine. Neuralink, Musk’s brain computer chip company, is under investigation by the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture afterfacilities. And Musk has promised to attack the Federal Aviation Administration, which launched an investigation into SpaceX after one of the company’s rocket ships exploded in January.to the White House, Sen. Adam Schiff demanded information about Musk’s conflicts of interest and ethical obligations. But if federal court orders can’t get Trump to bend the knee, a letter is unlikely to do the trick. Plus, the White House has already shared its foolproof plan: “If Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitton February 5, “then Elon will excuse himself from those contracts.” Oh, good, that clears things up. What could possibly go wrong?, Robert Paxton, a political scientist and history professor at Columbia University, coined the terms “parallel state” and “parallel structures” to describe how authoritarians steadily exert dominion over state functions. “An outsider party that wants to claim power sets up organizations that replicate government agencies,” Paxton writes. “The fascist parties’ parallel structures challenged the liberal state by claiming that they were capable of doing some things better.… After achieving power, the party could substitute its parallel structures for those of the state.” The comparison is not 1:1, of course. Paxton cites Nazi Germany’s paramilitary force, party court, youth movement and separate foreign policy branch as examples of parallel organizations that supplanted traditional state agencies after the Nazis achieved power. Notably, Trump is alreadypower, and Musk’s takeover is not absolute. We have not seen the wholesale replacement of our federal agencies by an external body . But Paxton’s historical analysis provides a useful framework when thinking about DOGE. After all, Paxton notes, “Hitler never formally abolished the constitution drafted in 1919 for the Weimar Republic, and never totally dismantled the normative state in Germany, though he himself refused to be bound by it.” Fascism need not announce itself with shiny gold horns and formal decrees. It can, and does, as we know, creep in slowly. When we see a parallel government taking shape, operating as the state’s shadow and pushing the outer limits of the law, we should take heed. If it Right now, we’re in a sort of pilot phase. The legal system is still there to contain Trump, but he’s seeing how far he can stretch and warp its bounds until it breaks. If Trump succeeds, brazenly shirks judges’ orders and pushes forward implementing all his heart’s desires — well, it’ll be the snap heard around the world.We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats. As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate. Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit. As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models., we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws.and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keepThe Intercept, The Baffler, Labor Notes, Los Angeles MagazineAs we rise to confront Trump’s fascism, Truthout appeals for your support. Any contribution you can make is a tangible act of resistance. Will you start a monthly donation today?
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