In an interview with Salon published on Thursday, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges weighed in on Democrat Joe Biden’s apparent victory over President Donald Trump .
Though Trump has not yet conceded, Biden is the projected winner of the 2020 presidential election and he is all but certain to assume the presidency on January 20 next year.
But that won’t solve much, according to Hedges, who argued that Biden’s unwillingness to introduce systemic, sweeping changes could pave the way for fascism.
Hedges noted that “paralysis” is what the American public can expect from Biden’s presidency, given that the Republican Party controls the Senate and the courts.
The end result would be the same even if Democrats won control of the upper chamber, the journalist posited, because Biden is not exactly an agent of change.
“If you look at his record throughout his entire career, he has been nothing but a tool for the credit card companies, the war industry and similar interests,” he said.
Hedges dismissed Trump as a “narcissist,” who can’t even focus on reading an official briefing, let alone establish a fascist regime, but warned that a failure to address the underlying issues that led to Trump being elected in the first place could result in a far-right reaction in the near future.
“My fear is that what the Biden presidency sets up is a route for a competent fascist.”
“The failure, which I expect, under the incoming Biden administration to address this dislocation, despair, alienation and rage — all of which are legitimate — is fertile ground for a competent fascist, one probably cloaked in Christian garb,” Hedges argued.
The journalist noted that he is concerned about the possibility of political violence erupting across the United States because Trump supporters have internalized the president’s claims about alleged voter fraud and view the election as illegitimate.
Hedges said that Trump is not a typical politician, but rather a “cult leader,” whose followers live in their own parallel reality and “invest their energy in self-destructive behaviors.”
Some share Hedges’ opinion. In a recent column for The Guardian , David Sirota argued that Biden needs to do everything in his power to avoid former President Barack Obama’s mistakes, not only because failure to do so would result in “something worse than Trump,” but also because his actions could determine the future of the Democratic Party.
Progressive Democrats have criticized Biden for refusing to embrace a more ambitious agenda, but he has not budged. In fact, he has expressed interest in collaborating with the GOP, allegedly instructing his transition team to vet Republicans for Cabinet positions.
