Far too many in the United States have concerned themselves with assigning blame for the fascist space in which the US finds itself. For nearly six years, “Oh but those emails!” has been the social media shorthand for shivving Americans who either did not vote in the 2016 presidential election or voted for a candidate other than Hillary Rodham Clinton or Donald Trump.With the ongoing January 6 hearings in the US House of Representatives, the question of how the US devolved to this moment remains all about Trump and 2016. Experts and common Americans alike have been short-sighted (or really, Trump-sighted) in their explanations for how the US took a glide path towards far-right corruption.Journalist and cultural anthropologist Sarah Kendzior in particular has done some wonderful work in predicting the rise of Trump and explaining the kleptocratic nature of his rise, including her book Hiding in Plain Sight. To Kendzior and others’ credit, they do occasionally mention Ronald Reagan or cite the US Supreme Court’s Bush v Gore decision (which handed George W Bush the presidency in 2000) in understanding how American leaders groomed the US for Trump. But they do not further explore the path that has taken the US and its democracy to the edge of an abyss.
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