"Will it be the cruelty, or the corruption, or the sex scandals, or the bullying, or the war crimes?"

 

The cracks in the Trump regime are showing, and one has to wonder which will offend the voters most. Will it be the cruelty, or the corruption, or the sex scandals, or the bullying, or the war crimes? We’ll find out soon enough.

The opposition, though, has weaknesses too, most spectacularly at the level of their leadership. Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen was asked recently who is leading the Democratic Party, to which he responded, “grassroots groups around the country;” groups like “No Kings.” That is sobering, coming from the top.

It’s no surprise then, that Trump’s DOJ is seeking to slow the money flow to non-MAGA organizations like Indivisible–the group behind the historic Hands Off and No Kings protests. US Attorney General, Pam Bondi, has apparently instructed law enforcement officials to investigate “antifa” and other supposed “domestic terror” groups, specifically directing them to search for “tax crimes”. This follows reports from earlier this fall, that the Trump administration plans to install allies in the IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) division and weaken the role of IRS lawyers in screening criminal cases, specifically to “pursue criminal inquiries of left‑leaning groups more easily.”

All of which sounds scary. If you’re a small, or even a large non-profit organization, lawsuits, and tax audits drain time and money. Political targeting throws missions off track. But before funders freak out, let’s remember that the Trumpists’ favorite tactic is threat, and as Timothy Snyder has taught us, authoritarian threats work because people comply in advance. It is also true that the IRS has seen mass layoffs thanks to Musk. There’s no evidence yet, at least, that audits are up.

Besides, if you really want to worry about politicized audits, how about racism? Multiple large‑scale studies and Treasury’s own advisory bodies have found that Black taxpayers are audited far more often than non‑Black taxpayers, by roughly a factor of three to five – probably because it’s easier, algorithmically, to audit low‑income returns over high‑income, more complex ones. Reporters have written about that phenomenon for years. Such stories have landed with a non-resounding hush.

Before liberal donors head for the hills this season, it’s also worth remembering what my guests on Laura Flanders & Friends emphasized this week. Anti-fascist activists from two different continents, Ezra Levin of Indivisible and Laszlo Upor from the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest Hungary, stressed the importance of staying creative.

“You have to laugh at them, not be afraid of them,” Upor said of authoritarians. “They don’t understand mirth.”

“That is true. They want to be feared. They want to be accused of being an authoritarian, of being a strongman, they like that. What they can’t afford is to be ridiculed, to be made fun of.” Agreed Levin. Besides, the IRS can’t actually audit your gifts of time, or attention, or creativity. 

So, stay creative, and don’t become a Trump-fearing Scrooge. Detect any self-interest here? Not one bit. If you want to hear my full uncut conversation with Levin and Upor, including their questions of each other, you can get that through subscribing to our free podcast or this Substack. All the information is at our website. Till the next time, stay kind, stay curious.

CounterPunch, Laura Flanders interviews forward-thinking people about the key questions of our time on Laura Flanders & Friends, a nationally-syndicated radio and television program also available as a podcast. A contributing writer to The Nation, Flanders is the author of several books, as well as a column on Substack.