Paul Krugman is a liberal. A famous one. An expert on liberal economics. He seems like he means well. He recently posted this short essay encouraging people to oppose Trumpism rather than showing deference to Trump and his minions. It’s a good idea when I put it that way, but his exact wording is, “Oppose and do it loudly,” and he makes the case (with great success) that Trump does not have a mandate. What, exactly, does Paul Krugman think we should do?

First off, I think everyone understands that Trump does not have a mandate. What Paul Krugman does not seem to understand is that there has been a concerted effort over decades to grant vast powers to the President and that this culminated in the Supreme Court granting the Presidency what you might call “God Mode” near the end of Biden’s term. In essence, the President of the United States can do whatever he wants as long as his actions can plausibly be interpreted as official acts (i.e., part of his job). Moreover, previous decisions made by the Department of Justice determined that the President cannot be prosecuted for any crime while he is in office. Most Americans understand this, but Paul Krugman does not.

Second, Paul Krugman is a multimillionaire living in a blue state who does not understand that the average American is extremely exposed. Speaking up in such a way that we gain the horrible attention of a fascist regime could easily destroy our lives. Losing your job can literally be fatal in the United States of America, but getting fired isn’t the only risk. We could also be jailed for months or even years despite having never committed any real crime; Trump is literally paying private companies to build a concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay. Our identities could be widely published and unhinged Trumpers could use that information to harm us physically or destroy our property. If the Trump regime comes after you, the Democratic Party will not even try to save you. In fact, if you did something effective (i.e., something other than just talking loudly), they’re likely to condemn your actions (change requires a period of instability, which the Democratic Party hates).

Third, Paul Krugman does not understand that speaking out against fascism does not change how fascists act. As long as they believe that they are winning, fascists enjoy hearing that you don’t like what they are doing. Your suffering brings them joy. In short, he clearly doesn’t understand power, which is a common problem among liberals. Power is when you can take an action, and no one can stop you. Power is what the Trump administration has right now. Krugman thinks “our democratic institutions” have an effective response to the amoral, brute-force pragmatism of fascism even though we have seen time and again that it does not. Fascists will do whatever they want as long as they are not physically stopped; they don’t care about the law, they certainly don’t care about the principles and procedures of our democracy, and they do not care if you yell at them loudly.

Fourth, Paul Krugman does not understand the ratchet. In short, the donor class demands that the Democratic Party never make substantive progress toward satisfying the wants and needs of the working class, and then that same donor class enables the Republican Party to move further right (though it sometimes doesn’t do it exactly the way the wealthy would prefer). Both parties have shifted to identity politics, at once distracting us from the real (material) issues and making the issues of identity politics real. I suspect he will die waiting for the Democratic Party to do something effective.

Fifth, Paul Krugman does not understand that capitalism is the problem and that — at the very least — it must be minimized. Bernie Sanders was the last chance the US had to get capitalism under control through electoral politics, and Paul Krugman actively opposed Sanders. Krugman wrote editorials about how Sanders was bad and openly supported his opponent, the neoliberal villain Hillary Clinton. (Right wingers opposing her for the wrong reasons does not make her a hero.) Paul Krugman personifies the irrational clinging to capitalism and the lack of practical imagination of the Democratic Party’s leadership. Meanwhile, he has placed a photo of socialist revolutionary Martin Luther King, Jr. at the top of his essay; liberals love to co-opt King’s movement.

Now, I do realize that I do not have concise plans for fixing the situation we are in. The combination of the Democratic Party’s bland complacency and the Republican Party’s unhinged fascism has really put all of humanity in a terrible situation that has no easy antidote. However, I have at least learned that talking louder, particularly if you are talking loudly at the fascists, does not make a difference at all. I think I’m almost to the point of accepting that talking loudly at the liberals doesn’t make a difference, either.

Related:Oppose, Oppose, Oppose — and Do It Loudly by Paul Krugman