Trump has installed at the top of power, and of international relations, what we can call anti-democratic brother-in-lawism, an anti-political protuberance—calling it an ideology would be an exaggeration: all this talk of libertarian capitalism is sheer stupidity—consisting of identifying all the ills of Western society in the supposed ineffectiveness of the rule of law, with its fussy balance of power, caricatured by lazy and corrupt high-ranking officials who live off the public purse. The solution, typical of what the classic supposedly well-informed brother-in-law would say after dinner, is to purge this entire elitist caste and govern without compassionate qualms, with authority. That is, authoritarianly. With a leader who speaks clearly and acts forcefully. Who governs with the people in mind, a us perfectly ultra-nationalist and exclusive towards the others, the profiteers, the enemies (from outside and inside).
This isn't the first time in history that liberal democracy has had to face a populist attack of this magnitude. We've already been at the hands of boastful and boastful brothers-in-law. A century ago, we suffered the devastating double totalitarian attack of fascism and communism—that is, of Hitler and Stalin, two petulant murderers. In Spain, another bloodthirsty brother-in-law razed the weak Republic. Now Trumpian brother-in-lawism has unearthed the axe: the chainsaw. Every revolution requires a destructive epiphany. Thus, we are in the midst of a barbaric democratic deconstruction.
The neoliberalism of the late 1980s paved the way for the current grotesque, authoritarian protectionist anti-liberalism, with its tariff wars and a supposed peace of the strong. Some saw it coming. Look what historian Josep Fontana said back in 2002, precisely recalling the Republican years: "Perhaps it is now that it is up to us, at a time when these [democratic] values are once again denied, to reclaim this attempt at transforming society and recover those hopes, perhaps frustrated but not obsolete." We cannot renounce hope, ideals.
Does anyone dare today to reclaim the Republican experience? Pedro Sánchez's government, emulating what Felipe González did in the face of the threat of a coup, only dares to confront the neo-Francoism of the PP-Vox with the vindication of 50 years of democracy. The amnesiac error of the Transition of hiding Republican memory is being repeated for fear of the Manichean discourses of the conservative right (historiographical brother-in-lawism), obsessed with painting a false dual radicalism, equating the two sides in the Civil War. Well, no. There was a fascist coup against a parliamentary democracy. Then, yes, especially in Catalonia, at the beginning of the war, there was an uncontrolled revolutionary climate at the hands of anarchism, and then a strong criminal Stalinist influence through the PSUC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), but nothing like the Francoist Holocaust of the rebels, as described by Paul Preston.
In the recently released book The Republic (UPF), by Fontana, which posthumously compiles his lessons on that forgotten and undervalued period, the author emphasizes that the Republic, contrary to what the propaganda of an international right wing in the wake of fascism claimed, was born and implemented a "moderate reformist program." (Incidentally, despite the separation of religious orders from education, the Church, through intermediaries, controlled more schools at the end of the Republic than at the beginning.)
At a time of resignation by democratic governments in the face of the rise of fascism, that young and weak peninsular democracy became a symbol. Brothers-in-law Hitler and Stalin understood this clearly and fought it tooth and nail. Now, the symbol and battlefield in defense of democracy is Ukraine. We cannot leave it at the mercy of Trumpist and Putinist brother-in-lawism. Yes, it's time to rearm ourselves, both ideologically and literally. It's time to confront the triumph of brother-in-lawism.
