Since Donald Trump’s surprise victory in 2016 I’ve lost respect for countless liberal writers.

Count Rick Perlstein among them. In a new article, entitled American Fascism, Perlstein warns of the potential for American-style fascism should Trump win another term.

The problem with this analysis is that the US is already there, with the liberal stalwart–Joe Biden– and his administration, actively aiding and abetting the Israeli genocide unfolding in Gaza, while arming and training authentic fascists in Ukraine. What’s sad is that Perlstein, who brilliantly chronicled the rise of the modern American right-wing, seems to have forgotten the history of empires. Empires are always fascist on the periphery initially but the fascism always comes back to the homeland. Then there’s that whole aggressive war thing. The Nuremberg Trials in the aftermath of WWII severely punished the fascist leaders for the ultimate crime of aggressive war. The American empire has been waging aggressive war for decades, ramping up to a crescendo after 9/11, with Republicans and Democrats eagerly taking turns.

Nevertheless, that a Democratic president is engaging in genocide during a re-election year is surreal, highlighting the depravity of the American empire more starkly than anything else I can remember. Democrats and their liberal supporters like to think of themselves as responsible humanitarians who stand in opposition to the reckless murderousness and fascism of the Republican Party’s worst impulses, yet here they are openly falling all over themselves to justify mass atrocities committed, while arming and assisting the “only Democracy in the Middle-East”.

So it’s hard to get exercised about the potential for future fascism when the present provides daily horrors.

In the latest outrage, the US and eight of its allies have suspended funding to UNRWA, the primary humanitarian agency in Gaza, following Israeli allegations that a dozen employees of the 30,000-staff organization were involved in the October 7 attack by Hamas. The allegations conveniently sprung up at the same time as the International Court of Justice rulings against Israel in the genocide case brought against it by South Africa, quickly supplanting the ICJ ruling in western mass media headlines. The US has continued to dismiss the South African case as unfounded.

Cutting off aid to the most aid-dependent population on earth would be a psychopathically monstrous act all by itself, even without having caused their extreme needfulness in the first place by backing a genocidal bombing campaign on a giant concentration camp full of children. And, it’s certainly not by accident that Israel is attacking UNRWA. Noga Arbell, a former Israeli foreign ministry official, during a discussion in the Israeli parliament on Jan. 4, stated: “It will be impossible to win the war if we do not destroy UNRWA, and this destruction must begin immediately.”

Biden’s unequivocal support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza gives the lie to the concept of a “rules-based order” that America allegedly upholds and protects. As Biden expresses his “grave concern” about Israeli war crimes in Gaza, he keeps sending the weapons that make possible the very crimes he allegedly deplores. At the same time, his administration is opening a new front in this war with its deadly attacks on Yemen. Biden has said the bombing raids against Yemen aren’t stopping attacks on shipping even as he vows to continue them.

Meanwhile, Biden continues to fight for at least $60 billion for real, honest-to-God fascists in Ukraine to prolong a stalemated war that’s killing untold thousands of Ukrainians and Russians. The aid that Biden wants to send this year won’t end that war; it won’t even give Ukraine a decisive edge. Most experts believe this aid will merely prolong the fighting, meaning more destruction and dead bodies on both sides.

The Biden administration’s embrace of genocide in Gaza and a brutal indecisive war in Ukraine highlights the moral bankruptcy of its foreign policy. On the campaign trail, Biden is increasingly being confronted by protesters calling him out for his brutal and militaristic foreign policy. “Genocide Joe” is a nickname that stings because it’s true.

Not to be outdone, former Speaker of the House, Democratic Nancy Pelosi shared her opinion on how American protestors are Russian dupes. “Protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza is Mr. Putin’s message… Make no mistake, this is directly connected to what he would like to see… I think some of these protesters are spontaneous and organic and sincere. Some I think are connected to Russia.”

But, never mind all of that. Orangeman bad! Beware of future fascism, and don’t worry your pretty little head about the savage US imperialism managed by the “adults” in the Biden Administration.

Biden is doing all the very worst things Democrats claimed Trump would do if re-elected. If it had come out in 2020 that Trump was plotting a genocide and ethnic cleansing campaign in which his victims would be cut off from humanitarian aid, the shrieking from Democrats would have woken the dead.

There’s a method to the madness for liberals and Democrats in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election in November. “The White House hopes – through containment – to ‘stroke’ the flames of war-fever raised by the Gaza assault down to ‘low heat’, and thus to slide the situation imperceptibly towards the regional ‘quiet’ that the Administration deems ‘appropriate’ to an Election Year.”

That’s the plan. Keep the genocide on the down-low while agitating about the threat of American fascism if Trump wins.

Future historians are going to look back at this interregnum and marvel. Perhaps they can label it Barbie fascism–where liberals are more incensed about the Barbie movie Oscar snubs than about the Washington’s fulsome support for genocide and endless war.

Greta & Margot, While it can sting to win the box office but not take home the gold, your millions of fans love you.  You’re both so much more than Kenough. #HillaryBarbie

Update: I couldn’t resist this picture.