By Nicolas Maltais 
We live in unprecedented and unnerving times. Our southern neighbour – the self-styled leader of the free world – is starting to look nothing like a democracy at all. Almost overnight, the United States of America has morphed from a troubled republic into something far more sinister. Many of us feel shock, fear, even betrayal as we watch the once-vaunted beacon of liberty dim under the shadow of authoritarianism. The question is no longer if America is sliding into tyranny, but rather what kind of tyrannical state we’re now dealing with. Is the United States today a dictatorship, a fascist state, or some toxic cocktail of both?
Let’s not mince words: from where I sit, the United States has abandoned many of the core principles of democracy. In their place, we see the classic signs of despotic rule. A single leader obsessed with personal loyalty and power? Check. Institutions bent to the will of that leader, reduced to rubber stamps or outright bypassed? Check. Open threats to jail political opponents, undermine elections, and silence dissent? Check, check, and check. The bitter truth is that America’s vaunted “checks and balances” have been eroded to the point of farce. What remains is a system where one man and his enablers do as they please, legal and ethical norms be damned.
Some may scoff at the word “dictatorship” — after all, they argue, the U.S. still holds elections and has a Congress and Supreme Court. But having the trappings of democracy means nothing when they’ve been hollowed out. Remember, even the world’s most notorious dictators often kept sham legislatures or staged elections for show. It can happen there, and it is happening. When a President openly muses about ignoring the Constitution, when he praises foreign strongmen and calls his own country’s free press “the enemy of the people,” we’re firmly in authoritarian territory. The law is wielded as a weapon against enemies and a shield for friends. Courts get packed or cowed, legislators cower or collude, and any officials with a spine get fired or bullied into silence. Call that whatever you want – dictatorship, authoritarianism – it’s certainly not a free democracy anymore.
Yet the United States today is not merely experiencing one man’s dictatorship in isolation. It’s not just about an unhinged leader in the Oval Office acting like a tinpot despot. No, what we’re witnessing is broader and even more dangerous: a fascist strain running through American society and politics. Fascism isn’t just a dictator at the top; it’s a whole ecosystem of fear, fanaticism, and fervent nationalism. And make no mistake, that ecosystem has been carefully cultivated in the USA. It looks like flag-draped rallies where a mob chants cultish oaths of loyalty to their Leader. It smells like tear gas in the streets as militarized police and vigilante militias crack down on anyone labelled an “enemy within.” It sounds like the constant drumbeat of propaganda and lies, repeated until people prefer comforting fiction over uncomfortable truth.
Think I’m exaggerating? Let’s tally up the hallmarks of a fascist state and see how the U.S. measures up. Ultranationalist mythology and sloganeering? Just listen to the chants of “America First” and the endless flag-waving that substitutes for actual policy. A twisted nostalgia for a past that never was, where one group (white, Christian, straight, take your pick) reigned supreme – that’s the promise being sold, and millions are eagerly buying it. Scapegoating and demonizing others? Check that box twice. Immigrants, refugees, people of colour, LGBTQ+ communities – they’re all convenient villains in the new American nightmare, blamed for everything from crime to cultural decline. The regime in Washington encourages this hatred with a wink and a nod, if not outright applause. Children in cages at the border, Muslim travel bans, legislators openly flirting with white supremacist talking points – welcome to the land of the free, 2025 edition.
How about the cult of personality that defines fascism? Well, the United States has it in spades. The former president-turned-current strongman has his face plastered on T-shirts, flags, and who-knows-what-else, adored by a base that treats him more like a messiah than a politician. They aren’t just supporters – they’re disciples. No amount of corruption, incompetence, or cruelty seems to shake their faith; if anything, it only hardens it. We’ve seen this movie before, and it doesn’t end well. When throngs of people would rather believe a leader’s ridiculous conspiracy theories over objective reality – when they’ll even storm their own Capitol at his behest – you know you’re dealing with fascism at a grassroots level. The swastikas and brownshirts of the 20th century have been replaced by red MAGA caps and Proud Boys, but the violent fanaticism is the same. It’s the same damn playbook with a Stars-and-Stripes twist.
Even the institutions of knowledge and culture are under attack, as is typical in fascist regimes. In parts of the U.S., books are being banned and libraries purged of “unpatriotic” literature. History is being rewritten to fit the regime’s narrative – for instance, we now hear absurd claims from certain state education boards that slavery wasn’t that bad, or that the separation of church and state was never intended. Education is being warped into indoctrination. Scientists and experts are ridiculed or muzzled if their facts contradict the Leader’s whims (remember the pandemic fiasco, when public health officials were side-lined in favour of bleach injections and miracle cures?). Art and entertainment that challenge the new order get labelled “woke propaganda” and targeted for cuts or censorship. This is not a healthy democracy debating ideas; this is a society being told what to think by a regime that cannot tolerate dissenting truth.
And let’s talk about law and order – or rather, lawlessness disguised as order. Authoritarians love to harp on “law and order,” but what they really mean is their order and everyone else’s submission. In the United States, we see a perverse double standard. Peaceful protesters advocating for racial justice are met with batons, mass arrests, and federal agents in unmarked vans. Meanwhile, bands of armed right-wing extremists are coddled, or even encouraged, so long as their guns are pointed at the “correct” targets. When a mob of insurrectionists violently assaulted the seat of government on January 6, 2021, they did so with the tacit blessing of the man who incited them – and many of those foot soldiers have since been pardoned or had their crimes downplayed by the regime and its media lackeys. If that’s not the brownshirt ethos reincarnated, I don’t know what is. A government that prosecutes its critics while excusing its loyal thugs is a government well on its way to fascist authoritarianism.
Economically, too, the picture fits the pattern. Oligarchy and cronyism are flourishing. The self-proclaimed champion of the “forgotten man” has been busy lining the pockets of his billionaire buddies and corporate backers. Massive tax cuts for the super-rich, deregulation frenzies, and open corruption define the economic agenda. Key government posts are filled not with qualified public servants but with donors, relatives, and sycophants. (When your son-in-law with zero relevant experience is suddenly a top advisor on everything from peace in the Middle East to pandemic response, you might be living in a kleptocracy… or just the new Washington, D.C.) This is “government of the people” in name only – in practice it’s government of the wealthy, by the ideologues, for the leader’s personal benefit. Classic fascist regimes struck deals with big industrialists and elites to secure their power; in the U.S., the story is no different. Corporate power is coddled and protected, as long as CEOs sing the regime’s praises or at least enjoy the fat contracts coming their way. Labour unions and worker rights, predictably, get trampled – a fascist state has little use for organized workers who might challenge the authority of the corporate-political alliance. If you think the recent union-busting moves and crackdowns on federal labour protections are just coincidence, think again. They’re features of the model, not bugs.
So is the United States a dictatorship or a fascist state? At this point, the distinction is academic. A dictatorship is characterized by one person ruling unchecked, and a fascist state wraps that dictatorship in an extremist ideological blanket – a toxic mix of nationalism, racism, and aggression. America today has both. A power-hungry demagogue at the top, behaving like a dictator, and a radicalized movement underneath propelling a fascist agenda. You can debate the terminology, but you can’t deny the reality staring us in the face. Democracy has been gutted. The rule of law is on life support. The idea of America – as a nation of laws, of pluralism, of freedom – has been betrayed by those currently in power in America.
It’s particularly surreal (and infuriating) to hear the perpetrators of this authoritarian takeover still mouthing the words “freedom” and “patriotism” as if they mean it. They’ve wrapped themselves in the flag while setting it on fire. They claim to be saving the country, even as they shred its foundational principles. In one breath they brag about American greatness; in the next, they insist only their Dear Leader can make America great again – apparently greatness now means fealty to him, not to any ideals or institutions. The cognitive dissonance would be laughable if it weren’t so destructive. We’ve reached a point where true patriotism – love of country, its people, and its democratic ideals – demands vocal opposition to those in charge. Supporting the United States government as it exists right now is not an act of patriotism, it’s an act of complicity in democracy’s destruction. Sometimes, dissent is the highest form of loyalty. This is one of those times.
As a Canadian watching this fiasco unfold next door, I feel a mix of horror and anger. For all our lives, we’ve been taught that America is the stable ally, the democratic rock in a tumultuous world. Now we’re forced to confront the reality that the rock has crumbled into quicksand, and anyone who still believes in democracy can sink with it if they’re not careful. A fascist, dictatorial America is not just an American problem – it’s a global crisis. It emboldens every tinpot tyrant and militant extremist around the world when the country that once championed democracy starts emulating the very regimes it used to oppose. And for us in Canada, it’s downright frightening. We share a massive border with this faltering giant. We see the bellicose rhetoric spilling over – threats of economic warfare and even annexation fantasies coming from America’s unhinged leadership. We’d be fools to think we’re entirely safe from the reach of a desperate, vengeful superpower run by wannabe despots. The fallout is already hitting us in the form of trade instability and political tension, and it could get much worse.
But let me be clear: the American people are not monolithic, and many of them are just as appalled and heartbroken by what’s happening. Millions of Americans didn’t vote for this nightmare and are resisting in whatever ways they can – protesting in the streets despite the risks, organizing to defend what’s left of their civil liberties, and sounding the alarm through the few independent media outlets still brave enough to speak truth to power. My heart goes out to those folks, because they’re fighting a beast from within its belly. They haven’t given up, and neither should we who watch from abroad. If there’s one sliver of hope in all this, it’s that authoritarians can never fully extinguish the human yearning for freedom and justice. Even now, with the deck stacked and the danger high, there are Americans refusing to bow down. They deserve our support and solidarity, not our scorn or abandonment.
In the end, whether you call the United States a dictatorship or a fascist state might not matter – both labels point to the same stark truth. The United States is no longer functioning as a healthy democracy. It has veered into tyranny, draped in the flag and carrying a cross, shouting about freedom even as it handcuffs anyone who exercises it. This is a five-alarm fire for anyone who cares about democratic values on either side of the border. History will judge not only the tyrants themselves but also those who stood by and watched it happen. We cannot afford to be polite or neutral or optimistic that “everything will work out” while watching a democracy die. We have to call this what it is and confront it.
The stakes could not be higher. If America’s experiment with liberal democracy fails, it sends a green light to aspiring dictators everywhere. It tells the world that no country is too rich, too powerful, or too rooted in democratic traditions to avoid the fate of authoritarianism. It can happen here – it did happen there – and it could happen anywhere next. That is why we must be bold and unapologetic in condemning what the United States government has become. That is why we must stand up, loudly and without fear, for the values that are under siege – whether in Washington or Ottawa or anywhere else.
The United States of America in 2025 stands at the abyss of fascist dictatorship. And if we have any love for the idea of freedom, we must all hope – and work – for the day when it steps back from that abyss. Until then, the only correct response is outrage, resolve, and unwavering solidarity with those fighting to pull their country back into the light. Solidarity!