Peter Beinart at The Atlantic poses a question “that is likely to bedevil progressives for years”: If you believe President Trump “is leading a racist, fascist movement . . . how far are you willing to go to stop it?” To the “largely anarchist” activists of antifa, the answer is increasing physical confrontation and violence. And while antifa’s “power is growing,” how “the rest of the activist left responds will help define its moral character.” Antifa’s tactics “have elicited substantial support from the mainstream left,” leading to “a level of sustained political street warfare not seen in the US since the 1960s. But in the name of protecting the vulnerable, antifascists have granted themselves the authority to decide which Americans may publicly assemble and which may not.” While these people “may consider themselves fierce opponents of the authoritarianism growing on the American right,” they’re actually “its unlikeliest allies.”
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