'There will be camps' if Trump wins: Academic issues stern warning about fascism's return

Donald Trump’s return to the White House would instate an authoritarian rule comparable to fascist leaders of 1930s Europe, an Ivy League academic and Forbes columnist argued Tuesday.

“There will be camps,” wrote Columbia University lecturer Tom Watson. “We will be Spain under Franco. Or worse.”

Watson, in Tuesday’s edition of his newsletter The Liberal, describes a bleak future for the U.S. under a Trump administration he fears would dismantle checks and balances to the detriment of those who do not identify as white and male.

“Ethnic and religious minorities will suffer. Millions will be targeted because of sexual orientation. Immigrants will suffer,” Watson writes.

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“Criminal gangs will run the Federal government and even deep blue states will be hard-pressed to resist the pull of authoritarian rule.”

But the silver lining of Watson’s looming storm cloud is a mix of optimism and odds: “I think we will win.”

Watson argues that President Joe Biden’s position is much stronger than conservatives, critics, and the media would have Americans believe.

“Biden’s strengths are the kind that win elections,” Watson writes. “And you know who agrees? State parties in swing and blue states.”

Watson challenges the “Dems in disarray” critique — arguing the liberal party is well-funded, well-organized and activated — and urges readers to remember Democrats' strong swing-state showing in the 2022 midterm elections.

“Democrats’ statewide margins were greater than the 2020 presidential margins in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania — all recent battleground states,” Watson writes.

“That showing led the party to pick up a Senate seat, four state legislative chambers and two governorships, and helped keep the House of Representatives close, making it far more likely Republicans lose it in 2024.”

But Watson warns of real challenges in the months to follow, including voter suppression, bigotry, the “clickiness” of Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the slow pace of the criminal court system.

“The thunderstorm is coming,” Watson concludes. “Consider these hard truths without turning away."

Read "The Gathering Storm" in entirety here.