'Fascism is pain': Writer says Trump is gaining from the crises bombarding U.S. electorate

Democrats are growing increasingly worried about President Joe Biden's popularity as polls show declining support for him, while Donald Trump escalates his rhetoric against his political opponents and government entities who are prosecuting him.

According to Salon's Chauncey Vega, the result of "seemingly never-ending and simultaneous crises" is an "American people who are uncertain, discontent, and feeling weathered."

And, while the crises are causing some to move away from Biden, the opposite it true for Trump's core support, Vega wrote.

"In a type of tragic feedback loop, it is these negative feelings that are fueling Trump and the Republican fascists and other malign right-wing actors who will only make matters worse if they take power in 2025.

"One must never forget that fascism is pain."

Vega spoke to a range of experts, asking them what comes next in the age of Trump.

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According to sociology professor and director of the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society, at Vanderbilt University, Jonathan M. Metzl, it feels to him "like an incredibly violent moment right now in so many ways and in so many places. With little reward for empathy, peace, or resolution."

"So, the stakes of everything feel incredibly high and the institutions that usually protect us feel incredibly embattled and in peril," he said.

Author of "The Art of the Political Deal," Jill Lawrence, says the current situation has her "looking for escape."

"The crises are always percolating and occasionally exploding into the foreground, of course. Not to be fatalistic, but it seems like each and every one of them — Israel-Hamas, Ukraine-Russia, the violence, threats and polarization of our politics, the latest mass shooting by someone who never should have had a gun much less an assault rifle, and Trump looming over it all — starkly illuminates the failings of our system," Lawrence said.

Journalist Steven Beschloss said we're living in a time of "not only multiple crises, but also particular peril."

"This concerns the intensifying climate of violence and rise in hate crimes, as well as the expansion of voices on the left who are willing to abandon Joe Biden because of their resentment toward his commitment to Israel and its survival," Beschloss said.

"The intensity of their pro-Palestinian — and in some cases, pro-Hamas — anger has led to their insistence that there is no way they will vote for him next year. This comes at a moment when Donald Trump is surrounded by networks of acolytes energetically working to institutionalize autocracy."

Read the full article over at Salon.