Fascism Will Be Crushed in the United States of America

Fascism Will Be Crushed in the United States of America

The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #782: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026.

Let me say this as plainly as it can be said:

Fascism does not survive here.

It can posture. It can preen. It can pound its chest and strut around draped in flags it doesn’t understand. But…it cannot root itself permanently…in a country architected for friction…defiance…and distributed power.

America is not a monarchy with better branding.

It is a machine…designed to resist concentration.

And that machine…is bigger than any one man. Incredibly so.

Here’s what the fear merchants don’t want you remembering.

This country was born in rebellion, not polite disagreement…not procedural reform… rebellion. Against centralized authority. Against unaccountable power. Against a ruler who believed he could simply declare and command.

That DNA doesn’t evaporate because a strongman learns how to use social media.

It resurfaces.

Every. Goddamn. Time.

Fascism requires three ingredients to cement itself:

1. Total narrative control

2. Institutional obedience

3. Public resignation

The United States provides none of these cleanly.

Narrative control? We have fifty competing media ecosystems…millions of independent voices…decentralized communication channels…and a population allergic to uniform messaging. Even propaganda here has competition.

Institutional obedience? Our system fractures authority across states…courts… agencies,,,municipalities…and independent actors.

Governors resist. Judges intervene. Bureaucrats leak. States sue. Local officials defy. The friction is maddening…and it is protective.

Public resignation? Americans complain about everything. Loudly. Constantly. Relentlessly. We protest parking tickets. We litigate school board policies. We challenge zoning rules.

You think a population that argues about condiment choices is going to silently accept authoritarian permanence?

Not likely.

History is instructive.

We survived a civil war. We survived world wars. We survived McCarthyism. We survived Watergate. We survived assassinations…riots…internment camps…and economic collapse.

Each time, institutions bent.

They did not break.

Why?

Because power here…is not held in one hand.

It’s scattered.

Messy.

Redundant.

And that redundancy…is the antidote.

Here’s the mistake pessimists make: they assume loud equals permanent.

Authoritarian posturing always feels overwhelming in the moment.

It is designed to. The spectacle is part of the strategy. Shock. Intimidate. Exhaust.

But spectacle burns fuel fast.

Sustainable power requires quiet compliance.

And…America…does not do quiet compliance well.

Even the people who support strong leadership want it on their terms. The minute that leadership threatens their personal autonomy…their business…their property… their guns…their speech…their state authority…the coalition fractures.

Fascism depends on uniform loyalty.

America runs on conditional loyalty.

That’s a fatal mismatch.

Now here’s your role in this.

Crushing authoritarian drift isn’t a cinematic moment. It’s not one dramatic showdown.

It’s persistence.

It’s local elections that matter more than headlines.

It’s court cases that seem procedural but set precedent.

It’s state resistance.

It’s civic muscle memory.

It’s citizens who refuse to surrender mental sovereignty.

And most importantly…it’s refusing despair.

Despair…is surrender rehearsed in advance.

You do not need to panic.

You do not need to fantasize about collapse.

You need to understand leverage.

This country’s architecture is leverage layered on leverage:

Federalism, separation of powers, elections, independent courts, a free press, state sovereignty, private enterprise, civic culture.

That is not fragile.

That is stubborn.

And…stubborn systems outlast theatrical leaders.

Will there be turbulence?

Yes. No…wait. Scratch that; you bet your ass there will be turbulence.

Probably more than you can currently imagine.

Will there be ugly moments?

Absolutely. Staggeringly ugly…and then some.

But permanence? Entrenched authoritarian rule?

Not in a nation that fights with itself daily and calls that normal.

Fascism thrives in silence and submission.

America is noisy and combative.

That noise is not decay.

It’s defense.

Hold steady.

Stay engaged.

And remember this: systems built on distributed power do not surrender easily.

They absorb.

They resist.

And eventually…

They prevail.

In other words, bring it the f*ck on.

America isn’t letting this happen on our watch.

#HoldFast

Back soon.

-Jack

Jack Hopkins

P.S. If you’re waiting for someone else to save this country, stop. The safeguard isn’t “out there.” It’s here…in citizens who refuse to surrender their nerve. History doesn’t reward the loudest tyrant. It rewards the most persistent republic. Stay engaged. Stay unshaken. And don’t you dare rehearse defeat in your own mind.