There isn’t just one day where everything changes. There are countless moments. Countless choices. Countless cuts and wounds that slowly mold a society into compliance for sadism that all lead to a decisive moment in time. It is a long-term project that creates the conditions for fascism.

The Big Beautiful Bill is the pinnacle of such a project. If it passes, and it is expected to pass, it will be one of those decisive moments. The ramifications have yet to be seen, but there are enough clues to paint a bleak picture.

The struggling working class will only get more impoverished. More beleaguered by endless work days, less pay, higher insurance costs, little to no healthcare, few to no vacation days, less benefits and higher food costs. All while the wealthiest of the lot get even more corpulent on coin. And it will all be enforced by the most well-funded police state in human history.

Trump’s ICE, his own Schutzstaffel, will get over 170 billion dollars. More than any military force in the world. More than the US Marines. They already have surveillance drones, tanks and concentration camps are being erected in mere days. And with Due Process but a quaint suggestion of the past, anyone can be swept up in its net with little to no recourse.

As the so-called opposition grows ever more craven by the day and unwilling to listen to its own constituents, Trump becomes ever more emboldened. He has all but captured the Judiciary. His regime has already arrested those who oppose him. He has already deported scores of people, citizens and undocumented alike. And he is threatening to deport a candidate for the mayor of America’s most powerful city, all while that candidate’s own party is attacking him relentlessly for being “too radical.”

His supporters have already threatened, intimidated and assassinated politicians. How many have complied in advance? How many are watching their backs? It should be clear that dissent in this regime will not be tolerated for very long.

None of this occurred in a vacuum. The conditions that have brought us to this moment in history led a large swath of the populace to accept the unthinkable. To accept the funding and aid of a genocide. To even applaud it. Cheer it on. The very worst crime against humanity imaginable was normalized for public consumption. Once the burning, bombing and starving of civilians, of children, became “self-defense,” anything became possible. The truth, itself, became the enemy.

The sword of the American Empire that has long been aimed outward, is now turning in toward itself. First, for the most vulnerable. The immigrant. But it is rapidly expanding its reach. And when a nation’s leader chooses to tour a concentration camp for a photo-op, it should be clear to anyone where he intends to lead his people.

Kenn Orphan, July 2025