We have two tasks before us. The first is to defend everyone and anyone in the fascist crosshairs. The second is to eject corporate Democrats and other bedtime-story-telling losers from the conversation, so that we can build a true political opposition on the left.

As Milwaukee Beagle has said since our beginning, the RNC was not the overwhelmingly positive experience that Mayor Johnson and Visit Milwaukee sold it to us as. Economic underpromises aside, we must also discuss the violence of cops and Republicans. Despite the efforts to chill free speech, folks were able to rally in resistance. The RNC is behind us and now the real fight to keep the fascists out of office begins.

Milwaukee progressives, leftists, and antifascists are well situated to prevent a Trump presidency. First, we are living in a swing state. We are also (unfortunately) hosting the Republican National Convention, and only an hour and a half from the Democratic National Convention. Poll margins and political dialogs here are watched closely by election strategists and pundits. What Milwaukeeans say and do during the campaign season matters. Now, I don’t want to overstate our power, but we do have more than other people who live in deep blue states, or left enclaves far from the conventions. With this power comes responsibility.

As the old saying goes, if it looks like a fascist, walks like a fascist, and talks like a fascist, chances are it is a fascist. The most difficult part of writing this article was not finding evidence of Wisconsin Republicans’ embodiment of fascism but rather deciding which examples to use. And this was just Wisconsin Republicans, imagine the endless examples if we examined all Republicans. We must not shy away from calling Republicans what they have become: fascists.

While efforts to gather, hold each other safe, and defend our city are vital and encouraging, they don’t address the core problem: this should never have happened. We cannot let the people who put us at risk off the hook. The community response to the RNC needs to include holding the elected officials who invited the fascists here responsible for what goes down during their party in our city.

Beginnings are hard. Some of them you’re forced into: being born, your first day at school, the first time you have to pay your own rent. This is different: we’re voluntarily starting something new, we aren’t sure how it will go, but we hope it’s worth the effort.