Is Trumpism Fascism Absurdly All Over Again?
By: Reverend Andy
Tags: Trumpism, Globalism, Racism, Politics, Fascism

A recent Internet search of the phrase “Trump and Fascism” turned up 17,600,000 links that included mainstream sources like the New York Times and NBC News. One presented the views of Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. On the one hand, the concern implied by these inquiries might be dismissed, as we are currently not under the threat of the dismantling of democratic institutions and violence on a scale that took place under Hitler and Mussolini in the 30s. On the other hand, if we haven’t learned the lessons of that history, we may risk sliding into something as bad or worse. Maybe the fact that so many are inquiring about the subject is but one indication that the concern may not be so far-fetched.

Many articles on the subject of fascism begin with a clarification of the term as it has become nearly ineffectual by overuse. The terms “fascist” or “Nazi” have become polemical epithets for everyone from controlling parents and bossy bosses, to overzealous police officers. Republican rhetoric from the 80s on has labeled military targets like Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein “Hitler.” While on the left, fascism is used as a general characterization of right-wing Republicans, and now Trump and his followers specifically.

I use the term “Trumpism” here to signify the current political shift within the Republican Party headed by Donald Trump and his followers, who appeal to populist anti-establishment nationalist rhetoric. Due to Trump’s various racist statements, his being the unofficial spokesperson for the Birther movement, and the racist viewpoints of many in his base, Trump is also suspected of being aligned with white nationalists, whose views, at the very least, he has been reluctant to disavow.

In practice, Trump distinguishes himself from mainstream republicans by his disrespect for legal and political institutions, a foreign policy that spurns democratic allies while embracing authoritarian foes, obstructing international free trade, open disregard for increasing the national debt, and his refusal to at least pay lip-service to America’s role as a global voice for democratic values. On other matters, arguably Trump merely exaggerates long-standing republican tendencies; for example, cracking down on illegal immigrants, appointing conservative judges to satisfy the religious base, cutting taxes for the wealthiest (supply-side or trickle-down economics), and seeking to cut social welfare.

The end result of the confusion surrounding the term fascism is that it becomes difficult to find a straightforward conception from which to understand if it applies to Trumpism. Thus, a clarification is in order before we can be reasonably sure that Trump and his followers are wittingly or unwittingly fomenting a fascist movement.

Confusion regarding fascism as a concept is not new, as the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset shared, “Whichever way we approach fascism we find that it is simultaneously one thing and the contrary, it is always A and not-A.” Gasset lived through a fascist regime. That said, it is still possible to gain a clear understanding of fascism, taking into account its contradictions, with which most should be able to agree. Having surveyed several theories of fascist movements (see references below), my aim here is to condense that material into six main features that will be readily useful when assessing its application to Trump and his followers.

The term fascismo is derived from the Latin fascis which translates as a bundle. An ancient Roman symbol referred to as a fasces consisted of a bundle of rods with an ax protruding to signify figures of authority. It is argued to symbolically represent strength through unity as a single stick is easily broken while a bundle of sticks is not. The name was then given by Mussolini to his authoritarian political movement.

One source of confusion regarding the term fascism has to do with the tendency to refer to political movements as fascist when what is really meant is the more general term authoritarian. In a way this is understandable, as calling one’s alleged oppressor “authoritarian” doesn’t have quite the emotional sting. Fascism, then, is one particular form of political authoritarianism, the latter of which as a category includes any government where there exists a concentration of political power in one person or a small group. Authoritarian governments include theocracies, monarchies, plutocracies, or any form of modern dictatorship on the left — Stalinism for one example — or fascism on the right.

Fascism is a unique form of right-wing authoritarianism that arises out of contemporary capitalist based constitutional democracies, and is a response to crisis and contradictions that arise therein. This definition is often lost on those whose understanding of fascism is limited to Hollywood clichés wherein leather clad Nazis represent the forces of evil in a battle with a righteous America. This trope obscures the fact that fascism can arise in any modern nation including the USA, and it also obscures the historical reality that Hitler’s form of fascism did have powerful American supporters.

Given the above definition, though there can be authoritarian left-wing political forces that arise out of the same contemporary conditions, it is inaccurate to label them as fascist. For example, the old Soviet and current Chinese models of socialism are authoritarian rather than a liberal democratic socialism as proposed by American politicians like Bernie Sanders.

Another source of confusion occurs because fascist regimes function as a magnet for many disgruntled groups that are seemingly incompatible. What these groups share is a common enemy in the liberal left’s embrace of democracy, globalism, multiculturalism, feminism, and welfare programs that redistribute wealth. Therefore, a fascist movement might attract religious groups; reactionary military, ex-military, and paramilitary forces; wealthy urban elites; small business owners; rural farmers; and those blue-collar workers suffering the effects of economic downturns and technological changes who don’t support leftist solutions. The latter group includes those non-college educated white males who represent a desperate group currently as indicated by rapidly escalating rates of drug addiction and suicide.

Finally, fascists not only appear but are contradictory because they are opportunistic in their use of any and all means to attain their ends, especially regarding political rhetoric. Fascists are convinced they as a group or race are suffering existential threats; thus, their concern is to win a war for survival rather than to be reasonable. The following is a short list of various of these contradictions: Fascists promote state socialism (corporate welfare, policing, and military industrial complex) while at the same time attacking socialism and socialists. Fascists will resist majority votes that are against them, while insisting on their populist appeal. Fascists are against globalism yet tend to be imperialistic. Current right-wing political movements, including Trump’s, promote top-down authoritarian displays of power while at the same time asserting themselves as protectors of liberty.

As a movement formed to overcome the crisis and social divisions endemic to modern economic and social life, the fascist appeal for unity is through a hyper-patriotic nationalism that often includes racism. 20th century fascism was a response to pressure from labor unions and socialists to empower workers and redistribute wealth, the crisis of the Great Depression, multiculturalism, and post WWI despair. Today, fascists respond to similar economic and cultural issues, and they do so by the same appeal to hyper-patriotic nationalism and often racism. Finally, one nasty feature of fascists is that many believe that the defense of their nation, or race, justifies the destruction of their common enemies from both inside and abroad, and that by any means necessary including violence.

The following is a list of six defining features of fascism with an indication in bold of the particular expression that suggests its potential emergence in Trumpism. It is important to keep in mind that different authoritarian forms of government can share features with fascism. For one example, the post 9/11 Republican Party under George W. Bush and Dick Cheney share many features with fascist movements, specifically their attempt to concentrate power in the executive branch of government, though arguably they did not share enough features of a fascist movement rather than a lesser form of conservative authoritarianism. For one example, they resisted those who wanted to use 9/11 to intensify overt forms of xenophobic attacks.

Fascist movements share the following six features:

Fascism is victim or grievance based, and the specific grievances are in direct opposition to the grievances of the left, which have to do with overcoming past forms of discrimination and wealth inequality. For the fascist, grievances are based on what they feel they are losing relative to the past. In a sense, the left’s grievances are forward looking and progressive, while the right’s grievances are looking back. In the case of Trump, his slogan “Make America Great Again” strikes directly at this sense of loss on the right.

Fascists appeal to a sensed need of a cleansing force to bring about a rebirth from decay. The rebirth is based on a cult like attachment to traditions or a mythic past empire. The decay stems from the left’s demands for social and political progress that compels sharing power, wealth, and culture. No doubt some of the concern stems from the fact of our changing racial make-up, as by 2045 whites are projected to become a minority. Much of the real suffering stems from wealth inequality and structural crisis in the economy (recessions and depressions) and technological transformations that displace jobs.

Some of the inclinations of the left found particularly detestable to fascists include:

Cosmopolitanism and globalism, as these complicate national identities.

Democracy, as fascists are usually in the minority.

Equal rights and pluralism, including feminism and multiculturalism.

Parliamentary and legal procedures as these get in the way of quick decisive results. This is exemplified in Trump follower’s attacks on the “Deep State.”

Social programs that redistribute wealth.

2. Fascism is plutocracy based, as control of the economy by a wealthy class is protected. Then as now, powerful capitalists would rather not go along with a fascist take-over of political control, but when faced with crisis (recessions/depressions) or opposition (labor unions/socialist reforms) fascism becomes a lesser of evils. This is exemplified today by those Republican Party leaders and big donors who resisted Trump during the 2016 Republican primaries, but have since fallen in line. Economic problems are blamed on liberal policies, other people (races), and other nations. This is exemplified in the current attacks on “Obamacare,” the attempt to build the wall, and tariffs on international trade.

3. Fascism relies on nationalism or hyper-patriotism as a replacement for democratic institutions. Nationalism acts as a form of tribalism with a powerful authoritarian leader and servile (loyal) underlings. A select group is set up as representing the will of the population as a whole, this rather than a simple majority of total citizens. We can hear this today in the right’s references to “Middle America” as the real America, and Trump’s suggestion that the “fake news,” meaning that which is critical of him, is “against the people.”

Fascism is intolerant toward domestic political opposition, which is exemplified by Trump’s threatening language and refusal to work with or even comply with the Democratic Party leadership in Congress. Fascists are also intolerant to the rule of law, which gets in the way of the heroic leader’s work. This is exemplified by Trump’s apparent obstruction of justice in Mueller’s investigation, and recently referring to that investigation as a coup against the government.

4. Fascists are xenophobic as they rely on demonizing different races or national identities as scapegoats upon which to rally support. This rather than deal with the actual internal divisions that result from the mal-distribution of wealth. Fascists offer no prescriptions to satisfy the hopes of its working class supporters aside from attacking the chosen scapegoats. There is often a social Darwinian component whereby the fascist believes they belong to a superior culture or race. This is represented by Trump’s insistence on the wall, his overt racist comments and actions, his White Nationalist support, and the tariffs.

5. For fascists, militarism and nationalism go hand-in-hand, and this includes paramilitary forces. Fascist movements attract war veterans who are often disenfranchised and are normalized to militaristic command and violent solutions. Many of the early fascists prior to WWII were the veterans of WWI, including Hitler and Mussolini. Today’s paramilitary forces include the NRA, civilian vigilante border patrols, right wing militia groups, and mercenary armies like Eric Prince’s latest iteration of Blackwater.

A future military operation — current hot-spots include Iran or Venezuela — could place the population under surveillance and suspend due process. It arguably also reinforces machismo and thus patriarchy, and also places fear in the hearts of the opposition. This is exemplified by the quickness with which Trump exploits events in Iran, Venezuela, or the caravans of immigrants from Central America as national security threats. It is also exemplified by his encouragement of violence and bullying at political rallies during the 2016 Presidential election.

6. Fascist rhetoric is anti-intellectual and primarily reliant on appeals to emotions over reason. Among other causes for this is the fact that fascists are opportunistic regarding means to its goal, thus favoring action and results over careful deliberation and processes.

Fascists share love for those with whom they feel identical, and a paranoid hatred for others, with little tolerance for grey area. The fascist’s romanticized heroic national identity is a transcendent religious like force that can overcome all. As pointed out by Hitler in the quote from Mein Kampf that follows, the invisible and alienated (“small”) are elevated by association:

“When from his little workshop or his factory, in which he feels very small, he [the future fascist] steps into a mass meeting for the first time and has thousands of people of the same opinions around…he is swept away…into the mighty effect of the suggestive intoxication and enthusiasm…the man who enters such a meeting doubting and wavering leaves it inwardly reinforced: he has become a link in the community.”

Staying with the religious metaphor, there is also an enigmatic leader who is felt to embody the spirit of the nation and who acts as if a savior. The vision is of a pre-modern singular utopia that never was, which is exemplified recently by the Tea Party, White Nationalism, and cult like romanticizing of the American Founders.

Finally, fascist propaganda corrupts rational discourse and creates doubt in facts and disables critical thinking. The tendency is to create political spectacles rather than offer information that can be fact checked. This feature is exemplified today by Trump’s insistence that his critics represent the fake news, his insisting on “alternative facts,” and reliance on campaign style rallies and simplistic twitter posts — often reduced to adolescent name-calling — to create near daily political spectacles.

To summarize, fascists put national (often racial) identity and loyalty above all, and strive to stop a perceived decay they blame on outsiders (racially or otherwise) in order to rebuild a romanticized (fictional) past utopia. Today this manifests in the changing racial make-up of the nation where whites will soon become a minority. Fascists claim to represent the majority’s will, though rarely through a fair election where that will is actually expressed. Usually they sense that a strong leader, often but not always a military leader, is needed to override cumbersome democratic and legal institutions. Finally, in the end they preserve the concentration of wealth in the capitalist class.

This summary of fascism is not intended to offer a prescription for resistance; however, a short list would surely include the need to preserve and expand democratic institutions, insist on genuine liberty and the privacy rights upon which liberty depends, preserve and expand universal rights including economic rights, and celebrate multiculturalism and strive for the rights of minorities.

On a slightly more lighthearted (or lightheaded) note, I am reminded of an infamous 19th century social critic who commented that if historical events appear to repeat themselves, the first time they do so as tragedy, and the second as farce. He was referring in his day to the 1851 coup of the inept Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte in contrast to the far more competent thus tragic 1799 coup of his uncle Napoleon Bonaparte. Today we have the Reality TV star led farce that is Trumpism, in contrast to the tragic figures of Hitler and Mussolini. Of course, just because Trump and his supporters appear farcical doesn’t mean a new postmodern brand of fascism can’t hurt all the same.

Keith Law

Lecturer of Philosophy, Merced College

6/10/19

Some of the sources referenced for this analysis include the following:

Umberto Eco, “Eternal Fascism”

Jose Ortega y Gasset, “Sobre el Fascismo”

Kevin Passmore, Fascism: A Very Short Introduction

Dave Renton, Fascism: Theory and Practice

Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works

Leon Trosky, Fascism: What it is and how to fight it.