In the wake of the 2016 election, there were a lot of self-described reasonable liberals claiming that describing Trump as a fascist was destructive hyperbole. While it is certainly a bad idea to just call everyone you don’t like a fascist, it seemed like in this case, people were using a lot of overly specific (and even irrelevant) details to try to justify why Trump was not a fascist. It was as if he needed to literally don a Nazi uniform and publicly state, “I am a fascist,” or people couldn’t believe it. I recently stumbled upon an article from 2017 summarizing this view, including four somewhat well-described reasons why Trump isn’t really a fascist, but instead a right-wing populist. They are:
- Fascists are nationalists.
- Fascists are opposed to capitalism.
- Fascists are opposed to democracy.
- Fascists openly embrace violence.
The author claims that for each of these points, that Donald Trump does not meet the definition. Importantly, the author is a political scientist and apparently an expert on dictatorship who eventually agreed that Donald Trump is a fascist — but it took an insurrection to convince them. I will be making the case here that this expert — and many other informed, smart people — fought against using the word “fascism” purposefully despite the facts.
The first issue is the fact that the actual question is really, “Is this fascism?” where “this” is the totality of the movement which includes Trump, his administration, and his 30 million enthusiastic supporters. QAnon is in there, too. This movement as a whole had control of the executive branch of our government for 4 years, but thankfully did not succeed in converting the whole country to fascism. Liberals strongly want the answer to be “No” and because they so strongly want the answer to be “No” they are willing to change the question to nudge the answer toward “No” and even change the definition of fascism to allow us to say that this isn’t fascism.
In this case, the author is starting out by limiting the question to Trump instead of addressing the totality of the movement, or even the administration as a whole. However, what Trump is objectively (or what his administration was objectively) isn’t as important as what his perceived function is among people who strongly support him, which means that what we really need to care about is the movement as a whole. The movement is also the most important thing from a functional perspective. Change of any kind requires broad support; a single person can’t create fascism by themselves, and an otherwise neutral leader can be nudged toward certain policy decisions based on voter or donor demand. I will be emphasizing the movement as a whole since that is what matters (even though Trump certainly fully revealed himself to be a fascist when he tried to overturn the 2020 election).
Before getting into this, I think it is important to talk about how fascism in America has changed, and how the right wing perception of “socialism” has changed, because those things are going to affect how we approach those 4 attributes of fascism. Conservative Americans do not understand what socialism is; what they call “socialism” is really capitalist globalism. Conservative Americans believe that capitalist globalism (i.e., their version of “socialism”) controls the US government (for brevity, I won’t address the accuracy of that belief). Another issue is that every American now understands that both racists and fascists are despised by the majority and that being either is marginalizing (i.e., no one will take you seriously if they believe you are a racist); the result is that even people who are privately proud of their racism will publicly deny it vociferously.
Fascists Are Nationalists
The author claims that since Trumpers do not see the nation as existing above and beyond the individual, they’re not really nationalists. From a less pedantic perspective, Trumpers are obviously nationalists and are even questioning why being a nationalist is a bad thing because they love nationalism so much. Frankly, I’m shocked that anyone in America thought that Trumpers are not nationalists (by any definition) after seeing the way they worship the US flag. Do they not make a performance of claiming that we are all beneath the flag (which represents the nation)? Was the slogan “Make Me Great Again” or was it “Make America Great Again”?
However, we’re debating a pedant, so we have to examine this claim, which comes down to imagining that fascism is a communal culture and that conservative populism is an individualist culture. That division itself is largely artificial under most circumstances; however, the thing that people don’t seem to understand is that fascism is made up of individuals who use their association with their skin color, ethnicity, religion, nation, etc. as a means of attaining their individual superiority (thus satisfying their narcissism). Fascism specifically encourages the individual to strive toward superiority and through “will to power” (believing something is true so that it is manifested), the individual becomes superior (superiority happens simultaneously with belief; they are identical processes). So, in the particular case of fascism, the communal/individualistic division is particularly artificial.
Let me give you a more specific example. You’ve heard the argument from Trumpers that “only vulnerable people are affected by COVID and therefore it isn’t a big deal”; i.e., since only the weak are killed by COVID, COVID is not a problem because the weak are supposed to die. Further, forcing Trumpers to take the vaccine is a violation of their freedom, despite the fact that it might save them from dying (death being the state of zero freedom). Even though this is violently individualistic, we can still express this same idea in communal way: The vaccine weakens the volk by keeping weak members alive instead of allowing them to die as God intended; we are collectively weakened by their continued survival. To bring that back to individualism, a fascist individualist sees the mere existence of a flawed, weak, or deviant person as an affront to themselves and a potential source of contamination or contagion through their own association with the whole. They express this by saying things like, “Liberalism makes America weak.”
I’ve recently seen “conservatives” talking about how “welfare” “treats people like victims” and that we can only be free individuals if we get rid of it. They put ADA regulations in this same bag of things that violate individual freedom. Now, obviously, many people would be much worse off without things like SNAP, Medicaid, and the ADA. Their rejection of “welfare” is a passive approach to cleansing the nation and is a step toward active cleansing, in the sense of genocidal programs to remove people from society who are viewed as tainted. If Nazism had been a truly communal culture, they’d have been trying to save all the Germans instead of physically excising some of them from the German nation.
Fascism is, at its heart, individualistic (including lacking empathy for others), and nationalism is product of narcissism. Why does the author need fascism to be communal? Probably because they, like most Americans, think individualism is good and communalism is bad; this is the same urge that has conservatives claiming that the Nazis must have been socialists.
Fascists Are Opposed to Capitalism
If Trumpers are fascists, then why do they like capitalism so much? That question would be a real stumper if Trumpers actually knew what capitalism is. Factually, capitalism is a system whereby a small minority of people own the means of production, and this gives them power over everyone else; everyone who does not own capital has rights, but they can’t necessarily exercise those rights because they don’t have power. In contrast, Trumpers think of capitalism in a self-centered way — as something that gives them freedom to buy anything they want (like guns and poison) and be served by others (like workers in foreign factories or fast food restaurants) and they do not understand what “capital” is.
Trumpers hate socialism, but the funny thing is that they understand socialism to be a system whereby a small minority of people have power (largely through control of money) over everyone else, and while the rest of us have rights, we can’t often practice those rights. That, of course, is the definition of capitalism, though it emphasizes capital’s all-important connection to fractional reserve banking and includes the part where the power of capitalists allows them to “buy” politicians so that the government itself serves their desires, as well as the part where capitalism is a global endeavor that seeks to control the entire world. In a way, it is a better definition of capitalism than the left typically uses; Trumpers just call all that socialism.
Have you perhaps heard of “cancel culture”? That’s just the free market deciding it doesn’t want to support a product (yes, under capitalism, public personalities are products). Trumpers really, really hate it. Arch Trumper Tucker Carlson actually said:
Market capitalism is not a religion. Any economic system that weakens and destroys families isn’t worth having.
If you wanted to rank the groups that Trumpers hate, “socialists” (i.e., capitalist globalists) would rank right up there at the very top and have become synonymous with “Satanists”, “lizard people”, and “the Jews” (usually expressed as “George Soros”; fascists are pretty much always anti-Semitic).
To say that Trumpers are not opposed to capitalism is to wholly misunderstand them — and in those cases where fascists believe they control the government, they are happy to demand that it intervene in a variety of spheres of life including the market. It’s just that they recognize that in most cases, it is capital (i.e., “socialists”) that control the government, so Trumpers oppose the government instead of asking it to intervene.
Let me just add that even capitalists aren’t necessarily in favor of capitalism. Capitalism is just one tool that malignant narcissists use for self-aggrandizement. They, too, are happy to throw it away if something better (from their selfish perspective) is available. In essence, whether a group favors capitalism or not isn’t really a good indicator of whether or not they are fascists.
Fascists Are Opposed to Democracy
The author’s argument regarding democracy is extremely weak. They claim that because Trumpers are reducing democracy instead of eliminating it, they’re not fascists. The observed fact here is that they are reducing democracy; the left’s assumption is that since democracy is popular, that Trumpers are reducing it as much as they can at this moment and would love to reduce it to dust. They’ve been explicit about their hatred of democracy and their belief that a God-ordained strongman is a better option. Why would anyone assume that the reduction in democracy that they’ve achieved is exactly the reduction they hope to achieve in the long term?
Factually speaking, democracy in the US consists of most citizens being allowed to choose between candidates from two parties that represent competing cabals of billionaires. Trumpers have this belief that their side (the Republican Party) represents good people whereas the other side (the Democratic Party) represents the elites (capitalist globalists) but is also propped up by “the mob” (various marginalized groups that are either brainwashed or should be cut out of the volk per the fascist view).
Based on the Trumper view, “the mob” should be prevented from voting to increase “democracy”. If that doesn’t sound like democracy to you, that’s because it isn’t. Trumpers are often open about the fact that they don’t want democracy — they want a republic, and they believe that only their leaders are legally and morally legitimate. What they love is “freedom” — not democracy. The only reason they participate in electoral democracy (i.e., voting) is because they see it as a way to fight against “the mob”. Were there no mob, they would be happy to allow far-right leaders to do whatever they want. In fact, there are many far-right people online who will describe themselves as “paleo-conservative” — i.e., people who want to bring back feudalism as a political system — and the idea of “God-emperor Trump” is part of that.
Electoral democracy isn’t the only kind of democracy that Trumpers hate. When the Black Panthers showed up in California with guns, all of a sudden the NRA itself was even in favor of gun control. In fact, if you examine the details of their positions in detail, Trumpers are opposed to the entire Constitution — yet they claim to be defenders of the Constitution. Their view of the Constitution is as a mystical document whose purpose is to uplift them, specifically, including somehow supporting Christian dominionism — while it crushes their enemies. They explicitly believe that the Constitution only applies to them. They don’t seem to really understand it objectively at all.
Despite being clearly opposed to democracy, it is also clear that fascists will use whatever tool works for them to increase their power — but will also demand that the same tool be destroyed if it is working for their enemies. As with capitalism, a group embracing or rejecting democracy isn’t really the best way to determine if they are fascists.
Perhaps one of the reasons that liberals are so quick to reject the label of “fascist” for Trumpers is that liberals keep believing what Trumpers say, as if fascists don’t lie, as if they use words the same way everyone else does.
Fascists Openly Embrace Violence
From the article: “Fourth, fascists embraced violence as a means and an end. Fascism was revolutionary: It aimed not to reform but to destroy the modern world…” I’m at a loss. It seems so obvious that Trumpers openly embrace violence that I’m not sure where to start here. First off, I would suggest that Trumpers do, in fact, want to destroy the modern world. They want to destroy it and “return” to the idyllic fantasy they believe once was. Moreover, they’ve been advocating for killing liberals for decades if not longer.
Another quote: “Violence was not merely the method through which revolution would be accomplished; it was valuable in and of itself, providing supporters with powerful ‘bonding’ experiences and ‘cleansing’ the nation of its weaknesses and decadence.” Yes, that also describes Trumpers. For a specific example, the Proud Boys literally beat each other as a hazing ritual for new recruits — since physical affection between men is considered homosexual in conservative culture (and thus anathema), they express affection to each through violence. Are you aware of this thing called “American football”? The essential importance of violence is endemic in American conservative culture.
I guess the issue might be that many Trumpers seem to be somewhat opposed to wars of choice. You’ve got to remember that Trumpers see the government as being controlled by socialists, and so the US military might be in another country for the purpose of aiding socialism (especially if under the auspices of an international organization like NATO or the UN), and Trumpers might, therefore, want to pull troops out of some conflicts. However, if you ask a Trumper if the US military should go kill some Muslims, they will indicate that all Muslims are terrorists and if they won’t submit to American authority (see Iran), “we” must go kill them.
When Trump said the US would leave Afghanistan, this was Trump reversing a socialist policy because Trumpers know Obama supported the occupation of Afghanistan. When Biden said the US would leave Afghanistan, suddenly this was a socialist showing weakness in the face of the Muslim enemy. To suggest that Trumpers don’t embrace military violence against other nations is, again, to wholly misunderstand them.
Consider also that these are essentially the same people who did things like burn Tulsa (and other successful Black towns); fascism didn’t happen under Trump so much as it just revealed itself again. Trumpers’ paranoid fantasies about hoards of Black people streaming out of the cities into the suburbs to kill them are essentially a projection of their own violent desires — but they know they can’t express them without being further marginalized. They know they are violent fascists, but they also know they can’t make that too well-known.
Summary
Both fascists and Trumpers are nationalists. In both cases, this is a nationalism that comes from the need to satisfy the individual’s narcissism, even though it may be portrayed in some cases as a form of communalism (with the nation being “above” the individual).
Both are willing to use or discard capitalism depending on whether it benefits their need to increase their power.
Both are willing to use or discard democracy for the same reason.
Both embrace violence, even seeing it as essential, but will portray themselves as peaceful if they believe it will be beneficial to do so.
I would really like it if liberals would stop pretending that the Trump movement was anything less than a full fascist movement from the very beginning. The two characteristics that made Trump appealing on day one were racism (his opening statement about Mexicans established that) and opposition to the elites (who are “socialists”). In addition, he literally started talking about ending the electoral process and making himself permanent President before he was elected. People pretended he was kidding; he was never kidding.
It’s interesting that the expert doesn’t mention the fact that fascists are always vehemently opposed to socialism — could it be because liberals are also vehemently opposed to socialism? Our organization has certainly been taught again and again that liberals are pro-capitalism and opposed to socialism.
Perhaps it is liberals who are the right-wing populists. It’s an interesting question. They’re nationalistic, but put individual rights first (in the sense of elevating the rights of capitalists above the nation as a whole). They love capitalism. They like reduced democracy, but aren’t willing to get rid of it entirely; they love the performance of democracy. They reject their own violence and say they’re opposed to foreign invasion, while consistently supporting government’s authority over violence. Hm. I’m just not sure if they qualify as “populist”.
The sole purpose of fascism pedantry — from both Democrats and Trumpers — seems to be to erase it from possibility. Trumpers want to erase it so they won’t be marginalized; Democrats want to erase it to protect their own slightly-less right wing position and capitalism in particular. If we could all accept that Trumpism is fascism, then we might be able to deal with the next round of it — which is likely just around the corner — more effectively. The only thing that stopped fascism last time was the incompetence and complacency of the fascists. Imagine if they’d actually shown up in force on January 6 instead of watching it from their couches! Imagine if the few who did show up had been competent! Can we count on that next time?
Related: We can’t believe your disbelief.
Related: Adolf Hitler hates being compared to Donald Trump