I'm not an expert in the history of fascism, but before retiring I taught college courses that required me to explain to students what fascism was, independent of its pejorative meaning -- fascism as understood by its supporters (and opponents) in the 1920s and 1930s, a time before Nazi atrocities, when even members of the Anglosphere, such as Ireland and Great Britain, included significant groups openly advocating for a turn to fascist government. This was all independent of the brutal style of governance, which is what I think most people associate with the term "fascist." I was trying to find the essential elements of the ideology and practical framework behind what we might call "structural fascism." I listed four elements:
1. The Corporate State: All significant social organizations serve the State. Business enterprises are privately owned and generate profits for owners, competing with other businesses, but they operate under the general direction and coordination of the State in the interests of the State. Non-business institutions operate under the direction of the State.
2. Hyper-Nationalism: The State is viewed as the unified expression of the will of the people, expressing its unique and uniform character as a Nation established in a Homeland. It will not accommodate elements that do not conform to this character, and every Nation should be housed entirely within its own historically given Homeland.
3. Militarism: In order to protect and advance the Nation, the State will maintain a hyper-militarized force and pursue the natural will of the Nation to maintain control of the Homeland and expand its hegemony according to the superiority or inferiority of its national character.
4. Anti-Communism: The principal enemy of the Fascist State's mission of full expression of the Nation's character and will is internationalist Communism, which seeks to destroy the unique character of nations.
Well, #4 is more or less irrelevant to our current situation, although "communist" is still a useful buzzword for MAGA attacks on "woke" Americans and certain Latin American states, but I still think the other three points are useful in assessing whether the current US administration is actually fascist (I don't mean "Nazi").
Under Trump II it seems to me that #1 appeared early, seen in the way Trump has sought to bring major corporations (including service corporations, such as law firms) and institutions (such as universities) under control of his MAGA priorities through explicit or implicit threats, regulatory leverage, and outright purchases of corporate ownership shares. Obviously, #2 finds expression in Trump's extreme anti-immigrant policies, including attacks on naturalized citizens because of their national origins and various facets of promotion for white nationalist ideas and individuals.
Because MAGA was isolationist my sense was that it "overlapped" with structural fascism, but was not actually a fascist movement. White nationalist (check); authoritarian (check); but not fascist in the technical sense. But the abduction of Maduro and the President's pronouncement of the "Donroe Doctrine," basically proclaiming a Lebensraum privilege for the American People, or a Co-Prosperity Sphere for the Western Hemisphere (to borrow from the Japanese expression of fascism) has convinced me that we are now living in a country with a fully formed fascist government, both structurally and in style. I don't think Trumpism yet reaches anywhere near the totalitarian brutality of 1930s Italy and Germany, but I do think that, unchecked and led by the vision of Trump's most influential advisor, Stephen Miller, that's where Trumpism is headed (and means to go).
Fascism is the abandonment or perversion of one’s ideals in order to achieve their idealistic end through nationalism and militarization. When you abandon ideals in practice, they atrophy and don’t come back. The key phrase here is “in practice.” Ideology isn’t measured by rhetoric, it’s measured by action.
It’s got nothing to do with left and right. History has proven both extremes are capable of fascism. The definition falls apart when you only apply it to the far right.
Mussolini abandoned Marxism as ineffective. He gradually felt that nationalism and militarization were the only way to achieve his ideals. When those ideals fail to be achieved, nationalism and militarization consume them and their rule depends on it.
Without question, Trump and most of the GOP are fascist. Use the proper word please. Don’t reinforce a falsehood that they are employing conservative ideology. They are not. This is not what conservative ideology looks like. It’s fascism. Don’t overcomplicate something so simple.
The problem with calling "left-wing" fascism is that while Stalinism, for example, was an authoritarian regime and could be called fascist, it only fits because of its cult of personality and strict censorship. A "left" ideology would not have a cult of personality or censorship, given that the principal focuses are around ensuring everyone's human rights are respected, such as the right to education, healthcare, food and shelter, or religion, the removal of barriers that make society unequal. The enforcement of these egalitarian ideas can become authoritarian, but only for these people who believe people do not have human rights. These people would prefer to not support the other in achieving equity.
Democracy is the most difficult of all forms of government, since it requires the widest spread of intelligence, and we forgot to make ourselves intelligent when we made ourselves sovereign.” Will Durant
This Cheeto rodeo didn't just occur It has been a long time in the making Interestingly it started as Nixon took the country off of the gold standard Although the coincidence may not be meaningful the point is that for the last 50y there has been an ongoing attack on the federal government first at it's economic base with going off the gold standard and then with Reaganomics and the "trickle down" theory which has been debunked with at least one Yale white paper
Then there was the rise of the unitary executive theory during the years of Reagan which much of the conservatives now on the Robert's court have supported and recently with the immunity decision have created a dictator
And now with the majority of power in Congress, SCOTUS, and the executive branch, the once GOP is now the Nazi Republican party and are determined to create an authoritarian regime in the guise of "government efficiency" and Christian Nationalism But there is nothing efficient or moral about it DOGE didn't save any money but was responsible for the government's destruction and the Cheeto regime has increased the national debt by $1T at least and its only one year into the term
The point is that the Nazis have scammed our country down a path of destruction with hair brain theories that is essence are all about power putting WE the People in last place which is what the federal government was meant to serve
The Trump Bible Salesman and G.O.P. Crasher is no more “Christian” than he is a “Republican”…The Don is an Anti Truth Neo Nationalist Soiciopath and Il Duce wannabe Tony Soprano in the flesh….just as, an aside, not that the biggest POSPOTUS in the Bada Bing, I mean Oval Office that has managed to varnish Nixons legacy had anything to do with the gold toilet standard…thousands gallons of wasted blood and trillions of dollars of wasted treasure (at the same time Tricky Dick populism was sold on making the war on poverty an even bigger expense than L.B.J.’s,) actually caused the severe economic downturn by the end of sucking in the 70’s…in any case, my point is i get a kick out of your rants and should like you to know when I think you have fallen off your rocker, a bit…and that’s coming from someone who calls himself Benjy Compson, all sound and..gotta run on. Thanks for taking my f word rant🤪🍺✌️
''Never compare anything to the Nazis. The Nazis are, literally, incomparable. Any comparison to them is disrespectful of their victims, and trivializing.''
Steve Schmitt
Mark Carney is the leader of the free world.
The Carney Doctrine has announced the beginning of the 21st century, where everything will be so much smaller for ordinary Americans. We shall be poorer, scorned and humiliated. Our children will have so much less than we did. They will suffer terribly.
The repudiation of Trump is spectacular and beautiful. It is elegant beyond measure.
The speech is a reminder of the sheer idiocy of our era and the lunacy of the American media.
I’m sorry, but what is the conclusion? You say you wouldn’t go overboard in using the word fascist, but wouldn’t go underboard either. What exactly does that mean?
In the middle of your piece I looked for a mention of the Steve Bannon vs David Frum debate on populism here in Toronto. Bannon expounds heavily on his goals for Trump as a leader, and its very worth hearing his description of optimal government, from the perspective of those who want what's happening now. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend giving it a listen (or watch) at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjdgXaecKQuFRuwpyleYMVyje9Z0PJY6v (also available as a podcast elsewhere).
" A jolting thing about the monsters among us is that they are not just monstrous but human. And other human beings, less monstrous, go along ..."
But when the monsters reveal their true colours by virtue of their behaviour, what do you call the the "less monstrous" who continue to follow and serve them?
The British writer Peter Vansittart on something Bernard Shaw observed: "In a society uninterested in ideas," it is necessary "to adopt an unmistakable persona, to be news." Is the president's fascistic inclination sincere, or merely a product of his insatiable pursuit of celebrity and spectacle? Perhaps the former is a maturation of the latter.
gary k. I have a masters degree so am informed. your columns have most often been bewildering but your latest post has been informing, I now understand your underpinnings. you are a wealthy intelligentsia conservative and are of no help to the undoing of our country. jill solomon marland
I'm not an expert in the history of fascism, but before retiring I taught college courses that required me to explain to students what fascism was, independent of its pejorative meaning -- fascism as understood by its supporters (and opponents) in the 1920s and 1930s, a time before Nazi atrocities, when even members of the Anglosphere, such as Ireland and Great Britain, included significant groups openly advocating for a turn to fascist government. This was all independent of the brutal style of governance, which is what I think most people associate with the term "fascist." I was trying to find the essential elements of the ideology and practical framework behind what we might call "structural fascism." I listed four elements:
1. The Corporate State: All significant social organizations serve the State. Business enterprises are privately owned and generate profits for owners, competing with other businesses, but they operate under the general direction and coordination of the State in the interests of the State. Non-business institutions operate under the direction of the State.
2. Hyper-Nationalism: The State is viewed as the unified expression of the will of the people, expressing its unique and uniform character as a Nation established in a Homeland. It will not accommodate elements that do not conform to this character, and every Nation should be housed entirely within its own historically given Homeland.
3. Militarism: In order to protect and advance the Nation, the State will maintain a hyper-militarized force and pursue the natural will of the Nation to maintain control of the Homeland and expand its hegemony according to the superiority or inferiority of its national character.
4. Anti-Communism: The principal enemy of the Fascist State's mission of full expression of the Nation's character and will is internationalist Communism, which seeks to destroy the unique character of nations.
Well, #4 is more or less irrelevant to our current situation, although "communist" is still a useful buzzword for MAGA attacks on "woke" Americans and certain Latin American states, but I still think the other three points are useful in assessing whether the current US administration is actually fascist (I don't mean "Nazi").
Under Trump II it seems to me that #1 appeared early, seen in the way Trump has sought to bring major corporations (including service corporations, such as law firms) and institutions (such as universities) under control of his MAGA priorities through explicit or implicit threats, regulatory leverage, and outright purchases of corporate ownership shares. Obviously, #2 finds expression in Trump's extreme anti-immigrant policies, including attacks on naturalized citizens because of their national origins and various facets of promotion for white nationalist ideas and individuals.
Because MAGA was isolationist my sense was that it "overlapped" with structural fascism, but was not actually a fascist movement. White nationalist (check); authoritarian (check); but not fascist in the technical sense. But the abduction of Maduro and the President's pronouncement of the "Donroe Doctrine," basically proclaiming a Lebensraum privilege for the American People, or a Co-Prosperity Sphere for the Western Hemisphere (to borrow from the Japanese expression of fascism) has convinced me that we are now living in a country with a fully formed fascist government, both structurally and in style. I don't think Trumpism yet reaches anywhere near the totalitarian brutality of 1930s Italy and Germany, but I do think that, unchecked and led by the vision of Trump's most influential advisor, Stephen Miller, that's where Trumpism is headed (and means to go).
Fascism is the abandonment or perversion of one’s ideals in order to achieve their idealistic end through nationalism and militarization. When you abandon ideals in practice, they atrophy and don’t come back. The key phrase here is “in practice.” Ideology isn’t measured by rhetoric, it’s measured by action.
It’s got nothing to do with left and right. History has proven both extremes are capable of fascism. The definition falls apart when you only apply it to the far right.
Mussolini abandoned Marxism as ineffective. He gradually felt that nationalism and militarization were the only way to achieve his ideals. When those ideals fail to be achieved, nationalism and militarization consume them and their rule depends on it.
Without question, Trump and most of the GOP are fascist. Use the proper word please. Don’t reinforce a falsehood that they are employing conservative ideology. They are not. This is not what conservative ideology looks like. It’s fascism. Don’t overcomplicate something so simple.
The problem with calling "left-wing" fascism is that while Stalinism, for example, was an authoritarian regime and could be called fascist, it only fits because of its cult of personality and strict censorship. A "left" ideology would not have a cult of personality or censorship, given that the principal focuses are around ensuring everyone's human rights are respected, such as the right to education, healthcare, food and shelter, or religion, the removal of barriers that make society unequal. The enforcement of these egalitarian ideas can become authoritarian, but only for these people who believe people do not have human rights. These people would prefer to not support the other in achieving equity.
I found Umberto Eco's essay "Ur-Fascism" a helpful background and explainer. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism
Laurie W Britt also wrote up a useful guide to Fascism:
https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html
Democracy is the most difficult of all forms of government, since it requires the widest spread of intelligence, and we forgot to make ourselves intelligent when we made ourselves sovereign.” Will Durant
"Adding a Spenglerian touch, Miller said, 'These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.'"
Kevin D Williamson described Miller as "the mayonnaise-addicted Walter Mitty of Oswald Spenglers" –
https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/wanderland/ice-shooting-minnesota-cosplay-professionalism/
The Nazi Republicans Have Destroyed America
This Cheeto rodeo didn't just occur It has been a long time in the making Interestingly it started as Nixon took the country off of the gold standard Although the coincidence may not be meaningful the point is that for the last 50y there has been an ongoing attack on the federal government first at it's economic base with going off the gold standard and then with Reaganomics and the "trickle down" theory which has been debunked with at least one Yale white paper
Then there was the rise of the unitary executive theory during the years of Reagan which much of the conservatives now on the Robert's court have supported and recently with the immunity decision have created a dictator
And now with the majority of power in Congress, SCOTUS, and the executive branch, the once GOP is now the Nazi Republican party and are determined to create an authoritarian regime in the guise of "government efficiency" and Christian Nationalism But there is nothing efficient or moral about it DOGE didn't save any money but was responsible for the government's destruction and the Cheeto regime has increased the national debt by $1T at least and its only one year into the term
The point is that the Nazis have scammed our country down a path of destruction with hair brain theories that is essence are all about power putting WE the People in last place which is what the federal government was meant to serve
The Trump Bible Salesman and G.O.P. Crasher is no more “Christian” than he is a “Republican”…The Don is an Anti Truth Neo Nationalist Soiciopath and Il Duce wannabe Tony Soprano in the flesh….just as, an aside, not that the biggest POSPOTUS in the Bada Bing, I mean Oval Office that has managed to varnish Nixons legacy had anything to do with the gold toilet standard…thousands gallons of wasted blood and trillions of dollars of wasted treasure (at the same time Tricky Dick populism was sold on making the war on poverty an even bigger expense than L.B.J.’s,) actually caused the severe economic downturn by the end of sucking in the 70’s…in any case, my point is i get a kick out of your rants and should like you to know when I think you have fallen off your rocker, a bit…and that’s coming from someone who calls himself Benjy Compson, all sound and..gotta run on. Thanks for taking my f word rant🤪🍺✌️
Thanks for your comment Means a lot because you're willing to say what everybody is thinking
''Never compare anything to the Nazis. The Nazis are, literally, incomparable. Any comparison to them is disrespectful of their victims, and trivializing.''
Steve Schmitt
Mark Carney is the leader of the free world.
The Carney Doctrine has announced the beginning of the 21st century, where everything will be so much smaller for ordinary Americans. We shall be poorer, scorned and humiliated. Our children will have so much less than we did. They will suffer terribly.
The repudiation of Trump is spectacular and beautiful. It is elegant beyond measure.
The speech is a reminder of the sheer idiocy of our era and the lunacy of the American media.
I’m sorry, but what is the conclusion? You say you wouldn’t go overboard in using the word fascist, but wouldn’t go underboard either. What exactly does that mean?
In the middle of your piece I looked for a mention of the Steve Bannon vs David Frum debate on populism here in Toronto. Bannon expounds heavily on his goals for Trump as a leader, and its very worth hearing his description of optimal government, from the perspective of those who want what's happening now. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend giving it a listen (or watch) at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjdgXaecKQuFRuwpyleYMVyje9Z0PJY6v (also available as a podcast elsewhere).
" A jolting thing about the monsters among us is that they are not just monstrous but human. And other human beings, less monstrous, go along ..."
But when the monsters reveal their true colours by virtue of their behaviour, what do you call the the "less monstrous" who continue to follow and serve them?
The British writer Peter Vansittart on something Bernard Shaw observed: "In a society uninterested in ideas," it is necessary "to adopt an unmistakable persona, to be news." Is the president's fascistic inclination sincere, or merely a product of his insatiable pursuit of celebrity and spectacle? Perhaps the former is a maturation of the latter.
gary k. I have a masters degree so am informed. your columns have most often been bewildering but your latest post has been informing, I now understand your underpinnings. you are a wealthy intelligentsia conservative and are of no help to the undoing of our country. jill solomon marland
This post was by Jay Nordlinger, not Gary.