When Do You Call It Fascism?

Is It Time To Call Trump The F-Word?


Contemporary scholars of fascism caution against explicitly labeling Trump a fascist. But they point to the erosion underway during his presidency...

I wonder, what are these scholars waiting for Trump to do, what line does he have to cross, before they're willing to apply the word in earnest?

You can argue about exactly what "fascism" means, and people have. You can argue about whether your favorite definition exactly describes Trump and his tactics, and those of his supporters. But whatever you call that, it ain't democracy, and I can't immediately think of a term that is a better fit.

"We are still in a democracy and he cannot get away with it but he seems to keep trying," Federico Finchelstein, a historian at the New School and author of A Brief History of Fascist Lies, told Today’s WorldView.

I like that. "We are still in a democracy". By what standard? It's only a democracy so long as most people's actions match that term. It's not a magical property of America that it must forever be a democracy by definition, no matter what its citizens do.

"He cannot get away with it". Can't he? He's gotten away with everything else. He was impeached by the House for anti-democratic crimes (does everyone still remember the Mueller report?), but acquitted by the Senate, led by Mitch McConnell.

"He seems to keep trying". No, he seems to keep succeeding, because nobody is willing to hold him accountable.

People are protesting in huge numbers because the democratic system is not working. If it were, it would be a simple matter of voting out the jerks; no protests would be required. But the GOP has jerrymandered the hell out of the country, and McConnell and his ilk have obstructed other basic democratic processes, such as refusing to consider Obama's Supreme Court nominee (Merrick Garland), simply because nobody could force them to cooperate with basic rules of how a healthy democracy works. There is a high likelihood that the November election will be attacked and skewed by Putin's Russia, and little has been done to prevent that.

In the meantime, we have hundreds of thousands dying from Covid-19, a record Trump persists in calling a success, when it's demonstrably worse than how most other countries have fared. We have police killing black people, looting and riots, and Trump apparently unmoved, interested only in shows of force. And now, we have peaceful protesters violently thrust aside to make way for a stupid Trump photo-op.

Democracy is predicated on decency. It's predicated on maintaining basic human respect for the rights of others with differing opinions. If you stop considering your political opponents human, if you view them as the enemy, democracy falls apart. This is exactly what the GOP has been doing for decades: treating politics as a win-at-any-cost war. The cost has included respect for facts, for basic truth. Refusing to acknowledge inconvenient facts, teaching the faithful to swear they're all Fake News, is brainwashing.

When people like George Will, an actual conservative, are denouncing not just Trump but the GOP party leaders who defend him, it should be clear to all that the GOP is no longer a conservative party. Over the years, it has systematically forced out the actual conservatives. Well, fascism is anti-conservative as well as anti-liberal. If the shoe fits...

It's high time for all Republican party members to decide if they're in favor of democracy. A vote for today's GOP is a vote against democracy. Maybe the party could be cleansed of its rot, and experience a new life someday. For now, though, it is toxic. Sticking with it is tantamount to condoning the fascist tactics of the party's leaders and spokesmen.

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