In Plain Terms, this is What Fascism Means
Many people understand the vibe they want to invoke when they describe something as "fascist", but the precise meaning is more clarifying.
In 1921, a former socialist founded Italy’s Fascist Party, creating a lasting model for a right-wing movement reliant on violence.
Benito Mussolini formed small groups of men who would violently attack Socialist and Marxist political organizations. Eventually, those attacks would become commonplace and occur against ordinary Italians. Mussolini became one of the people Adolf Hitler admired early in his political career before he outgrew his former idol.
Robert Paxton’s book, The Anatomy of Fascism, clarifies the meaning of fascism, beginning with what defined Mussolini’s movement and ending with how the ideology could come to America. Paxton wrote:
“Mussolini’s movement was not limited to nationalism and assaults on property. It boiled with the readiness for violent action, anti-intellectualism, rejection of compromise, and contempt for established society that marked the three groups who made up the bulk of his first followers — demobilized war veterans, pro-war syndicalists, and Futurist intellectuals.”
The disaffected veterans didn’t think post-war governments could address their hardships after coming home. The syndicalists wanted to overthrow capitalism by force instead of waiting for history to make the transition for them. Finally, the Futurists were a group of intellectuals who “dismissed the cultural legacy of the past” and “praised the liberating and vitalizing qualities of speed and violence.”
These early fascists were unique to their time, but some of the beliefs that bound them together will sound more familiar to modern ears.
What are the Components of Fascism?
As Paxton moves on from the original Italians to the fascist movements that grew from it, he identifies the emotional undercurrents of fascist movements unique to their countries. An abbreviated list includes:
a sense of overwhelming crisis beyond the reach of any traditional solutions
the belief that one’s group is a victim, a sentiment that justifies any action, without legal or moral limits, against its enemies, both internal and external
the need for authority by natural leaders (always male), culminating in a national chief who alone is capable of incarnating the group’s destiny
the superiority of the leader’s instincts over abstract and universal reason
the right of the chosen people to dominate others without restraint from any kind of human or divine law, right being decided by the sole criterion of the group’s prowess within a Darwinian struggle
“I alone can fix it” sounds less like a goofy campaign line and more ominous now, doesn’t it?
Political analysts have traced the frustrations that fuelled MAGA back to the Iraq War and the 2008 financial crises: two great failures of political and financial elites that left ordinary Americans scarred by war wounds or crippled financially.
Trump’s claim to speak on behalf of the forgotten men and women of America isn’t fascist. Bernie Sanders made the same claim without celebrating or condoning violence.
However, the faith that MAGA voters have put into Trump and Trump’s acceptance of violence as a solution to his problems form a more troubling picture. Trump’s inaction on the January 6 attack on the Capitol and his denial of his 2020 election loss improved the arguments for every analyst concerned about fascism in America.
So, What is Fascism in a Nutshell?
Near the end of his book, Paxton offers a definition of fascism that fits in a paragraph instead of a list of emotions:
“Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”
Trump has expertly played on the fears of ordinary Americans who feel left behind by the transition from fossil fuels, which used to sustain large swaths of the country, or from globalization and high levels of immigration, which cost cities like Detroit entire industries and well-paying jobs since the 1980s.
Trump’s targeting of Ivy League universities as part of a larger war on “woke” and left-wing orthodoxies is a satisfying fight for those who have been denigrated by those same people as “backward” or “bigoted”. The list of words and phrases Trump banned at the beginning of his second term certainly constitutes a new purity test.
Before January 6, it was easy to write Trump off as a wannabe authoritarian. But in hindsight, the leap from an anti-state party to a fascist one seemed to have been made during Trump’s silence about the gallows built for his vice president.
Trump does not rely on routine violence like a true fascist. However, the MAGA movement includes a fascist wing of militia members who wish to overthrow the government.
Many Americans voted for Trump because of the “R” next to his name and have no sympathy for the fanatics who want to use the administration to defile the Constitution. Others voted for Trump to put the “R” in revolution and rewrite the nation’s laws for their own gain.
The MAGA alliance is uneasy, indeed.