Time is a Flat Circle: American Fascism Goes Beyond Trump

Ever since November 4th, there has been a creeping dread in my mind. Trump continued to refuse to concede, fueling the flames of skepticism about the integrity of the election. The pandemic had been raging for many months, and many were still in denial. “There is no way he would refuse to leave office, even though he keeps talking about it.” It continued to escalate every week until the capital riot happened on January 6th. I remember watching all the news coverage, and every pundit was shocked. “I never thought this could happen here” was the recurring motif. Yet, it was not all that surprising. For those who are knowledgeable about the history and particularly the history of fascism, it is not a foreign idea that we could have a home-grown fascist movement trying to seize power in the United States. It was more of an inevitability.

I will unapologetically be referring to Donald Trump as a fascist here, which I do not consider to be a stretch. For years, no one took him seriously when he outright stated his intentions. He wanted to build a wall, called for his followers to assault his political enemies, called the press the enemy of the people, befriended dictators (even more than the average US president, which is already a tall order), and repeatedly claimed that he might stay in office for more than two terms or regardless of election results. His rhetoric was that of a strong-man authoritarian, other-ing the scapegoats that white conservative voters had for the turbulent times we were in (immigrants, minorities, LGBTQ, socialists, liberals, etc.) and claiming that he alone would be able to save them from the destruction of the American dream by a socialist agenda.

This is familiar territory for anyone who has spent time researching authoritarian figures, particularly fascist movements in Italy, Spain, and Germany in the early 20th Century. Hitler’s strategy was the same: eroding trust in institutional norms and playing up fears of civil unrest while actively causing the unrest as fascist street gangs engaged in street brawls. He stoked the population’s fears of the other, fanning flames of economic instability and underlying racial resentment by unifying them under an ideology of power and violence. In interviews with ex-Nazis, they all said similar things to what Republicans now say about Trump. “ No one believed the race rhetoric; we thought it was just necessary to appease the academics and true believers. We were behind him for economic reasons, not racial ones.” Yet, they enabled the Holocaust. They participated in it. The excuses were the same now as they were then. The more you study history, the more it becomes apparent that no one ever learns from history. Time is a flat circle, as Nietzsche said.

And, of course, comparing someone to the Nazis is unflattering. It is impolite, even over-done. Yet Trump has continued to prove those connections right. He has shown through his criminal actions at the border on Mexican immigrants, attacks on LGBTQ rights, and stoking racial resentment. Yet scariest of all was how he grew the fascist movement in the United States. Membership to white supremacist hate groups grew by 55% in his four years in office. Yet the scariest part was what he did to “normal Republicans.” We have been used to political polarization in this country for a long time, but this was different. Donald Trump shattered countless political norms in office. Yet, that is not the scary part. After all, this was to be expected; his voters will tell you that his attitude and difference from typical politicians is why they voted for him. The problem was that nobody stopped him. His shattering of those institutional norms exposed them for how hollow they are.

The danger of Trump’s presidency, beyond hundreds of thousands of preventable COVID-19 deaths, is that he has pulled the Republicans further into the far-right than ever before and made it apparent that the Republican party will not stop a fascist leader no matter what. For decades, Republicans have been going further and further right, with experts warning of the threats of extremist violence for years. Trump showed how little they care and how easily swayed the base is. After inciting a coup attempt by his followers that threatened the lives of every sitting Republican in Washington and resulted in several deaths, only seven Republican senators voted for his impeachment. SEVEN. They are so afraid of his base (which is essentially the Republican base, considering that even after the Capital insurrection, 87% of them say they approved of his job in office) that they were not willing to punish him for literally endangering their lives. Trump’s base is with him, with over half of Republicans believing the 2020 election is illegitimate.

Yet the danger is not Donald Trump specifically. He was too childish, too bad at being an authoritarian to do massive damage to our democracy. His ego constantly disrupted his agenda and resulted in massive in-fighting, preventing the progress of his legislative agenda and alienating moderates. It was destined to fall apart at the seams, but what is so dangerous and terrifying to me is how he exposed the framework of our democracy. There will always be racist and violent fascist extremists. But they are so small in number that they can do damage, but they could not do another Holocaust-level crime against humanity. The danger is not that small group of extremists. It is the “moderates” that find ways to justify their support of an extremist. Who will vote for them “for economic reasons,” which apparently makes the fascism tolerable to them. It is not a deal-breaker. Who will go along with it as long as he is hurting the people they have cultural resentment for. And Donald Trump showed that the Republican base is so ideologically extreme now that they will go along with that. They will deny the evidence of an election, a pandemic, or even police brutality because that evidence contradicts their cultural viewpoint.

The danger is the loaded gun that is his base. They are ready and willing to follow the next fascist leader, who will learn the lessons from the Trump presidency. They will be more intelligent, more polished, and work better with others. They will appear “more presidential.” But ideologically, they will be the same (or worse, since Trump only believes in things as far as they serve his ego, but those that come after him are undoubtedly true believers). The base will still go along with them, and god knows the establishment of the Democratic Party has not learned any lessons on how to combat fascism during Trump’s presidency. So what happens when a smarter extremist picks up this loaded gun? When Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, or Dan Crenshaw decide to take up that gun and actually know how to use it to achieve their horrifying legislative goals more efficiently? I really don’t know. But it scares me.

America has always been vulnerable to fascism, particularly when it is draped in a Bible and a flag. We had thousands attending Nazi rallies in Madison Square Garden before World War Two. Movements like The Proud Boys, Three Percenters, The Rise Above Movement, and Qanon show that these kinds of extremist groups have never gone away. Far-right extremist violence and terrorism are at their highest points in decades. Their members and ideologies have infiltrated and poisoned law enforcement. A staggering 50% of Republicans approval of the Capital riot as “defending freedom” while 43% view their violent coup attempt as “patriotic.” We have to acknowledge that the danger of American fascism will not go away when Trump does. There is no “returning to normal” while fascism threatens America. It must be rooted out.

We have to adapt and change our tactics, educate people, and how the media covers fascism. The worst thing we can do is nothing, thinking that a return to civility will defeat extremism. History absolutely repeats itself. Maybe, just maybe, we can learn from past mistakes. We love to say “never again” about events like the Holocaust. If we really believe that, we must take action. There is no compromise with fascism, no “meeting in the middle” and working with them, as Joe Biden continues to push. There is that famous quote that people love to share about the Holocaust that says, “all it takes for evil to triumph is good men to do nothing.” In reality, it is even easier than that. Being a good person is very difficult. Most of us are not good people, and all it takes for evil to triumph is for okay people to be comfortable. To not want to rock the boat or cause a fuss. It is so easy to sit back and say, “it could never happen here.” But for that to be true, we have to do the work. It is a lot easier to be complacently evil but civil on the surface than to do the work to be a good person even when it is uncomfortable. Defend your immigrant, minority, and LGBTQ neighbors. Protect vulnerable people from extremists and violence from the state. Push back against racism when you see it. Get involved electorally. We have to be the generation that genuinely means it when we say “never again.”