Will Fascists Take the U.S. this Election?

by Ron Baker

Personally, I've tried to ignore Donald Trump.

But, for me at least, his win in the New Hampshire primary now makes him a legitimate Republican candidate. Why? Because 97,188 (53%) of Republican voters chose him.

Much to my dismay, I am now forced to consider him what he rightfully has become - a viable candidate for the Presidency of the United States. This man can actually win the election.

So, what does he believe?

Noting his speaking style, lack of substance and pandering to basic fears, Trump seems to be more akin to past Fascists than recent American politicians.

Dr. Robert Paxton, Professor Emeritus of History, at Columbia University, the leading “Fascism expert”, recently described Trump as a self-indulgent demagogue speaking on behalf of oligarchy rather than a Fascist. He listed the determining characteristics for the Fascist label as: "drawing openly upon Nazi symbolism and employing physical violence".*

Unfortunately, all we have to go on is Trump’s campaign rhetoric and his personal “style” - his “mobilizing passions”, as Dr. Robert Paxton calls them.

Another leading expert on Fascism, Dr. Richard Steigmann-Gall, Associate Professor of History at Kent State University, points to Dr. Paxton’s work and concludes differently:

“In spite of his recent insistence that he’d need to see “identically colored shirts” to take the question of Trump seriously, Robert Paxton has been one of the most persuasive advocates for taking a deeper view. Weary of the “bestiary” approach of describing fascism by its appearances, in his magnum opus from 2004 The Anatomy of Fascism, Paxton seeks instead to explain how fascism understood itself; the social traction of fascism as a political movement; and what kinds of political and economic conditions were necessary for it to grow and eventually succeed. Rather than presenting a series of unalterable criteria that read like a check-list, Paxton shows how fascism develops in context, embodying and taking advantage of a series of “mobilizing passions” to build and maintain a following.  The leading of these passions include:

• An overwhelming sense of crisis that cannot be solved by traditional methods; 
• The subordination of the individual to the group and the maintenance of group purity; 
• The group’s belief that it is a victim; 
• The need for the authority of a natural chief, whose qualities and instincts rise above abstract reason; 
• The use of exclusionary violence as part of an effort to reverse perceived decline. 

“In all of these ways, Trump not only reveals that he is indeed fascist, but perhaps even more importantly that his followers – even as some of them are in the habit of describing their own enemies on the left as “fascist” and who have loudly professed their disinterest in a caudillo – are actively seeking fascist solutions to problems that ail them.”

Conclusion
Following his New Hampshire win, Mr. Trump has become the exemplar of the 21st Century American Fascism movement. The question remains, Will Fascists Take the U.S. this Election?

*Is Fascism Back?, Robert O. Paxton, Project Syndicate, 7 Jan 2016
Dr. Paxton is Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, the author of The Anatomy of Fascism, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944, Parades and Politics at Vichy, and Vichy France and the Jews.

**One Expert Says, Yes, Donald Trump is a Fascist. And It’s Not Just Trump, Richard Steigmann-Gall, Tikkun.org, 5 Jan 2016 
Dr. Richard Steigmann-Gall is Associate Professor of History at Kent State University, where he served as the director of the Jewish Studies Program from 2004 to 2010.  He has published widely on fascism, Nazism and antisemitism.  His book, The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, came out in 2003 through Cambridge University Press.

Historical Perspective

Rachel Maddow (12/9/2015) Donald Trump policy ideas, with fascism. Video not accesilbe. Please go here for the story: Is America ready to use the term “fascist” in our political discourse? Rachel Maddow explores how Donald Trump has mainstreamed extremism
America is slowly coming to grips with Trump's flirtation with fascism VIDEO, Sophia Tesfaye, Salon, 9 Dec 2015. Stay with Maddow a couple of minutes to see the historical connections.