Donald Trump’s Alarming Skid Toward Outright Fascism
As of August, Trump had most of the ingredients for a fascist movement: the victim complex, the fervent nationalism, the obsession with national purity and cleansing purges, and the cult of personality. He was missing the organized violence, a left-wing challenge strong enough to push traditional conservative elites into his camp, support for wars of aggression, and a full-bore attack on democracy itself. He’s made much progress on all but the last one.
Conditions are clearly fertile to start organizing a Trumpist paramilitary wing, a key fascist institution. A pack of heavily armed white nationalist militants recently popped up at a mosque in Irving, Texas, announcing their intention to intimidate local Muslims. Trump’s personal security squad is already made up of goons, assaulting people and threatening reporters. With an incomprehensible number of guns floating around the country, all Trump needs is a Röhm to get the organizing started — except probably with Carhartts and camouflage instead of imitation military uniforms. (After that, watch for the next step: starting fights at Bernie Sanders rallies.)
Many mainstream reporters have been working hard to normalize Trumpist ideas by attacking their colleagues for “unfair” treatment of Trump (like seeing what sort of Nazi ideas he’ll disagree with). CNN’s editorial practices are basically overt anti-Muslim bigotry. Other reporters, like Chris Cillizza, shrug and argue that refugee-baiting is simply smart politics. As Carl Diggler explained, “it would be a death sentence for any candidate to abandon these voters by coming out against the pogroms and race war they fervently want.”
Even if he is only a sort of “fascist idiot savant” without much true organizing ability or program, he clearly has a good instinct for the basic psychological impulses underlying previous fascist success. It’s time to start taking this seriously.
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See also: Why some conservatives say Donald Trump’s talk is fascist.