Last week, I described the new administration’s politics as fascist. The word, as best understood in it’s historical context, should chill any civic minded citizen - however its frivolous overuse as a catchall epithet for anything we discern as autocratic has rendered it toothless and benign.
When we hear fascism, we conjure images of goosestepping rallies, the burning of books, brownshirts in the streets, a raging demagogue who sends Jews to the gas chambers.
This archetype makes fascism difficult to identify elsewhere and renders it culturally alien to Americans (and friendly Midwesterners alike). The nightmarish Third Reich was only one manifestation of this political cancer - other cultures and democracies will express the disease differently. Fascism is not an outcome, it is a process.
Academic definitions widely vary and there is no universal agreement on its specific features. However, I’m persuaded by the arguments laid out by Robert Paxton in his book, The Anatomy of Fascism, in which he posits that fascism is less a coherent ideology and more a set of behaviors derived from the mass expression of “mobilizing passions” that invoke a sense of irrevocable loss, fealty to a group identity, the need for infallible authorities and a desire to use violence as the ultimate means to an end. 1
He expounds more on these specific features in a foreboding fashion with the 5 distinct stages of fascism and how each one presents itself in a given political system, each one more dangerous than the last (more on that in a later stack). But let’s follow up on the implication that fascism develops in stages of increasing lethality. Let’s consider fascism as a cancer, a multi-staged political disease that wracks democratic bodies.
Like our own biology, a functioning democracy is comprised of intricate and interconnected systems, one informing the other with the intended goal to perpetuate the well-being of the whole. These organs are comprised of institutions, checks and balances, civil liberties and social safety nets.
When these features fail and don’t function as intended, the body becomes sick and suffers. This source of this disease could be almost anything, internal or external. And depending on the severity of the dysfunction, the democratic body doesn’t always survive.
This is to say, not all failed democracies become fascist - they instead fall into some flavor of autocracy, theocracy, authoritarianism (pick your poison). Bodies and democracies alike, many things can bring about their demise.
What differentiates fascism from any old run of the mill disease is its uncompromising virulence. The traditional democratic methods of open debate and electoral politics will not sate its hunger. It will not yield to reason, is impervious to logic. It is not rooted in a traditional understanding of cause and effect, it is immune to traditional feedback loops. Its very allure promises that reality itself bends to the fascists’ will. It will not be constrained by values or the rule of law - it maintains power with its sole legitimating force: violence.
Now to put this tortured analogy to rest, the only effective remedy for cancer is to treat it as fatal unless drastic interventions are taken. The earlier the diagnosis, the better. For years, scans have suggested the presence of malignant shadows, symptoms of a greater threat at work. Our media ecosystems drowned out these possibilities as we soothed ourselves that it couldn’t happen here, confident in our resilient Constitution and our national character. But avoiding reality does not nullify it.
“The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards the earth’s center.”2
And there we have it: earnestly citing George Orwell to emphasize the danger posed by a sitting U.S. president was not on my bingo card for today. Nor was opposing fascism here in the Midwest. But here we are. And the first order of business is to call a spade a spade. Understanding this precise moment as fascist is critical in shaping the speed and urgency of our collective response. We can’t afford to otherwise.
Until next time, stay informed, stay concerned and above all, stay safe.
-A Concerned Midwesterner
Robert Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism (New York: Vintage Books, 2005), pg. 50
George Orwell, 1984 (New York: Signet Classics, 1949), pg. 81