Call Him What He Is
ROBERT REICH in Robertreich.Substack.Com
“In 2016, I declared I am your voice,”
Trump said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference and
repeated at his first 2024 campaign rally in Waco, Texas. “Today, I add: I am
your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and
betrayed, I am your retribution.”
How do we describe what Trump wants for
America? “Authoritarianism” isn’t adequate. It is “fascism.” Fascism stands for
a coherent set of ideas different from — and more dangerous than —
authoritarianism. To fight those ideas, it’s necessary to be aware of what they
are and how they fit together.
Borrowing from cultural theorist Umberto Eco, historians Emilio Gentile and Ian Kershaw, political scientist Roger Griffin, and former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, I offer five elements that
distinguish fascism from authoritarianism.
1. The rejection of democracy, the rule of law, and equal rights under the law in favor of a strongman who interprets the popular will.
“The election was stolen.” (Trump, 2020)
“I am your justice. … I am your
retribution.” (2023)
Authoritarians believe society needs strong
leaders to maintain stability. They vest in a dictator the power to maintain
social order through the use of force (armies, police, militia) and
bureaucracy.
By contrast, fascists view strong leaders
as the means of discovering what society
needs. They regard the leader as the embodiment of society, the voice of the
people.
2. The galvanizing of popular rage against
cultural elites.
“Your enemies” are “media elites,” … “the elites who led us from one financial and foreign policy disaster to
another.” (Trump, 2015, 2016)
Authoritarians do not stir people up
against establishment elites. They use or co-opt those elites in order to gain
and maintain power.
By contrast, fascists galvanize public rage
at presumed (or imaginary) cultural elites and use mass rage to
gain and maintain power. They stir up grievances against those elites for
supposedly displacing average people and seek revenge. In so doing, they create
mass parties. They often encourage violence.
3. Nationalism based on a dominant
“superior” race and historic bloodlines.
“Tremendous infectious disease is pouring
across the border … The United States has become a dumping ground for Mexico
and, in fact, for many other parts of the world.” (Trump, 2015)
“I think any Jewish people that vote for a
Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great
disloyalty.” (2019)
“Getting critical race theory out of our
schools is not just a matter of values, it’s also a matter of national survival
… If we allow the Marxists and Communists and Socialists to teach our children
to hate America, there will be no one left to defend our flag or to protect our
great country or its freedom.” (2022)
Authoritarians see nationalism as a means of asserting the power of the state.
They glorify the state. They want it to dominate other nations. They seek to
protect or expand its geographic boundaries. They worry about foreign enemies
encroaching on its territory.
By contrast, fascists see a nation as
embodying what they consider a “superior” group — based on race, religion, and
historic bloodlines. Nationalism is a means of asserting that
superiority. They worry about disloyalty and sabotage from groups within the
nation that don’t share the same race or bloodlines. These “others” are
scapegoated, excluded or expelled, sometimes even killed.
Fascists believe schools and universities
must teach values that extol the dominant race, religion, and bloodline.
Schools should not teach inconvenient truths (such as America’s history of
genocide and racism).
4. Extolling brute strength and heroic
warriors.
“You’ll never take back our country with
weakness, you have to show strength and you have to be strong. (Trump, January
6, 2021)
The goal of authoritarianism is to gain and
maintain state power. For authoritarians, “strength” comes in the form of large
armies and munitions.
By contrast, the ostensible goal of fascism
is to strengthen society. Fascism’s method of accomplishing this is to reward
those who win economically and physically and to denigrate or exterminate those
who lose. Fascism depends on organized bullying — a form of social Darwinism.
For the fascist, war and violence are means
of strengthening society by culling the weak and extolling heroic warriors.
5. Disdain of women and fear of
non-standard forms of gender identity and sexual orientation.
“When you’re a star, they let you do it.
You can do anything. Grab ‘em by the pussy. You can do anything.” (Trump, 2005)
“You have to treat ‘em like shit.” (1992)
I will “promote positive education about
the nuclear family, the roles of mothers and fathers and celebrating, rather
than erasing, the things that make men and women different.” (2023)
Authoritarianism imposes hierarchies;
authoritarianism seeks order.
By contrast, fascism is organized around
the particular hierarchy of male dominance. The fascist heroic
warrior is male. Women are relegated to subservient roles.
In fascism, anything that challenges the
traditional heroic male roles of protector, provider, and controller of the
family is considered a threat to the social order. Fascism seeks to eliminate
homosexuals, transgender, and queer people because they are thought to
challenge or weaken the heroic male warrior.
These five elements of fascism reinforce each
other.
Rejection of democracy in favor of a
strongman depends on galvanizing popular rage.
Popular rage draws on a nationalism based
on a supposed superior race or ethnicity.
That superior race or ethnicity is
justified by a social Darwinist idea of strength and violence, as exemplified
by heroic warriors.
Strength, violence, and the heroic warrior
are centered on male power.
These five elements also find exact
expression in Donald Trump and the White Christian National movement he is
encouraging. It is also the direction most of the Republican Party is now
heading.
These are not the elements
of authoritarianism. They are the essential elements of fascism.
America’s mainstream media is by now
comfortable talking and writing about Trump’s authoritarianism. In describing
what he is seeking to impose on America, the media should be using the term
“fascism.”
© 2021 robertreich.substack.com
ROBERT REICH is the Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. His book include: "Aftershock" (2011), "The Work of Nations" (1992), "Beyond Outrage" (2012) and, "Saving Capitalism" (2016). He is also a founding editor of The American Prospect magazine, former chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, "Inequality For All." Reich's newest book is "The Common Good" (2019). He's co-creator of the Netflix original documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.
