Republican snowflakes are very upset with President Biden. He hurt their feelings the other day when he told an audience that the Trump-MAGA “philosophy” is “like semi-fascism.” They want him to apologize for saying something they deem to be so mean.
Those of us who’ve been using the word fascist, especially since the Jan. 6 insurrection, are pleased to welcome Joe to the club. He joins a number of notables, including ex-George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum: “Through the Trump years, it seemed sensible to eschew comparisons to the worst passages of history. I repeated over and over again a warning against too-easy use of the F-word, fascism: ‘There are a lot of stops on the train line to bad before you get to Hitler Station.'” But Frum lamented that Trump, post-defeat, has increasingly flirted with “European-style fascism.”
Yes, it’s a loaded word. It conjures images of Jews trudging toward the gas chambers. But fascism does not require genocide. Check out this definition, as articulated by Columbia professor Robert Paxton, in his book The Anatomy of Fascism:
“Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”
Did Biden get it right? I’ll report, you decide:
*Obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood…Bingo. Trump is still ranting on social media that America is going to hell in a handbasket; he still thinks the world is laughing at us; and he and his cultists paint themselves as the victims of everything from pluralism to law enforcement. The slogan “Make America Great Again” is all about (purported) national decline.
*Committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites…Bingo. As revealed by the Jan. 6 hearings, the Proud Boys and other goon groups coordinated with Trump insiders, while the “traditional elites” – elected Republican lawmakers – looked the other way, refusing to certify Biden’s election victory and refusing to oust Trump after his second impeachment.
*Abandons democratic liberties…Bingo. MAGA acolytes who still embrace the ’20 big lie are running for key state offices, threatening to ignore future election results that don’t swing their way. MAGA’s candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano, has already signaled that he’d have the power to appoint the state’s top election official, someone who can refuse to certify unacceptable election results in ’24.
*Redemptive violence…Bingo. We’ve already seen plenty of that, and more may be in the offing. MAGA toady Lindsey Graham said twice on TV the other night that “if there is a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information…there will be riots in the street.” His threat in translation: Nice little country you got there, a pity of something happens to it.
*Without ethical or legal constraints…Bingo. No need to substantiate that one; we’ve all been alive these past few years. Although stealing highly classified national security secrets, in violation of the Espionage Act, may well take the cake. Indeed, the Justice Department says it will further address what it calls the “legal and factual issues,” in an imminent new public filing that could run 40 pages.
*Goals of internal cleansing…Bingo. A key goal of the Jan. 6 insurrection was to hang Mike Pence for his refusal to break the law, and to hunt down top Democratic lawmakers starting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Other MAGA features stink of fascism. The big lie BS of a “stolen election” brings to mind the Germans’ myth that they didn’t really lose World War I, that they were merely “stabbed in the back” by conspiratorial forces. The worship of mindless machismo, the hatred of “elites,” the cult of personality, and the fabrication of scary internal enemies (Jan. 6 was Antifa!) are classic fascist staples.
The only real issue is whether Biden needed the word semi.