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Has American Fascism been Defeated?
It is nearly one week since America’s four-year long experiment with fascism was officially terminated. That Donald Trump refused to concede defeat after losing the election meant that the world had to postpone its long-awaited collective sigh-of-relief. In the meantime, we were treated to a glimpse of just what the Trump presidency stood for, as a motley crew of white supremacists, QAnon-ers, and assorted anti-democratic loons stormed the Capitol Building in Washington D.C., in what very much looked like a dress-rehearsal for a genuine fascist assault upon democratic rule.
Throughout Trump’s presidency there has been an ongoing debate as to whether the label of “fascist” fits the ex-president. Some argue that Trump’s cult-of-personality, his far-right exclusionary nationalism, and his contempt for democracy meant that this orange-tinted demagogue was indeed a fascist. Others hold that fascism should be understood strictly in the sense of the aftermath of the First World War, and the emergence of the movements supporting Mussolini, Hitler and others. For these theorists, fascism was an expansionist ideology that is inseparable from history’s two most destructive conflicts. Trump, by contrast, was the first president in more than a generation not to start a new war.
It is a debate that can have no meaningful resolution, given the various subjective…
