From The Atlantic.

“Until recently, I resisted using the F-word to describe President Trump,” Jonathan Rauch argues. “For one thing, there were too many elements of classical fascism that didn’t seem to fit. For another, the term has been overused to the point of meaninglessness, especially by left-leaning types who call you a fascist if you oppose abortion or affirmative action. For yet another, the term is hazily defined, even by its adherents.”
https://theatln.tc/4GpOLR6C

But “over Trump’s past year, what originally looked like an effort to make the government his personal plaything has drifted distinctly toward doctrinal and operational fascism,” Rauch argues. “Trump’s appetite for lebensraum, his claim of unlimited power, his support for the global far right, his politicization of the justice system, his deployment of performative brutality, his ostentatious violation of rights, his creation of a national paramilitary police—all of those developments bespeak something more purposeful and sinister than run-of-the-mill greed or gangsterism.”

Fascism “is ideological, aggressive, and, at least in its early stages, revolutionary. It seeks to dominate politics, to crush resistance, and to rewrite the social contract,” Rauch writes. One can object that certain elements of classical European fascism are not found in Trumpism, but the exercise of comparing fascism’s various forms is not precise, Rauch continues: “Trump is building something new on old principles. He is showing us in real time what 21st-century American fascism looks like.”

“Recent events have brought Trump’s governing style into sharper focus. ‘Fascist’ best describes it, and reluctance to use the term has now become perverse,” Rauch continues. “That is not because of any one or two things he and his administration have done but because of the totality. Fascism is not a territory with clearly marked boundaries but a constellation of characteristics. When you view the stars together, the constellation plainly appears.”

Read more at the link: https://theatln.tc/4GpOLR6C

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