participation — should determine how a nation is governed and who does the governing .
Fascism holds that the will of the people — as expressed by a single powerful leader and his local subordinates — should determine how a nation is governed and who does the governing .
This is why Tennessee law prevents 21 percent of all Black people in that state from voting .
It ’ s why DeSantis created a new “ election police ” force and then paraded 15 Black Florida voters before the cameras in shackles , successfully driving down the Black vote and guaranteeing his own reelection .
It ’ s why Brian Kemp put a new law into place that reduced the mail-in vote in Georgia this year by more than a million people over 2020 .
It ’ s why in the midterm election , it took the threat of a lawsuit to stop white poll workers in Beaumont , Texas from turning away Black voters and , when a few got through , looming over them to watch them fill out their ballots .
Those Republican politicians who ’ ve embraced fascism as their governing philosophy understand that fascist followers don ’ t really care about policy . Instead , it ’ s about which group has power and which group is powerless .
Republicans want to ban abortion , gut Social Security , and give another trillion-dollar tax cut to billionaires , all while killing the right to unionization and quality public schools ? Fine with GOP voters ; they ’ re really not noticing policy .
And they ’ re not noticing because they ’ re not interested in policy : that ’ s secondary in the fascist follower ’ s mind . First and foremost , in every case , is
94 x The Trial Lawyer
The Leader and their relationship to him .
And America ’ s fascist followers aren ’ t going anywhere : if Trump stumbles , they ’ ll simply attach themselves to the next fascist leader , who appears at this moment to be Ron DeSantis .
Fascist followers , sometimes referred to as authoritarian followers , want a strong leader to whom they can surrender all those messy details of governance and statecraft . They reinvent their personal identities around their fealty to The Leader . They literally love The Leader .
The Leader regularly demonstrates his power and authority by displays of brutality . As Adam Serwer wrote four years ago for The Atlantic , “ The Cruelty is the Point .” Followers swoon at The Leader ’ s displays of arrogance , mercilessness , and his defiance of society ’ s norms .
Like Christ , The Leader in a fascist government is worshiped as all-knowing , all-seeing , and all-powerful . The Leader is to be respected and feared , like a god . The Leader can do no wrong , even when his crimes and mistakes are laid bare .
The Leader is the state , and the state is The Leader . Everything else is subordinate . All policy comes from The Leader who is the state ; without his approval there is no policy , no deviation from doctrine , no “ unusual ” religion possible . Without loyalty and subservience to The Leader , no resident can be a true citizen of the state .
This is what Mussolini meant when he said :
“ Everything in the State , nothing outside the State , nothing against the State .”
In his 1932 thesis The Doctrine of Fascism , Mussolini laid it out . While the language is a bit archaic , you ’ ll see Trump and DeSantis ’ version of Trumpism echoing in every sentence :
“ In politics Fascism aims at realism ; … [ it ] accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State , which stands for the conscience and the universal will of man as a historic entity ….
“ Liberalism denied the State in the name of the individual ; Fascism reasserts the rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual . And if liberty is to be the attribute of living men and not of abstract dummies invented by individualistic liberalism , then Fascism stands for liberty , and for the only liberty worth having , the liberty of the State and of the individual within the State .
“ The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing ; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist , much less have value .”
In democracy , the people choose their leaders ; in fascism , The Leader chooses his people . To avoid revolts or uprisings , “ his people ” are always members of the largest racial and religious grouping . In America , as in Germany in 1933 , that ’ s white Christians .
As Robert Kagan wrote about Trump just months before he won the Electoral College in 2016 :
“ His public discourse consists of attacking or ridiculing a wide range of ‘ others ’ — Muslims , Hispanics , women , Chinese , Mexicans , Europeans , Arabs , immigrants , refugees — whom he depicts either as threats or as objects of derision . His program , such as it is , consists chiefly of promises to get tough with foreigners and people of nonwhite complexion . He will deport them , bar them , get them to knuckle under , make them pay up or make them shut up .”
The Leader uses his power and position to constantly reassure his People , his fascist followers — all of the same race and religion — that they truly are the ones chosen by their god , by history , by destiny .