The Leader reinforces their sense of unity and purpose with a daily ( literally ) dose of outrage . A new enemy is discovered . Perversion is at work . Evildoers are indoctrinating the children of The People . The family , home , and faith are facing an existential threat . Only The Leader can protect The People from those threats , those degenerates , the depravity they are using to corrupt the state and its only true citizens . Every conflict is portrayed as a struggle , as good against evil , as a gladiatorial contest .
Jason Stanley noted :
“ The key thing is that fascist politics is about identifying enemies , appealing to the in-group ( usually the majority group ), and smashing truth and replacing it with power .”
And The Leader will never , ever compromise . It ’ s unthinkable . Compromise reveals weakness , and The Leader is never , ever weak .
As a result , normal democratic governance becomes impossible . The Leader ’ s party acts in total lockstep with The Leader ; all who fail to do so are banished . The rule of law is ignored .
Even small things , like violating the Hatch Act law by using federal buildings for campaign events , or illegally putting cronies into positions like Chad Wolf ’ s “ acting ” job at the head of the Department of Homeland Security , are considered mere inconveniences to be flicked away like gnats .
Ivanka Trump reveled , in fact , in defying the law to promote products from the White House , as did her husband in setting up his $ 2 billion payday with Saudi Arabia while working for our government . Fascism , after all , is all about power , and nothing shows power better than laughing at laws and getting away with it .
It ’ s a short step from violating these dozens of “ small ” laws to attempting to smash the existing government altogether to replace it with The Leader ’ s fascist state . It took Trump a mere four years to get from the first to the last .
And now he ’ s saying that if he becomes president again , he ’ ll be imprisoning reporters , politicians , and putting “ a bullet ” into the heads of drug dealers “ within two hours ” and then sending that bullet to their families .
At the moment , our nation itself — the federal government — is not yet fascist , although it would be today if Trump had succeeded in murdering Vice President Mike Pence and thus throwing the 2020 election to his followers in the House of Representatives .
But fascism is on the march in state after state .
These fascist state leaders revel in their grandiosity . They manipulate the lives of powerless people for sport , putting children in cages and sending refugees to Martha ’ s Vineyard . They arrest innocent people as grand theater . They defy the courts and impose illegal election maps on their people .
They strut ( or wheel ) and preen before the cameras and live for opportunities to defy social and political norms , something they call “ owning the libs .” Their goal isn ’ t democracy or consensus or even the greatest good for their people : it ’ s the singular accumulation and exercise of raw power on behalf of their racial and religious ingroup .
And their People love them for it . They are the miniature versions of The Leader himself . They bask in his glow and amplify his power , to the delight of his followers .
Looking at history , it appears that the only way fascism is cut out of a nation ’ s body politic is by crushing defeat . Hitler and Mussolini at the end of WWII . Pinochet wiped out at the polls and then dragged before the Court in Spain .
The Leader must be exposed as a fraud , as weak , as a sniveling coward . His crimes to promote fascism must be revealed , particularly including the damage they inflicted on his very own people . He must be torn down from his self-exalted platform and thrown into political purgatory .
Sometimes it comes about by popular uprising at the ballot box . Sometimes by the media exposing his weaknesses . Sometimes by law enforcement revealing his crimes and punishing him for them .
This is the only way to rid a nation of fascism once it ’ s taken deep root , as it has here in the United States .
Mussolini ’ s own lieutenants threw him to the wolves , leading to his desperate ( and unsuccessful ) attempt to flee Italy with his mistress . Hitler ’ s generals refused his orders to destroy Germany for its failure to win the war . Pinochet thought he could ace another election , maintaining the façade of democracy in Chile , but miscalculated the furor of the people .
As Democrats work to expand the number of people who can vote — regardless of party affiliation , ethnicity , race , or the rural / urban divide — Republicans are doing everything they can to make elections irrelevant , both through voter suppression and extreme gerrymandering .
Far worse , the GOP continues to function as if it were seized by members of an extremist , neofascist , religious cult . Even if they abandon Trump and moved to DeSantis , the message will be the same . He is The Leader .
I can ’ t predict what the Justice Department or other law enforcement agencies — from the New York Attorney General to the Fulton County District Attorney — will do about Donald Trump ‘ s many crimes .
And with all the billionaire money circulating in our politics since the Supreme Court legalized political bribery in 2010 , it ’ s hard to know exactly how elections will turn out over the next few years .
Ron DeSantis , for example , is lining up right wing billionaires to support his claim to the presidency in 2024 as you read these words .
But the one thing I know for sure is that history tells us a nation that fails to excise fascism before it seizes full control is doomed to a generation of chaos and pain .
And those nations that have soundly rejected fascism and purged their ranks of fascist collaborators — as did most of the nations of Europe after WWII — can look forward to generations of peace and prosperity .