Thomas Zimmer
The best argument for applying “American fascism” as an analytical framework to Trump / Trumpism is the fact that it emphasized - rather than dismissed or sanitized - these fascistic elements from the start and rightfully diagnosed an acute threat to constitutional self-government.
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Thomas Zimmer
The latest research on the history of modern U.S. conservatism and the American Right very much emphasizes those importance of domestic far-right extremist and fascistic traditions, and most serious historians agree that Trumpism needs to be situated in that context. 12/
Thomas Zimmer
At some point during the Trump presidency, most good-faith observers crossed the line from “Not sure, maybe go easy on the fascism claims” to “Trumpism clearly qualifies as a specifically American, specifically 21st-century version of fascism.”
It’s gotten way worse since. 13/
Thomas Zimmer
But it does not follow that whoever speaks of fascism in America must be ignorant of fascism’s history. All too often, those who vehemently oppose the use of the term in a U.S. context betray an inadequate understanding of the actual state of conservative / rightwing politics. 8/
Thomas Zimmer
It’s certainly worth reflecting on the exact nature of Trumpian fascism in comparison to both the phenomena that arose in Europe’s interwar period as well as previous iterations of the more specifically American fascistic tradition. 9/
Thomas Zimmer
It’s also important to debate the place of Trumpian fascism in relation to other factions on the American Right, its specific role in the context of the broader rightwing counter-mobilization against egalitarian, multiracial, pluralistic democracy. 10/
Thomas Zimmer
Applying the fascism concept is not the same as using facile historical analogies to Hitler. Rather than just referencing the rise of the Nazis and fascism in Europe’s interwar period all the time, we should investigate domestic traditions of fascism and rightwing extremism. 11/
Thomas Zimmer
All strands of the Right – GOP officials, the media machine, reactionary intellectuals, the conservative base – are openly and aggressively embracing rightwing vigilante violence against “the Left”… 4/
Thomas Zimmer
Significant portions of the Right are clamoring for a revolutionary leader who promises that he alone can return the nation to glory by violently purging it from globalist, leftist enemies and restore the rule of the *real* people.
Fascism is an adequate term for all of that. 5/
Thomas Zimmer
The fake-indignation over people applying the term “fascism” to factions on the Right is just silly – as is denying the fact that making common cause with extremism has fully moved to the center of conservative politics, which constitutes an acute threat to American democracy. 6/
Thomas Zimmer
Yes, it’s important to emphasize the specific historical circumstances that led to the rise of fascism in Europe’s interwar period, and it’s crucial to keep those in mind when using the term in any political context. 7/
Thomas Zimmer
Meanwhile, the people who have proudly taken on the mantle of “Guardians Against Liberal Alarmism and Hysteria” have offered a lot of sneering condescension - while being wrong about Trumpism and what’s happening on the American Right almost every step of the way. 2/
Thomas Zimmer
It goes far beyond just Trump, of course: “Thought leaders” on the Right keep calling for a radical counterrevolution of the rightfully aggrieved against the sinister forces of leftism that are supposedly threatening the nation’s survival… 3/
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