Notices by Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social), page 11

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/

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/

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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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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

In order to find enough “conservative warriors,” they are vetting thousands of people with the help of an online questionnaire that is designed to identify true ideological believers. “Project 2025” is looking for purity and radicalism. No “adults in the room” this time. 13/

This is Part II of my deep dive into “Project 2025”: A detailed dissection of the policy agenda they have produced and the plans to install an army of loyalists. They understand they weren’t ready during Trump’s first presidency. In 2025, they will be. 2/

Weekend reading: I wrote about what “Project 2025” wants to do to America.
 
“Project 2025” is designed as a grand battle plan for the Right’s open war against multiracial pluralism – and it will be on the ballot in November.
  
A thread, based on this week’s piece:
 
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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/what-project-2025-would-do-to-america

The Department of Education, for instance? “Should be eliminated.” Measures to tackle the climate crisis? Derided as “climate fanaticism” - just another “globalist” strategy to undermine America, just like “gender radicalism” and “promoting abortion.” 5/

On one level, this is a radical program to dismantle the modern state. The Right wants to rob government of any tool that might be used to install boundaries for moneyed interests, help create a fairer pluralistic society, or tackle some of the most urgent public policy crises. 4/

“Project 2025” is evidence that the Right has concrete plans to take over and transform American government into a machine that serves only two purposes: exacting revenge on the “woke” enemy – and imposing a minoritarian reactionary vision on society. 3/

Public health, for instance, is seen purely as a tool to uphold a traditionalist, conservative Christian understanding of gender, family, and motherhood. No more of this unnatural pluralism of lifestyles, identities, and family structures. Deviation is to be extinguished. 7/