Notices by Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social), page 2

Trump is not “the new Hitler” and he is not “just like Mussolini.” We are not facing an exact replica of the Ur-fascism that rose to power in Europe’s interwar period. But Trumpism is a specifically American, specifically twenty-first century version of fascism.

Donald Trump’s closing pitch to the American people: Rage, intimidation, and vengeful violence. He is promising fascism.
 
No more plausible deniability for anyone who refuses to see the threat.
 
Wrote this before Trump’s aggressively fascist MSG rally – seems appropriate to repost it now:
 
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/donald-trump-american-fascist

The idea that it is somehow ridiculous, alarmist, or otherwise beyond the pale to call Trumpism fascist relies on a naively dismissive view of Trump – and on ignoring the accelerating radicalization on the Right that is happening around and in support of Trump.

Trumpism regards any opposition to this project of national purification and re-birth as fundamentally illegitimate. It is dogma among Trump’s supporters that he as their leader embodies the will of the true people, the Volk – Trump is the tribune of “real America.”

Trump has a fascistic diagnosis of problem – and offers a fascistic solution. The nation is in decline, besieged by invading “Others” and the “enemy within”; only a providential leader, fueled by a radicalizing mass base, can restore glory by violently purging these enemies.

That’s not a policy prescription. Or messaging advice. It’s not merely about semantics. Or moral imperatives. It’s not just a slur. It’s a substantive diagnosis. Whether or not the label has any electoral effect does nothing to either support or undermine it.

At the same time, the status of these extremist forces within the Right has changed. They have moved to the power centers of conservative politics, and as a result, the Right has radicalized dramatically – something the superficial institutional continuity of the GOP helps obscure.

In this sense, Trumpism stands in continuity with some very old ideas and movements – and in continuity with the often violent counter-mobilization that has accompanied every real or even just perceived progress towards egalitarian democracy in U.S. history.

Trumpism is in line with long-standing anti-democratic tendencies and impulses that have always defined modern conservatism as a political project. And fascism is not something foreign to American society: There is a domestic tradition of violent extremism and, yes, fascism.

Donald Trump, American Fascist
 
Trumpism is what a specifically American, twenty-first century version of fascism looks like.

And next week, fascism is on the ballot.
 
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/donald-trump-american-fascist

Trump is the fascistic leader of a rightwing coalition that unites all shades of reaction and is entirely dominated by extremism. Should Trump emerge victorious from the election, America will not become a fascist dictatorship overnight. But the Trumpist Right will try.

But we are, in fact, in a much more dangerous situation precisely because Trumpism is operating within a major party and has managed to take full control of it, dominate it, ostracize all meaningful resistance – meaning it has a direct and plausible avenue to taking power.

I wrote about the disastrous mix of a deep-seated mythology of American exceptionalism, progress gospel, lack of political understanding, and (willful) historical ignorance that has created a situation in which a lot of people simple refuse to take the Trumpist threat seriously. 2/

It Could Definitely Happen Here
 
Many Americans struggle to accept that democracy is young, fragile, and could actually collapse – a lack of imagination that dangerously blunts the response to the Trumpist Right.

Some thoughts from my new piece:

🧵1/
 
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/it-could-definitely-happen-here

It is certainly true that even before the civil rights legislation of the 1960s, the American political system was fairly democratic, at least by contemporaneous international comparison, if a person happened to be a white Christian man – but it was something else entirely if they were not. 6/

Who is “We”? Because for most of America’s existence, and until quite recently, those who lived within the nation’s borders and happened not to be white men had plenty of experience with state authoritarianism. 5/

Such notions build on the pervasive idea that in a country like the United States, with a supposedly centuries-long tradition of stable, consolidated democracy, authoritarianism simply has not realistic chance to succeed, that “We” have never experienced authoritarianism. 4/

There is a lot of evidence that this election may be decided by a sizable group of people who strongly dislike Trump and his plans, but simply cannot imagine he would actually dare / manage to implement any of his promises and therefore aren’t mobilizing to vote. 3/

We must not assume directionality in history at all. There is no arc, and there definitely is no ironclad law of the universe that says “We” can’t slide back – or slide forward into a new kind of authoritarianism. 9/

And because the anti-egalitarian, anti-pluralistic ideas didn’t just vanish into thin air with the passage of civil rights legislation of 1964/65, the conflict over whether or not democracy should be allowed to endure and prosper has been the central fault line in U.S. politics ever since. 8/