Can the US Turn Fascist?
ANGLO AMERICA, 1 Feb 2016
Şahin Alpay, Today’s Zaman – TRANSCEND Media Service
31 Jan 2016 – Johan Galtung, the Norwegian mathematician, political scientist, sociologist and the founder of the field of peace and conflict resolution studies, argued in his book The Fall of the US Empire – And Then What? (TRANSCEND University Press, 2009) that just as the Roman Empire disintegrated, the American Empire (or the US and Western hegemony over the world) would collapse not later than the year 2025.
Galtung was one of the very few social scientists who predicted the dissolution of the Soviet Union — the Soviet Empire, if you like. His prediction about what would happen to the world and the US after the fall of the American Empire envisages two possible scenarios for each. The world would go toward either regionalization or further globalization. The US, on the other hand, would either turn fascist or its democracy would blossom.
According to Galtung, the US has five what one could call vices that could push it toward fascism. These are: The vision of being the chosen nation to establish good in the world; belief in an impending final war between good and evil; the cult of the strong state leading the fight against evil; the cult of the strong leader turning people into followers; and the belief in winning as proof of being the fittest nation. (p. 131) The virtues, on the other hand, that could lead the US toward the further blossoming of democracy are creativity, ability to cooperate, a culture of equality, hard work and generosity. (p.133)
Observing the utterances and behavior of the Republican Party’s candidates for nomination to the presidency and particularly of Donald Trump, I cannot help but recall Galtung’s predictions. Perhaps one of the factors that made Galtung think that the US may very well go toward fascism was the mentality of and policies pursued by the administration of former President George W. Bush. If that was the case, it could be argued that the mentality represented and the policies promised by Trump would greatly help the US turn fascist, although Roger Griffin, the author of the book “The Nature of Fascism,” considers Trump merely a right-wing populist, saying “You can be a total xenophobic racist male chauvinist bastard and still not be a fascist.” (Quoted on the news website Vox, Dec. 10, 2015)
Trump promises, most remarkably, to deport 11 million illegal migrants in the US, build a wall between the US and Mexico to stop illegal immigration, close down mosques and register American Muslims and introduce a “total and complete shutdown” of America’s borders to Muslims. He seems to increase his chances of winning the Republican nomination as he escalates his racist discourse in competition with (partly Hispanic origin) Ted Cruz and (African-American) Ben Carson, who are only slightly less extremist than he is.
Trump does give credence to the argument that the US may well turn fascist when one considers that Adolf Hitler in Germany launched his political career by pursuing rabid anti-Semitism. Trump seems quite determined to capitalize on Islamophobia in his political career. The only consolation for the US, as well as the world, is that although he may win the Republican nomination, he is not so likely to win the presidential election to be held at the end of this year. But then the question arises if another Trump — with equally racist and fascist tendencies — manages to win the presidency in the future.
The worries about rising fascism are unfortunately not limited to the US. Pro-fascist populist parties are in power in Poland and Hungary and are part of the coalition governments in Switzerland and Finland. Such parties have the largest share of the national vote in France and the Netherlands and have achieved record support in Sweden, according to polls. All of these countries are members of the European Union, believed to be the fortress of freedom and democracy in Europe. It is true that Poland and Hungary escaped from communist autocracy only in the early 1990s. But what about the others?
The lesson to be drawn from all the above is that democracies can easily turn authoritarian or even fascistic. Democrats should, therefore, always be alert and never give up the fight for political freedom.
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Dr. Şahin Alpay is an academic and a Today’s Zaman columnist who has taught political science at a number of universities. While he was deeply affected by pro-Marxist thought in his youth, later on in life he embraced social liberal ideas and strongly advocated reform to transform Turkey into a liberal and pluralist democracy in line with European Union values.
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Dear Sahin Alpay,
You are correct in pointing out, that a fascist party is part of the Swiss governing coalition – the biggest one.
However Switzerland is not an EU country – the aforementioned party has managed to block it from joining or associating itself to the EU. However it did not block it from a partnership with NATO….
Yours
Werner T. Meyer