We Choose Fascism! (?)

ANGLO AMERICA, 17 Nov 2025

Michael Brenner – TRANSCEND Media Service

10 Nov 2025 –Is the USA choosing Fascism? That is the question that will occupy historians – probably Asian – in the second half of the 21^st Century.

There are indications suggesting that the answer is ‘Yes’ – or, we are in the process of doing so. Let’s examine them.

What do we mean when we say that a country has chosen – or preferred, or opted for – a political ideology/philosophy along with its institutions, practices and policies? A deliberate choice is exceptional; the closest approximation is the process by which the Constitutional Assembly drafted a document that then was ratified by the states whose representatives themselves had been selected in something approximating open elections – albeit with limited suffrage. That was as close to a referendum on liberal democracy as has been recorded in history. Other forms of government never came close to being installed by popular choice. Soviet Communism was not ”chosen” by the Russian people (and the other nationalities). The Nazi Party’s never received more than 33% of the vote in Germany – they were installed in power by Hindenburg and Franz von Pappen. Between July 1932 and November 1932, they actually dropped from 37% to 33%. Most Germans, who soon supported or acquiesced in Nazi rule, did have a pretty good idea of what was awaiting them in terms of internal affairs. Total war and the Holocaust, though, were not on people’s mind. Franco’s Falange took power by force – having lost by a close margin what amounted to a referendum in the 1936 Spanish election. Mussolini never contested an election, assuming the power of an autocratic dictator in what amounted to a domestic coup. The Fascist movements that sprung up in Eastern Europe during the 1930s and ‘40s, forming governments, could only garner vote totals in the teens when their parties ran in competitive elections.

Before we can reach even a tentative judgement as to whether a country has “chosen” a given political form, we must consider these critical questions. One, how much knowledge did elites &/or populace have as to the objectives, principles and program of the movement under scrutiny? Two, how does the rating of the leader after becoming official head of government compare to his rating at time of election? Three, how do we estimate saliency/strength of support among “favorables?” Or, of opposition among “unfavorables?”

Reflecting on the answers quickly reveals the uniqueness of the TRUMP/MAGA phenomenon – and the circumstances wherein it has emerged.

Most striking, the United States is the world’s oldest, stable Constitutional democracy grounded on the principle of popular sovereignty. Its governmental institutions have stood the tests of time – serving as a model for many other states. The complementary ‘software,’ norms of behavior within those institutions and the public sphere generally, was deeply entrenched in US society.

Healthy societies revel in who they are. Unhealthy societies view themselves in terms of either an ignominious past, current enemies who endanger them, or internal elements degrading the true virtuous nature of the commune and sapping its strength. The United States through most of its history was in the first category. Today, it is clearly in the second. Therein lies our national tragedy – and our precipitous slide into Fascism US style.

This historic shift – with profound implications – has not been driven by tangible factors, originating within itself or externally, but strikingly by intangibles. The country has not experienced any traumatic shocks. No ruinous, humiliating wartime defeat and occupation. No economic crash. No civil war. No deeply rooted conflicts between Church and secular forces. Think of inter-war Europe: by comparison, the United States has been living in a benign environment. USA exceptionalism.  Strains and strains, yes – nothing, though, of the magnitude that could explain so drastic a transformation.

That makes the task of explaining the genesis of US Fascism and its complex, multi-faceted dynamics far more difficult than the challenge that has confounded analysts of Nazism for almost a century. The United States’ participation in the Gaza genocide exacerbates the problem; it makes this formidable undertaking all the more daunting. This short essay does not presume to such ambition. Rather, it presents for scrutiny information and ideas that point us to those elements that should figure in an assessment of US Fascism,

Most pertinent to this analysis are the following facts and ideas:

In 2016, 63 million voted for Trump; in 2020 71 million; in 2024 77 million. (Voter turnout varied from 60 – 64%). Still, it is noteworthy that 14 million more North Americans wanted Trump as President than 8 years earlier. [Hillary Clinton actually received 5 million more votes than Trump, but lost due to an archaic electoral system dating from 1789. In 2024, Trump’s vote was 2 million greater than Harris’] Intervening events between November 2020 and November 2024 include inter alia: the Trump inspired violent assault on the United States capitol, a felony conviction, several other serious legal proceedings thwarted by unprecedented actions by judges and prosecutors, a constant stream of bizarre, vulgar, defamatory actions by Trump. As of this writing (Oct 31), survey data show that between 40 and 44% of respondents hold a “favorable” view if Trump’s Presidency. The comparative number for Obama at this point his administration (2^nd term) was 43%, for Biden 41%. In 10 states, Trump’s approval rating rises above 60%.

Trump has received accommodating treatment from the media throughout.  Welcomed at first as a viewer/reader friendly star celebrity, subsequently as photogenic President/candidate, his quixotic, extreme, unlawful actions have been presented as part of the political game rather than as a grave threat to US constitutional democracy – i.e. normalization.  Most establishment Democrats still cling to the quaint Pollyanish notion that if they are able to overcome Republican gerrymandering to win half a dozen House seats, that would put paid to Trumpian autocracy. Dream on! They remain blind is to what Trump and the MAGA movement are and what they portend, to the irreparable damage they already have done to governmental institutions and US public life generally.

The passions of the MAGA militants may not inflame the hearts and minds of all 73 million voters or current “favorables.” Roughly half most likely are just devout Republicans indulging their tribal atavisms. As for the wealthy and powerful who for generations have been the underwriters of Republican orthodoxy, they reconciled themselves to Trumpism with the first flow of tax breaks and deregulation. After all, those people can afford to send their daughters to Canada for abortions and don’t mind a tightening of the screws on their alma mater so long as it doesn’t disrupt the football program. Most will not rescind their allegiance to Trump even though the Democratic Party leadership, coveting their financial support, treats them accordingly. Corporate and financial elites, in particular, have dedicated themselves to suppressing any force that seriously curbs their privileges. As Lloyd Blankstein, former chief of Goldman Sachs, threatened: if the Democrats were to do anything so rash as to nominate the Bolshevik Bernie Sanders, he would throw his full support behind Donald Trump. Patriotism a la Wall Street. (Barack Obama had treated Goldman Sachs and Blankstein personally with kid gloves, letting them off the hook with a pat on the back despite strong evidence of both civil and criminal offenses).  That embodies the attitude of the country’s economic movers-and-shakers – the Franz von Pappens of our era.

How much has the public, and elites, known about Trump at the time of making electoral choices &/or judging his performance?

In 2016, he had visibility as a celebrity personality – egocentric and idiosyncratic – with shifting, always vocal views on public issues. The overall impression was negative: early in the summer his unfavorable rating was 67% (Hillary’s 53%). Steve Bannon was instrumental in turning the campaign around. In addition to discipling a chaotic campaign organization, he convinced Trump to present himself as anti-Wall Street and “anti-endless wars,” e.g. Iraq, Afghanistan.  Those were not his true thoughts/feelings, of course – but in today’s politics that hardly matters. The Democrats, characteristically, did not see a riposte as imperative – especially since there was more than a kernel of truth to the indictment. Bannon did more to catapult Trump into the White House than anybody else other than Hillary herself.

Trump’s autocratic style, his abusive language, his Tea Party mentality became evident within months of his entering the White House. A highlight of his first term was the cruel practice of tearing immigrant children away from their mothers and scattering them to the four winds where abusive conditions were commonplace. This was a calculated crude form of deterrence. The critical juncture came four years later – the attempted coup of January 6. Since then, any reasonable person capable of deliberate judgment has known that Trump’s audacity and destructive streak went so far as to war on the foundations of the country’s Constitutional Republic.  That moved General John Kelly, former White House Chief of Staff, and General H. R. McMaster, former National Security Adviser, to pronounce Trump a “Fascist” in public remarks during the Fall 2024 campaign. They fell on deaf ears.

There is an oddity to the phenomenon whereby this record garnered him 4 million more votes in 2024 than in 2020 and returned him to the White House. Many people,   in obsessing about one or two issues, found it convenient to overlook the fundamental truths about Trump the despotic Far Right demagogue, and to downplay other obnoxious actions. Those obsessions might be various types of antipathy toward immigrants, Woke excesses, the demographic end of the country’s white majority, or China’s looming threat to supplant the United States – our Providentially anointed nation – as the global Number 1.* The gratifying prospect of Trump vehemently meeting that emotional need eclipsed whatever awareness they had of the danger he presents to the integrity of USA’s constitutional democracy.

This type of monomania reflects an extreme self-centered parochialism and political immaturity that is a hallmark of contemporary US society.

Projection of this kind is not restricted to Trump militants or know-nothings. Many others have projected onto Trump qualities or objectives that represent wishful thinking more than they do a considered appraisal of the man and his record. Most striking was the expectation among some critics of Biden’s foreign policy that Trump II would turn the United States away from implacable hostility and provocation against Russia, China, Iran; that he might temper if not end US participation in the Gaza genocide; that he would root out the Deep State that promotes aggressive campaigns in the cause of global hegemony. These latter may not have voted for Trump (likely abstaining) but they did lend a positive aura to him as a responsible leader on security matters at the outset of has second, perilously madcap administration.

[There was nothing in the record of Trump I to support this optimism. On Ukraine: he accelerated and greatly expanded the Obama project of building its army into a formidable offensive force via large provisions of weaponry, money, Intelligence integration and officer training. This was the bolstered army that was deployed on the border of the Donbass poised to invade the secessionist oblasts when Joe Biden entered on the White House. The intention was made clear by the 5 years of shelling that killed 14,000 ethnic Russians. In effect, Trump set in place the ingredients that would precipitate the war he now bemoans and claims never would have occurred under his benevolent stewardship. On Israel: Trump was a fully paid-up member of the Netanyahu fan club – backing his grand plan to make Israel the kingpin of the entire Middle East of which Kushner’s Abrahamic Accords was the centerpiece.]

To a detached observer, Trump’s free-associative, fragmented verbal ejaculations on international matters resemble jazz scat singing. Yet, so strong is the desire to find coherence in the mind of our President that otherwise sober analysts could employ an inner Enigma decoding machine to decipher what in fact lacks even a semblance of coherence. There are, indeed, constants to his behavior, though. It is the incessant drive of an egomaniacal clinical narcissist for domination, for control over all others, for adulation, for deference. To those who deny him or obstruct him, his innate emotional reaction is to destroy them – in his own words two weeks ago: “to kill, to kill them – dead.” Especially if they are weak and vulnerable. “Them?”  Hamas (aka Palestinians), Lebanese, Iranians, Houthis, Somalis, Venezuelans, Cubans, Nigerians (welcome) – plus reserved places in the “for whom it may concern” category. Those granted lifetime immunity from Trump’s homicidal impulses?: these sparkling democratic statesmen and FOTs (Friends Of Trump): Netanyahu, Mielli, Bolsonaro, Noboa (Ecuador), Abu Mohhamed al-Julani, ex-al-Quada chieftain cum head-chopper now called Ahmed al-Sharaa. ^{. .}This too is Fascism in action. The only thing he respects is power – including somebody else’s ruthless use of it, e.g. Xi’s exploitation of rare earth minerals to force a humiliating defeat on Trump (needless to say, cast as a victory). In contrast, the craven response to Trump’s bullying by other leaders has led only to more abuse. And, hence, his contempt for the Democrats’ feeble ‘opposition.’

None of this amounts to a strategy, or a grounded mental map of the international system and how it works. The closest approximation to a general perspective are bits and pieces of feelings, stray thoughts and slogans that in a primitive way conform to the Wolfowitz grand plan for US world dominance. (As I argued in a preceding paper – attached).**

CONCLUSION

These are the essential points:

1. FASCISM is now in the USAn bloodstream – as idea, as sentiment, as movement, as personified by officials at all spheres of government at all levels
2. FASCISM in the United States would have distinctive characteristics not evident in other Fascist regimes we have known historically; however, it shares the same core traits
3. Full-blown Fascism, were we to reach that terminal point, would not crystallize suddenly – as it did in Germany between 1932 and 1933. It takes shape by fits-and-starts rather than conforming to a plan
4. Whatever the future holds for USAn Fascism, our public institutions and political culture have been degraded irreparably. A return to the status quo ante (circa 2015) in not in the cards or in the realm of the practically possible
5. The Supreme Court’s marked bias in backing Trump and his MAGA project to recast the country severely constricts the ability of the judiciary to check his abuses of power
6. We have revealed disturbing things about ourselves, our nation and humans’ social nature – it is not obvious that we are learning the lessons that they teach
7. In some states, the autocratic/neo-Fascist mindset is so deeply entrenched, and control of government so complete, that citizens and institutions will suffer permanent harm to their well-being and integrity whatever happens in national politics

As the Grand Inquisitor pithily put it:

“Man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find quickly someone to whom he can hand over the gift of freedom.” In today’s USA, there are many who can be so described.  In exchange, they get what they crave – be it the vicarious thrill of  watching a tough guy mete out punishment to their personal bêtes noires who harrow them, the pounding of patriotic drums, their insignia of superior rank assigned as members of a movement doing  it all to set things right, their creed anointed, their sustaining myths and legends confirmed, their unquenchable hate manifest, the outlets provided for displacing their sublimated self-contempt.  That such a one is Donald Trump marks the uniqueness of 21^st century USA.  The miracle is that the United States endures such self-mockery – so far.

Final Word:

The United States appeared to be at its zenith in 2016. Only a few discerned the pathogens burrowing beneath the surface. In a bizarre twist of history, the active agent bringing the Republic to the brink is an oaf – a vulgar psychopathic bozo with a criminal rap sheet as long as his red ties. One expects that great countries can be brought low only by far more formidable persons and forces.

Future historians will marvel that our perhaps final act resembles a Ruritanian farce.

The disquieting truth is that there has been a steady deterioration of US manners and mores in the country’s civic life for decades. It compromised and corrupted institutions and how we conduct ourselves in them. In effect, the software of our Constitutional democracy has corroded badly. The body politic’s immune system had been gravely weakened. When a potent pathogen found an opening, resistance crumbled with stunning speed. The full extent of how deep and widespread the rot had gotten only has become evident to a broad swath of the population in the 9 months of Trump II – with a few discerning exceptions. (40% recognize who Trump/MAGA are – and applaud them!) This fateful encounter of a degenerated polity and a psychopathic Fascist was not preordained. Otherwise, the system might just have staggered on or, less likely, another type of turbo-charged person with different traits could have arrived on the scene – in theory, anyway. Instead, Destiny set us on an improbable fatal course.

Notes:

*The Trump people are dedicated to tearing down many of US society’s great achievements: from its Constitutional principles, to its democratic ethic of civil political discourse, to racial equality, to the programs that have been the foundation of our communality – Social Security, Medicare, Medicare and a host of other enlightened innovations of the 20th century. Plans for great projects are restricted to monuments in honor and glory of Donald Trump. In this respect, US neo-Fascism is intensifying, and carrying to extremes, certain trends that have become a hallmark of contemporary USA. We are today a country marked more by our destructiveness than by what we create and build.

**A striking feature of this descent into unbridled autocracy, is that there is no ideological passion fueling it, no doctrine, no philosophy, no religious zeal. It is all about discharging emotions spawned in the depths of roiled psyches. Just raw, crude tantrums committing flagrant acts of destruction and hurt. We must keep in mind that it is not only Trump. He has ignited and assembled a crew of wreakers, wackos and misfits – outstanding among them being Elon “Chainsaw” Musk. Others include such a Robert Kennedy jr. who seemingly spends his waking hours devising ways to impair the health of USAns: cannibalizing the Center for Disease Control, slashing the National Institute of Health, restricting development and distribution of vaccines, suppressing scientific research at universities, demeaning those who actually know what they are talking about.

Instead of ideology or doctrine we have a perverted North Americanism.

An artless blend of myth, doctored history and chauvinism, it has been inflated into an encompassing revelation that explains all, inspires all, justifies all. A one-size-fits-all creed cum faith that embraces every person, every circumstance, every act. North Americanism acts as a Unified Field Theory of self-identity, collective enterprise, and the Republic’s enduring meaning. When one element is felt to be jeopardy, the integrity of the whole edifice becomes vulnerable.

 The drama of the US experience, our collective pageant of progress, used to be the great booster of morale and imparter of meaning. That tonic has lost much of its potency- in good part because it’s not the same country, and we no longer reign supreme in the world. So, crude attempts at restoration become the imperative for a shaky collective identity and impoverished individual self-esteem. 

In the past, US mythology energized the country in ways that helped it to thrive.  Today, it is a dangerous hallucinogen that traps North Americans in a time warp more and more distant from reality.

________________________________________________

Michael Brenner is professor of international affairs at the University of Pittsburgh; a senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, SAIS-Johns Hopkins (Washington, D.C.), contributor to research and consulting projects on Euro-American security and economic issues. Publishes and teaches in the fields of US foreign policy, Euro-American relations, and the European Union. mbren@pitt.edu – More…

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 17 Nov 2025.

Anticopyright: Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an acknowledgement and link to the source, TMS: We Choose Fascism! (?), is included. Thank you.

If you enjoyed this article, please donate to TMS to join the growing list of TMS Supporters.

Share this article: email mastodon facebook 🔗 copy link

This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.

There are no comments so far.