{"id":307319,"date":"2025-11-17T12:00:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T12:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=307319"},"modified":"2025-11-11T06:29:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T06:29:15","slug":"we-choose-fascism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/11\/we-choose-fascism\/","title":{"rendered":"We Choose Fascism! (?)"},"content":{"rendered":"

10 Nov 2025 –Is the USA choosing Fascism<\/em>? That is the question that will occupy historians \u2013 probably Asian \u2013 in the second half of the 21st<\/sup> Century.<\/p>\n

There are indications suggesting that the answer is \u2018Yes\u2019 \u2013 or, we are in the process of doing so. Let\u2019s examine them.<\/p>\n

What do we mean when we say that a country has chosen \u2013 or preferred, or opted for \u2013 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 \u2013 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 \u201dchosen\u201d by the Russian people (and the other nationalities). The Nazi Party\u2019s never received more than 33% of the vote in Germany \u2013 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\u2019s mind. Franco\u2019s Falange took power by force \u2013 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 \u201840s, forming governments, could only garner vote totals in the teens when their parties ran in competitive elections.<\/p>\n

Before we can reach even a tentative judgement as to whether a country has \u201cchosen\u201d 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 \u201cfavorables?<\/em>\u201d Or, of opposition among \u201cunfavorables<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the answers quickly reveals the uniqueness of the TRUMP\/MAGA phenomenon \u2013 and the circumstances wherein it has emerged.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most striking, the United States is the world\u2019s oldest, stable Constitutional democracy grounded on the principle of popular sovereignty. Its governmental institutions have stood the tests of time \u2013 serving as a model for many other states. The complementary \u2018software,\u2019 norms of behavior within those institutions and the public sphere generally, was deeply entrenched in US society.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 and our precipitous slide into Fascism<\/em> US\u00a0style.<\/em><\/p>\n

This historic shift – with profound implications \u2013 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. \u00a0Strains and strains, yes \u2013 nothing, though, of the magnitude that could explain so drastic a transformation.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 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,<\/p>\n

Most pertinent to this analysis are the following facts and ideas:<\/p>\n

In 2016, 63 million voted for Trump; in 2020 71 million; in 2024 77 million. (Voter turnout varied from 60 \u2013 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\u2019s vote was 2 million greater than Harris\u2019]<\/em> Intervening events between November 2020 and November 2024 include inter alia<\/em>: 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 \u201cfavorable\u201d view if Trump\u2019s Presidency. The comparative number for Obama at this point his administration (2nd<\/sup> term) was 43%, for Biden 41%. In 10 states, Trump\u2019s approval rating rises above 60%.<\/p>\n

Trump has received accommodating treatment from the media throughout.\u00a0 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 \u2013 i.e. normalization<\/em>.\u00a0 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<\/em>! 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.<\/p>\n

The passions of the MAGA militants may not inflame the hearts and minds of all 73 million voters or current \u201cfavorables<\/em>.\u201d 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\u2019t mind a tightening of the screws on their alma mater<\/em> so long as it doesn\u2019t 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).<\/em> \u00a0That embodies the attitude of the country\u2019s economic movers-and-shakers \u2013 the Franz von Pappens of our era.<\/p>\n

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

In 2016, he had visibility as a celebrity personality \u2013 egocentric and idiosyncratic \u2013 with shifting, always vocal views on public issues. The overall impression was negative: early in the summer his unfavorable rating was 67% (Hillary\u2019s 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 \u201canti-endless wars,\u201d e.g. Iraq, Afghanistan. \u00a0Those were not his true thoughts\/feelings, of course \u2013 but in today\u2019s politics that hardly matters. The Democrats, characteristically, did not see a riposte as imperative \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s 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\u2019s audacity and destructive streak went so far as to war on the foundations of the country\u2019s Constitutional Republic. \u00a0That moved General John Kelly, former White House Chief of Staff, and General H. R. McMaster, former National Security Adviser, to pronounce Trump a \u201cFascist\u201d in public remarks during the Fall 2024 campaign. They fell on deaf ears.<\/p>\n

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, \u00a0\u00a0in 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\u2019s white majority, or China\u2019s looming threat to supplant the United States \u2013 our Providentially anointed nation \u2013 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\u2019s constitutional democracy.<\/p>\n

This type of monomania reflects an extreme self-centered parochialism and political immaturity that is a hallmark of contemporary US society.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

[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 \u2013 backing his grand plan to make Israel the kingpin of the entire Middle East of which Kushner\u2019s Abrahamic Accords was the centerpiece.]<\/p>\n

To a detached observer, Trump\u2019s 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 \u2013 in his own words two weeks ago: \u201cto kill, to kill them \u2013 dead.\u201d Especially if they are weak and vulnerable. \u201cThem?\u201d\u00a0 Hamas (aka Palestinians), Lebanese, Iranians, Houthis, Somalis, Venezuelans, Cubans, Nigerians (welcome) \u2013 plus reserved places in the \u201cfor whom it may concern<\/em>\u201d category. Those granted lifetime immunity from Trump\u2019s 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 <\/em>head-chopper now called Ahmed al-Sharaa. . .<\/sup>This too is Fascism in action. The only thing he respects is power – including somebody else\u2019s ruthless use of it, e.g. Xi\u2019s 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\u2019s bullying by other leaders has led only to more abuse. And, hence, his contempt for the Democrats\u2019 feeble \u2018opposition.\u2019<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 attached).**<\/p>\n

CONCLUSION<\/strong><\/p>\n

These are the essential points:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. FASCISM is now in the USAn bloodstream \u2013 as idea, as sentiment, as movement, as personified by officials at all spheres of government at all levels<\/strong><\/li>\n
  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<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Full-blown Fascism, were we to reach that terminal point, would not crystallize suddenly \u2013 as it did in Germany between 1932 and 1933. It takes shape by fits-and-starts rather than conforming to a plan<\/strong><\/li>\n
  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<\/em> (circa 2015) in not in the cards or in the realm of the practically possible<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. The Supreme Court\u2019s 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<\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. We have revealed disturbing things about ourselves, our nation and humans\u2019 social nature \u2013 it is not obvious that we are learning the lessons that they teach<\/strong><\/li>\n
  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<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As the Grand Inquisitor pithily put it:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \u201cMan is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find quickly someone to whom he can hand over the gift of freedom<\/em>.\u201d In today\u2019s USA, there are many who can be so described.\u00a0\u00a0In exchange, they get what they crave – be it the vicarious thrill of \u00a0watching a tough guy mete out punishment to their personal b\u00eates noires<\/em> who harrow them, the pounding of patriotic drums, their insignia of superior rank assigned as members of a movement doing\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0That such a one is Donald Trump marks the uniqueness of 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century USA.\u00a0\u00a0The miracle is that the United States endures such self-mockery \u2013 so far.<\/p>\n

    Final Word<\/em><\/strong>:<\/p>\n

    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 \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

    Future historians will marvel that our perhaps final act resembles a Ruritanian farce.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    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!) <\/em>This fateful encounter of a degenerated polity and a psychopathic Fascist was not preordained. Otherwise, the system might just have staggered on or, <\/em>less likely, <\/em>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.<\/p>\n

    Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    *The Trump people are dedicated to tearing down many of US society\u2019s 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 \u2013 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.<\/em><\/p>\n

    **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.\u00a0It 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 \u2013 outstanding among them being Elon \u201cChainsaw\u201d 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.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Instead of ideology or doctrine we have a perverted North Americanism.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    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\u2019s enduring meaning. When one element is felt to be jeopardy, the integrity of the whole edifice becomes vulnerable.<\/em><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/em>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\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

    In the past, US mythology energized the country in ways that helped it to thrive.\u00a0\u00a0Today, it is a dangerous hallucinogen that traps North Americans in a time warp more and more distant from reality.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    ________________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>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<\/strong><\/a> – <\/strong>More<\/a>\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    10 Nov 2025 – Is the USA choosing Fascism? That is the question that will occupy historians \u2013 probably Asian \u2013 in the second half of the 21st Century. There are indications suggesting that the answer is \u2018Yes\u2019 \u2013 or, we are in the process of doing so. Let\u2019s examine them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":125356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[867,542,1126,260,1050,3324,249,70],"class_list":["post-307319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","tag-anglo-america","tag-fascism","tag-hegemony","tag-history","tag-imperialism","tag-north-america","tag-trump","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307322,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307319\/revisions\/307322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}