The left enjoys throwing the terms “Nazi” and “Fascist” at President Trump, based mainly upon his meteoric rise to power, his slogan of “Make America Great Again,” his ability to assemble vast crowds of enthusiastic supporters, and the nationalistic fervor that their chants of “USA, USA” evoke. But such a comparison considers only the surface similarities to fascism and suggest an incomplete understanding of what fascism really is.
First of all, millions of Americans find themselves considerably worse off after eight years of a Democratic president. The economy, while slowly improving, has left countless families with fewer dollars in their wallets and fewer family members employed in jobs that are commensurate to their qualifications. On the international scene, they watched President Obama tour the world apologizing for the arrogance of America, the country without whom WWI and WWII would never have been won by the allies, and without whose support countless countries around the world would falter economically and politically. They watched as Obama withdrew defense missiles from our Eastern European allies in order to appease Russia, made a questionable deal with Iran that gave billions of dollars to this sponsor of global terrorism, and repeatedly spurned our closest ally in the Middle East, Israel. They watched hate speech become the new norm, especially from the mouths of celebrities and many Democrats. They saw the gap between the poor and the wealthy increase, and watched violence in our streets as police were ordered to do nothing while primarily black mobs burned and looted. They watched as terrorist attacks were called “work place violence” by our president who refused to use the words “radical Islamic terrorists” lest he offend the Muslims around the world. The watched as policemen were assassinated in cities around the country. They watched and they feared. And they longed to make America great again, at home and abroad.
Nationalism– the love of country, the belief in the innate goodness of one’s country—was present in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. But it is also present in Switzerland, the truest democracy in the world, where homes regularly fly their country’s flag. And it has always, until recently, been present in the United States. Nationalism is not Fascism.
Benito Mussolini, the leader of Fascist Italy, described Fascism as being “everything in the State” and “Nothing against the State.” The State was the supreme authority. Personal freedom was greatly limited and any personal freedoms were determined and granted by the state. No opposition to the state was ever allowed. All opposing voices were silenced by whatever means necessary. News media was either State owned and operated or, if not run by the State, were allowed to operate because they were sympathetic to the government and voiced only government approved messages.
Individuals who opposed the government were first belittled, shamed, and called names. And if that didn’t silence them, they were silenced by force. Robert Paxton, an expert on Fascism, explains that “World War I, the perceived national decline, they blamed on individualism and their solution was to subject the individual to the interest of the community.” He goes on to argue that Republicans and President Trump celebrate individualism and are working to reduce government interference in individual businesses—the exact opposite of what a Fascist regime would do.
And one could hardly argue that the current news organizations are controlled by the government considering the plethora of anti-Trump reports that appear daily in the news. Many of the major television news organizations have produced as much as 90% of their reports unfavorable to the current government. Under Fascism, that would never be tolerated. But that is not to say that there haven’t been echoes of Fascism in America in the past few years.
The Obama administration did in fact attempt to silence the lone television news organization which reported anti-government news—Fox News. When many Americans didn’t respond favorably to the President’s agendas, ousting Democrats in Congress and replacing them with Republicans, he said it was because they listened to much to Fox News. In 2009, Deputy press secretary Josh Earnest wrote Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Treasury, Jenni LeCompte: “We’ve demonstrated our willingness and ability to exclude Fox News from significant interviews. . . .” But the White House was forced to relent and include Fox News in a conference with the executive-pay czar Kenneth R. Feinberg when the other news organizations, alarmed by this obvious attempt to silence unfavorable press, refused to attend unless Fox was included. (Judicial Watch)
The voices of those opposed to President Trump and his agenda ring loudly and clearly day after day. But under President Obama, things were not so easy. In 2010 the IRS set up a “Determinations Unit” to examine organizations which were applying for tax-exempt status. Over 400 of these organizations, mostly conservative, were delayed from tax-exempt status for years, effectively preventing them from participating in the 2012 presidential election. The criteria used to delay these organizations from prompt approval included any that:
referenced words such as “Tea Party“, “Patriots”, or “9/12 Project“, “progressive,” “occupy,” “Israel,” “open source software,” “medical marijuana” and “occupied territory advocacy” in the case file;
outlined issues in the application that included government spending, government debt, or taxes;
involved advocating or lobbying to “make America a better place to live”;
had statements in the case file that criticized how the country is being run;
advocated education about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights;
were focused on challenging the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—known by many as Obamacare;
questioned the integrity of federal elections.(Wikipedia)
In other words, any organization which disagreed in any way with the Obama government. That, in a word, is fascism.
Individuals who disagreed with the way the Obama administration ran the country were also marginalized and often labeled as “racist.” Look at the following comments:
“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American.” – Jimmy Carter. (Mr. Carter, what about all the new federal regulations, Obamacare, the struggling economy, the IRS scandal?)
“Look at, look, the Tea Partiers, who are controlling the Republican Party . . . . Their stated policy, publicly stated, is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term. What’s, what does that, what underlines that? (Hmm. Isn’t that always the stated goal of the opposing political party????) ‘Screw the country. We’re going to [do] whatever we [can] do to get this black man, we can, we’re going to do whatever we can to get this black man
outta here.’ It is a racist thing.” – Morgan Freeman
“Do you remember tea baggers? It was just so much easier when we could just call them racists. I just don’t know why we can’t call them racists, or functionally retarded adults. The functionally retarded adults, the racists—with their cries of, ‘I want my country back.’ You know what they’re really saying is, “I want my white guy back.’”– Janeane Garofalo
“Spotlighting his [Obama’s] elite education is tantamount to racial bigotry because it insinuates that ‘he took the place of someone else through affirmative action, that someone else being someone white.’” — Jonathan Capehart
“You notice [Romney] said anger twice. He’s really trying to use racial coding and access some really deep stereotypes about the angry black man. This is part of the playbook against Obama, the ‘otherization,’ he’s not like us. I know it’s a heavy thing, I don’t say it lightly, but this is n*ggerization.’” – Touré
“The language of GOP racial politics is heavy on euphemisms that allow the speaker to deny any responsibility for the racial content of his message. . . references to a lack of respect for the ‘Founding Fathers’ and the Constitution . . . demonizing anyone supposedly threatening core ‘old-fashioned American values.’” — Juan Williams
“They are happy to have a party with back people drowning.” — Yahoo News Washington bureau chief David Chalian speaking about the Republican National Convention which was going on during Hurricane Isaac.
“Republicans are using [the IRS scandal] as their latest weapon in the war against the black man. ‘IRS’ is the new “N***er.’” — Martin Bashir
Then and still today, conservative voices are being silenced on college campuses. Mobs of demonstrators, often violent, prevent or attempt to prevent conservative speakers from appearing before college groups. At Middlebury College, professor Allison Stanger was physically attacked by masked protestors as she attempted to escort a controversial speaker to his car. She was treated at a local hospital and then released. This stifling of free speech comes regularly and only from the left and is vocally supported by Democratic leaders. This is true Fascism.
Throughout history authoritarian groups have controlled the minds of the people by accusing those who dare to oppose them of the very crimes they themselves are committing. It is the left who controls the media and belittles anyone who disagrees with their message. It is the left who uses violence to prevent free speech. It is the left who attempt to silence the voices of their critics through intimidation and ridicule. The only Fascism in America today comes from the left, my friends, not from conservatives.