There are two words beginning with the letter F that are used far too often. One of these F words is a monosyllabic Anglo-Saxon word that refers to sexual intercourse. I have heard people use this word as a noun, verb, adjective, and adverb, all in a single sentence. Soon, I expect to see it used as a pronoun. Perhaps people could use one of the many alternate words in the English language, just for variety.
The other overused F word is, of course, Fascism. According to leftist social media commentators, Fascism in the United States presents an existential threat to Our Democracy. Donald Trump is a Fascist. Trump’s MAGA supporters are Fascists. The Trump administration is a Fascist regime.
This anxiety about Fascism in the United States seems strange. There is no Fascist Party in the United States. There are no politicians who call themselves Fascists. Such Fascist groups that exist, like the Patriot Front, are probably either creations of federal law enforcement or so heavily infiltrated that they might as well be. At any rate, it is doubtful that any Fascist group has more than a handful of members. At most, there may be perhaps ten thousand open Fascists in the whole country.
It would seem that anxiety about Fascism is directed towards a largely imaginary threat. Today’s Fascists may not openly identify themselves. There may be many who secretly hold Fascist beliefs. The first step, then, is to define what Fascism is and what it is not. After that, we can assess whether Fascism poses a real and growing threat.
Fascism is notably difficult to define as a political ideology. Unlike Communists, fascists did not engage in the kind of ideological nitpicking that is common among Socialists. Fascism is not the product of centuries of intellectual development, as is Liberalism. Benito Mussolini, the founder of Fascism, stressed that Fascism was a doctrine of action over words. Fascism was pragmatic rather than dogmatic.
It might be more effective to define what Fascism isn’t, rather than what it is. To begin, despite what liberals believe, Fascism is not conservative. Conservatives want to preserve and maintain existing institutions. Fascism is a revolutionary doctrine. Fascists aim to fundamentally transform existing institutions. German conservatives wanted to bring back the Kaisar. Italian and German conservatives wanted to maintain or restore the privileged positions of the Church and aristocracy. Both Italy and Germany are countries composed of formerly independent regions with diverse dialects and cultures. Conservatives wanted to respect this regional diversity. Fascists endeavored to form a single united state, disregarding differences in class or region.
Franco of Spain was a Fascist dictator who wanted to preserve, or perhaps revive, the pre-Republican institutions of Spain. But Franco was never a doctrinaire Fascist. He was a conservative who was leading a military coup against the liberal government of Spain. He adopted Fascism as a political cover. He was closer to being an authoritarian strongman of the caudillo tradition than a totalitarian dictator.
Fascism is also not right-wing. On the standard political spectrum, Communism is usually placed on the extreme left, while Fascism is on the extreme right. This conception of the political spectrum comes from the National Assembly of Revolutionary France.
It should be evident that a system created in the late seventeenth century does not translate well to the present. Considering that both Communist and Fascist states are totalitarian countries with strict censorship, secret police, concentration camps, absolute dictators, and a regimented society, it makes no sense to place Communism and Fascism on opposite ends of any political spectrum. They should be next to each other.
Fascism has nothing to do with capitalism. Communists theorized that Fascism was the end stage of capitalism. Fascism was the capitalists’ last, desperate attempt to escape the class struggle and the revolution. But Fascists have almost the same contempt for the free market as any Socialists. Capitalists do well under Fascism. That is because Fascist governments have sought to co-opt the capitalists rather than dispossess or destroy them.
If Fascism is neither conservative nor right-wing, then what exactly is it? Fascism is a totalitarian ideology. Mussolini characterized Fascism as a system that grants total control to the state over the nation. As he famously stated, “Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”
Fascism was conceived as being fundamentally different from all former systems of government in that, unlike authoritarian states past and present, Fascism would leave no room for any private life. The Caesars, Pharaohs, and monarchs of old cared little what their subjects thought and did, so long as they obeyed the laws and paid their taxes. Fascism and Communism did care. No institutions not under state control could be permitted.
Fascism is a form of Socialism. This point is controversial. Most people regard Fascism as opposed to Socialism. After all, both Hitler and Mussolini persecuted members of the Socialist and Communist parties. This confusion arises because Socialism is often conflated with Marxism. Because Marxist thought has come to define Socialism, this is an easy mistake to make. Yet there have been many forms of Socialism. There are Christian Socialism, Utopian Socialism, Fabian Socialism, Marxism, National Socialism or Fascism, and others
The one thing all these factions have in common is that economic decisions are made through political means rather than through the free market. In most cases, the state owns a significant portion of the means of production, including large enterprises, factories, farms, and mines. In the most extreme case, Communism, the state owns everything. Under Fascism, private ownership is permitted, but only so long as the owner follows the directives of the totalitarian state.
Fascism is nationalist. This nationalism is more than mere patriotism. For the Fascist, the nation is more than a group of people who happen to live in the same place. The nation is seen as an organic unity. Fascism is opposed to Socialist notions of class struggle because the emphasis on class divides the nation. Liberal ideas of democracy, political parties, contested elections, and political debate divide the nation. Free market capitalism, with its competition, divides the nation. The ideal of Fascism is for everyone in the nation to be pulling in the same direction, under the leadership of an absolute ruler who embodies the national will in his person.
Now that we have determined what Fascism is and is not, we should ask whether there is any party, group, or individual that shares the characteristics associated with Fascism. The Democrats have increasingly embraced Socialism. But the Socialism they espouse is the classic Marxist, class-based ideology. The Democrats seem to be more intent on dividing Americans by class and race than in promoting the national unity beloved of Fascists. The MAGA movement takes pride in its patriotism, and conservatives have generally supported the military and law enforcement. While there is a superficial resemblance to Fascism here, simple patriotism is not the same as the obsessive nationalism of Fascism.
So far as I know, no one is proposing converting to a totalitarian state. Trump’s critics accuse him of authoritarianism, but he is far from being even a classic authoritarian strongman, let alone a totalitarian dictator. Since there is, in fact, no danger from Fascism, perhaps it is time we stopped using the F word, both of them.
David's Commonplace Book 