A year ago, Rauch said Trump is not a Fascist, he’s a patrimonialist. Patrimonialist governments don’t follow the rule of law and bend the rules to enrich and empower the leader. They are not ideological. Later, Rauch concluded that Trump was doing too many things associated with Fascism, so decided he is best labeled as a Fascist.
He doesn’t think Fascists will fully take over the US like they did in Germany, so that should limit the extremes, but nevertheless, the actions of the administration fit Fascism. The government isn’t fully Fascist yet, but it has a Fascist leader.
There’s no one true definition of Fascism.
Trump’s demolition of norms about civility is a classic Fascist action.
Trump glorifies violence in his rhetoric. When agents of the state hurt or kill US citizens, he and his supporters make fun of the injured and killed, and lie about them and what happened. His communications revel in the extrajudicial killings of suspected drug smugglers.
Rauch discusses 16 more Fascist actions in his article.
Nostalgia is manufactured as easily as plastic trinkets, and it distracts adults who should know better. The 1950s, mythologized by the New Right in its push for a more traditional social and economic order, were not an idyll.
Instead it was an era of shorter life expectancy, of higher poverty by today’s standards, of legal and de facto discrimination, of limited economic opportunity for women and minorities, of gay Americans often being persecuted, and of far fewer consumer goods, technologies, and comforts. Implying that it was a golden age overlooks economic facts and the individuals whose rights and opportunities were sharply constrained.
The left’s narrative—that America remains fundamentally unjust and economically stacked against working families—is equally disconnected from empirical reality. As Michael Strain and Clifford Asness recently detailed in The Free Press, we live in the wealthiest mass-affluent society in human history. Typical workers’ real wages are dramatically higher than they were two generations ago. Post-tax incomes for the bottom fifth of the scale have more than doubled since 1990. Wealth for the poorest quarter of U.S. households has tripled. Consumption, the best measure of a lived-in well-being, is hitting record highs.
These data do not deny that some people struggle, but they show that the dominant narrative of national economic decline is false.”
Americans when making a mistake, used to have their hearts in the right place but were just screwing it up. With Trump, the heart isn’t in the right place. Trump has destroyed conservatism and Christianity. Christianity was about helping the meek, not power and vengeance. Schools and society have become too focused on self-actualization rather than becoming better and more capable people; too focused on specific career skills rather than improving character.
“Americans produce a lot and consume a lot. We have among the highest average incomes and we buy a lot of stuff. We derive pleasure from acquiring and using material things, whether they’re toys, clothes, video games, or cars. If 37 dolls make you happy, and you have the means, then go out and buy 37 dolls. It is not a question of whether we need them or not.
Trump’s comments are an explicit rejection of materialism, abundance, and capitalism itself. I much prefer the Trump who was obsessively tweeting about stocks going up in his first term. Not only is Trump not tweeting about stocks, but he seems entirely indifferent to the prospect of a recession.
In other comments, Trump has said that prosperity can be achieved through tariffs—which is obviously untrue—so it seems likely that he’s willing to trade off some short-term economic pain for potential long-term gain. But as any student of economics will tell you, the tariffs are all pain, and even if the president doesn’t expect a recession, we are probably going to get one.”
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“There doesn’t seem to be as much visceral outrage at Trump’s assertion that American girls can make do with less. Yet, if there is a greater good here, Trump has been unable to articulate it. If the tariffs are in place simply because Trump romanticizes the late 1800s and thinks we can finance government spending with tariff revenue, then we are doomed.
This rhetoric from Trump has a great deal in common with Bernie Sanders’ anti-capitalist worldview. Between the tariffs, the increasingly progressive income taxes, the incompetent attempt to cut government spending, and the explicit anti-materialism, Trump is off to a bad start with capitalists.
In the past, those with a desire for free-ish markets would generally vote Republican. At least in the past, the Republicans were pro-growth. What does it mean when both major political parties are anti-growth and anti-materialism? What does it mean when the political apparatus of a country is wholly aligned for it to fail?”