{"id":8126,"date":"2022-06-16T16:35:56","date_gmt":"2022-06-16T16:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=8126"},"modified":"2022-06-16T16:35:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T16:35:56","slug":"the-january-6-hearings-showed-why-its-reasonable-to-call-trump-a-fascist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=8126","title":{"rendered":"The January 6 hearings showed why it\u2019s reasonable to call Trump a fascist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“Amid the many extraordinary revelations<\/a> at the January 6 committee\u2019s first primetime hearing Thursday, one stood out for its sheer depravity: that during the assault, when rioters chanted \u201chang Mike Pence\u201d in the halls of the Capitol, President Donald Trump suggested that the mob really ought to execute his vice president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe our supporters have the right idea,\u201d he said, per a committee source. \u201c[Mike Pence] deserves it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Endorsing violence is hardly new for Trump; it\u2019s something he\u2019s done repeatedly<\/a>, often in an allegedly joking tone. But the reported comment from January 6 is qualitatively worse given the context: coming both amid an actual violent attack he helped stoke and one he did little to halt. The committee found that the president took no steps to defend the Capitol building, failing to call in the National Guard, or even speak to his secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he was de facto permitting the mob\u2019s rampage, he was privately cheering the most violent stated objective of people he acknowledged as \u201cour supporters.\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“when a leader whips up a mob to attack democracy with the goal of maintaining his grip on power in defiance of democratic order, then privately refuses to stop them while endorsing the murderous aims of people he claims as his own supporters, it\u2019s hard to see him as anything but a leader of a violent anti-democratic movement with important parallels to interwar fascism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This doesn\u2019t prove that fascism is, in all respects, a perfect analogy for the Trump presidency. Yet when it comes to analyzing January 6, both Trump\u2019s behavior and the broader GOP response to the event, [the] hearing proved that the analogy can be not only apt but illuminating.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Events like the 1922 March on Rome<\/a> or 1923 Beer Hall Putsch<\/a> help us understand the way in which attempts to forcefully seize power \u2014 even failed ones like the Putsch \u2014 can play a role in the rise of radical far-right movements. They help us understand the clarifying and organizing power of violence, the way in which banding together to hurt others can help solidify dangerous political tendencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it helps us understand the potential for violence to recur, especially given the mainstream Republican Party\u2019s continued whitewashing of January 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the defining elements of the interwar fascist ascendancy is the complicity of conservative elites \u2014 their belief that they could manipulate fascist movements for their own ends, empowering these movements while remaining in the driver\u2019s seat. This is precisely how the mainstream Republican Party has approached Trump, even after a violent attempt to seize power exposed just how far he\u2019s willing to go to hold power.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/policy-and-politics\/2022\/6\/10\/23162442\/january-6-committee-hearing-june-10-trump-fascist<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Amid the many extraordinary revelations at the January 6 committee\u2019s first primetime hearing Thursday, one stood out for its sheer depravity: that during the assault, when rioters chanted \u201chang Mike Pence\u201d in the halls of the Capitol, President Donald Trump suggested that the mob really ought to execute his vice president.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe our supporters have the right idea,\u201d he said, per a committee source. \u201c[Mike Pence] deserves it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Endorsing violence is hardly new for Trump; it\u2019s something he\u2019s done repeatedly, often in an allegedly joking tone. But the reported comment from January 6 is qualitatively worse given the context: coming both amid an actual violent attack he helped stoke and one he did little to halt. The committee found that the president took no steps to defend the Capitol building, failing to call in the National Guard, or even speak to his secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security.<\/p>\n

While he was de facto permitting the mob\u2019s rampage, he was privately cheering the most violent stated objective of people he acknowledged as \u201cour supporters.\u201d”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“when a leader whips up a mob to attack democracy with the goal of maintaining his grip on power in defiance of democratic order, then privately refuses to stop them while endorsing the murderous aims of people he claims as his own supporters, it\u2019s hard to see him as anything but a leader of a violent anti-democratic movement with important parallels to interwar fascism.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t prove that fascism is, in all respects, a perfect analogy for the Trump presidency. Yet when it comes to analyzing January 6, both Trump\u2019s behavior and the broader GOP response to the event, [the] hearing proved that the analogy can be not only apt but illuminating.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Events like the 1922 March on Rome or 1923 Beer Hall Putsch help us understand the way in which attempts to forcefully seize power \u2014 even failed ones like the Putsch \u2014 can play a role in the rise of radical far-right movements. They help us understand the clarifying and organizing power of violence, the way in which banding together to hurt others can help solidify dangerous political tendencies.<\/p>\n

And it helps us understand the potential for violence to recur, especially given the mainstream Republican Party\u2019s continued whitewashing of January 6.<\/p>\n

One of the defining elements of the interwar fascist ascendancy is the complicity of conservative elites \u2014 their belief that they could manipulate fascist movements for their own ends, empowering these movements while remaining in the driver\u2019s seat. This is precisely how the mainstream Republican Party has approached Trump, even after a violent attempt to seize power exposed just how far he\u2019s willing to go to hold power.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[336,1143,1138,221,1650,347,1135,1134,170,847],"class_list":["post-8126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-attack","tag-capitol","tag-capitol-building","tag-donald-trump","tag-fascism","tag-hearings","tag-insurrection","tag-riot","tag-trump","tag-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8127,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8126\/revisions\/8127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}