Trumpism Is Closer to Nazism Than Fascism
Is Trump a fascist? This question has been repeatedly asked, and largely left without a definitive answer, since Trump first came to power in 2016. There are many reasons why one can think of Trump as fascist – his pandering to the lowest instincts of the crowds, his authoritarianism, his disregard for democratic norms – just as there are many why one should not – chiefly among them the fact that, having been in power for almost six years now across two terms, he has not dismantled democracy in the meaningful sense of the word. To this day, those calling him fascist seem to use the word more in its colloquial, loose meaning, denoting his brutishness, hatefulness and disregard for the truth, rather than measuring him against an objective yardstick of fascism. Fascism is an elusive term even if, or perhaps precisely because, it was historically a time and place-bound phenomenon: the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini in Italy between 1922-43 (with Mussolini ruling in a rump statelet p...