Political Violence Makes The Task Of Stopping Trump And Fascism Much Harder

Philosophy professor and fascism expert Jason Stanley responds to the assassination attempt on the former president, in an exclusive essay for Zeteo

(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

With his spectacular political instincts, directly after the assassination attempt on his life, Donald Trump told the Secret Service agents surrounding him, “wait, wait”, and raised his fist to the crowd, creating one of the more powerful visual effects of recent times. Right before being swept off stage, he mouthed the words, a message to his supporters, “fight fight.”

Fascism is a cult of the leader, who promises national restoration in the face of the supposed threat to the nation of humiliation and destruction by liberals, feminists, LGBT, and immigrants. Treating democracy and its institutions – the press, schools, and the courts - as decadent, weak, and controlled by Marxists, a fascist leader promises to replace them with loyalists to him and his party (a process the Nazis termed “Gleichschaltung”). Despite creating disorder and being themselves utterly lawless, the fascist leader promises to crack down on crime (whether the crime wave is real or imaginary). In the vital framework of Ruth Ben-Ghiat, fascists leaders are typically “strongmen”, whose appeal depends on the desire of the public for a macho leader, who protects the nation’s families from these illusory threats.  Since the inception of the theoretical literature on fascism, theorists have connected this politics to the appeal of the ideology of patriarchy. It is exactly what we are witnessing today.

The world has recently seen the situation America faces before, and it should serve as a warning. One month before Brazil’s 2018 presidential election, Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right candidate for the election, was stabbed at a campaign rally. Like Trump, Bolsonaro’s candidacy was based on a politics of strutting masculinity, taking as its targets LGBT and crime, promising to place weapons in the hands in the hands of many more Brazilians. The stabbing increased Bolsonaro’s popularity, and made explicit criticism of him difficult for some time. The U.S. election is further away, but we can expect the dynamics to be similar.

Brazilian then presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro gestures after being stabbed in the stomach, on September 6, 2018. (Photo by RAYSA LEITE / AFP PHOTO).

As always, the rules are different for Democrats than they are for Republicans. Republicans have directed incendiary rhetoric at former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for years. When Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi’s 82-year-old husband, was beaten on the head with a hammer by a far-right extremist, it was a source of amusement and fun for some Republicans, including Trump himself. The rules may be different for Democrats and Republicans, but those are the ones by which this game must be played. If Trump is to be defeated, it can only be by honestly adhering to norms and principles that Trump has long since torn down. The Democrats must make the case to voters that the election is a choice between these norms, and permanent rule by an explicitly fascist political party.

A fascist party can only come to power when it attracts multiple constituencies, whose members do not think of themselves as fascists. The fascist leader represents the compromises necessarily involved in democratic politics as unmanly. But fascism needs to appeal to a broader ideology than the mere destruction of democracy. Patriarchy is just such an ideology. By doubling down on traditional gender roles, by the restriction of women’s rights, and by villainizing LGBT, a fascist party attracts religious conservatives. The strutting masculinity of the fascist leader appeals to powerful business elites, who tend to view the world in terms of “winners” and “losers”, and often view their own success as a product of their masculinity (it doesn’t hurt if the leader also vows to promote their interests). Survival in a violent struggle for power is the ultimate badge of honor in the fascist worldview. Violence leans into and supports it.

Some Republican lawmakers, as well as many rank and file Republicans, have placed the blame for the assassination attempt on Democratic Party rhetoric, such as labeling Republicans as a fascist party. However, the Republican Party today is a fascist party, thoroughly defined by loyalty to Trump, and increasingly explicitly hostile to democracy. Their rhetoric, from Donald Trump downwards, has been explicitly violent. They are backed by a far-right Supreme Court, which shares with the Republican party the desire for an American dictator. Four of the six members of the pro-Republican majority on the Supreme Court were appointed by Presidents who lost the majority vote.

American democracy has always been partial, always an experiment in progress. But right now, the United States is on the precipice of joining the many countries that are ruled by dictators with complete control over school and universities, the press, and the courts, using them to favor their friends and punish their enemies. Trump has already been fully explicit about his intention to use the courts to target his political opponents. If elected, Trump will remain in office until he dies (his supporters are already essentially calling for this outcome). After this, the country will endure the typical anarchy that follows a dictator’s death, as various factions fight over inheriting the dictator’s power. This is not a fanciful possibility; it is rather a boringly normal political situation in the world today (Putin’s Russia is only a paradigm example).

The nation’s media has been busy normalizing fascism, speaking of a second four year term as if Trump eventually stepping down is not just a possibility, but a certainty. The Democrats must make the case, against a Supreme Court committed to the election of Donald Trump, and a press largely already aligning itself to serve, that the allure of dictatorship should be resisted. Violence only makes this task more difficult.

Jason Stanley is Professor of Philosophy at Yale and author of the forthcoming book “Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future”