Trump's Fascist Fantasy

During his January 6 rally, prior to sending his red hatted MAGA mob to attack the United States Congress, Trump presented the insurrectionist mob with a well produced fascist video. A productions that included many of the familiar Nazi tropes - "the stab in the back," rampant anti-Semitism ("the International Jew) and, of course, the glorious, heroic leader.

On January 6, Trump supporters gathered at a rally at Washington DC’s Ellipse Park, regaled by various figures from Trump world, including Donald Trump Jr. and Rudy Giuliani. Directly following Giuliani’s speech, the organizers played a video. To a scholar of fascist propaganda, well-versed in the history of the National Socialist’s pioneering use of videos in political propaganda, it was clear, watching it, what dangers it portended. In it, we see themes and tactics that history warns pose a violent threat to liberal democracy. Given the aims of fascist propaganda – to incite and mobilize – the events that followed were predictable.

Change the words fascism and fascist with Trumpism and Trump and this indictment of Trump and his insurrection are shown in their true light - MAGA is a fascist cult of personality built around Trump. 

Fascism is a patriarchal cult of the leader, who promises national restoration in the face of supposed humiliation by a treacherous and power-hungry global elite, who have encouraged minorities to destabilize the social order as part of their plan to dominate the “true nation,” and fold them into a global world government. The fascist leader is the father of his nation, in a very real sense like the father in a traditional patriarchal family. He mobilizes the masses by reminding them of what they supposedly have lost, and who it is that is responsible for that loss – the figures who control democracy itself, the elite; Nazi ideology is a species of fascism in which this global elite are Jews.

I know it is hard to imagine Trump as the glorious leader of a great movement.  He is a lazy, cowardly bully, who exhorted the crowd by telling them he would "march with them" and then retreated to safety in the White House.  But, Hitler was an obscure Austrian, who prior to a stint in the German army in WW1, was a mostly homeless postcard illustrator.  So... there is no accounting for who will end up as the "glorious leader."