There is a message prevailing across the internet right now that right-wing leaders are on their way to adapting fascism outright. Is that an exaggeration?
Well before answering one way or another to support your political views, let’s take a genuine look at the question together. If you absolutely confident in your answer already, then this article shouldn’t be problematic to read, right?
What Actually is Fascism?
Fascism and any other nazi-like identifier is typically a quick below-the-belt internet insult. It’s thrown around so casually that in some contexts it has lost its meaning or sincerity.
The truth is that fascism itself is actually really difficult to define. Each fascist regime that has popped up in history always has its own unique flavor. Many people that study the topic struggle to fit it into a “one-size-fits-all” box. An excerpt from the “Fascism” entry of Wikipedia has this interesting blurb.
What constitutes a definition of fascism and fascist governments has been a complicated and highly disputed subject concerning the exact nature of fascism and its core tenets debated amongst historians, political scientists, and other scholars since Benito Mussolini first used the term in 1915. Historian Ian Kershaw once wrote that “trying to define ‘fascism’ is like trying to nail jelly to the wall”. (Source)
Rather than trying to define this “one-size-fits-all” box, let’s instead look at the political landscapes where fascist regimes pop up.
USA vs. Global Political Landscapes
In the USA, our political landscape lies on one axis. Left vs Right. Liberal vs. Conservative. All synonyms for the same phenomenon. However, this single-axis political interpretation doesn’t really give the whole picture.
Instead, I encourage you to take a look at the political compass, developed by a non-profit doing some fascinating work. They have done an excellent job at modeling politics over two axes:
- Left vs. Right (in terms of economic policy, let’s call it the economic axis)
- Authoritarian vs. Libertarian (in terms of how much “say” should the government have in your life, let’s call it the social axis)
Think of the economic axis as Communism vs. Capitalism, which I think could be stand-ins for the Left and Right monikers. The whole axis represents a spectrum of how much the government should regulate the market and all things related to economics.
The vertical axis is focused more on social issues and the rights of citizens. Libertarians, in the true sense of the word and not where the American Libertarian party stands, thinks the government shouldn’t control what you directly at all in any way. Authoritarians however believe that rules should be in place to decide “what is right” for every citizen within the country.
Here is an example of the political compass at work. The political compass map below shows the standings of multiple 2020 presidential candidates during the primaries. In other words, here is how our “single-axis” of the USA political landscape maps to the global landscape.
Notice that the spread of dots isn’t along one singular axis, instead the spread appears to fit to a diagonal line. A linear line of best-fit to all these dots instead indicates an interesting relationship. In probability and statistics, this would hint at a strong correlation between the following in USA politics:
- The more an individual favors authoritarian government, the more likely they also support far-right leaning economic policy.
- The more an individual favors libertarian-like government, the more likely they will also support far-left leaning economic policy.
The beauty of the political compass map is that it spans the entire map of political ideologies, not just the political bounds we are accustomed to in the USA. But here is the really irony regarding the USA; almost every candidate is still in the top-right section! Isn’t it strange that we argue about how is on the left vs. the right? From the global perspective, our nation’s politics are nearly contained by only one quadrant.
The main spread between the democrat and republican candidates is not in their differences regarding economic policy, instead its on the Authoritarian vs. Libertarian axis. This is apparent in the USA today in 2022 as most of the hot-button issues are social issues, not economic.
How do these candidates stand in relation of other global governments and regimes around the world?
I wish the graphic above displayed more governments than the six above, however it does a good job of pointing out some common extremes. I find the China’s position the most interesting, as you would expect it to be in the left-top corner just like North Korea.
I think we can all universally agree that any government on any kind landing on one or more extremes will be a bad government. It doesn’t matter which extreme it is.
- Any government on the libertarian extreme would be out-right anarchy. No one would want to live in the purge 24/7, citizen’s need their government to hold all citizenry accountable to some sort of standard, even if it’s just the basics. For example, murder and rape should be illegal, right? A pure libertarian would say no.
- Any government on the authoritarian extreme would be unjustly oppressing many of its citizens. The USA developed the Bill of Rights to defend against this exact thing, so no king in a kingdom could dictate every facet of a citizen’s life. That is one of the USA’s greatest sources of patriotism which set us apart from all other countries at that time, right?
- Any government on the economic left extreme is outright communism, we have plenty of historical examples of why that is an awful government stance. No government can fully control and dictate its market effectively, and when it does it tends to ruin the lives of its citizens.
- Any government on the economic right extreme is supporting completely unfettered capitalism. Look to the 1920’s and 1930’s of USA history for examples of why that’s a bad idea too. Businesses and corporations have no guarantee to have the citizen’s best interest at heart. If a factory upstream was polluting your only water source on your property, wouldn’t you want the government to step in?
Cool Map, but what does this have to do with Fascism?
Stated previously, defining fascism to build a one-size-fits-all box is like trying to nail jelly to the wall. It’s incredibly to difficult to define. Rather than defining a black-and-white definition, it’s a better idea to find political stances that are correlated with fascism.
Where does Nazi Germany land on this compass? Most users of the political compass speculate that Hitler himself would land somewhere between authoritarian-center and authoritarian-right. Makes sense right? Regardless, Hitler and his constituents are definitely on the authoritarian extreme of the political compass. Any government on any extreme isn’t a good government, and the Third Reich is no exception.
The Third Reich showed many traits of authoritarianism such as:
- They wanted to control every aspect of a Jewish citizen’s life. They forced that population to wear Star’s of David on their clothing, and limited their rights in almost every conceivable way.
- Every German citizen needed to join the Nazi party and align with their ideals and morals into to be a “first-class” citizen of the nation.
- Children were nearly forced to join “Hitler’s Youth” if they qualified, and they were filled with indoctrination as soon as possible to ensure they were full devoted to the Nazi political party.
These traits are independent of economic policy, and different fascist states such as Italy in the 1940’s were connected via the social axis placement, not the economic axis.
So where does the GOP fit in all of this?
Again, the Nazi party was in the extreme Authoritarianism end of the spectrum. When we refer back to the political compass mapping of US 2020 presidential candidates, which political party is closer to the authoritarian extreme? It’s the GOP.
This is why its absolute nonsense when a GOP politician calls a democratic politician on the left a Nazi, its completely backwards. A GOP politician calling a democratic politician a communism makes a little bit more sense, it’s in the right direction, but it still makes you scratch your head. The GOP is way closer to the economic right extreme than the democrats are to the economic left extreme.
But just because the GOP is closer to the authoritarian extreme doesn’t mean they are automatically fascists. There is no definite box we can draw inside the political compass map that says “yes” or “no” that someone is a fascist, but we can certainly draw correlations, connections, and trends.
It’s safe to say that the GOP is close to fascist-like extremes on the political compass. So over time, is the GOP moving towards or away from these political extremes? That is the question we should answer together.
So are Right-Wing Politicians moving towards Fascism?
So before we make a decision of “yes” or “no”, let’s take a look at some recent events in 2022 and ask ourselves that same question. There is a lot of temptation on both sides to answer that question now, but let’s keep our sincere effort to answer the question in full. After all, the answer is very important to the health of the USA as a country. Every American wants a healthy country, right?
Example 1: The Increase in Right-Wing Extremism/Terrorism
The increase of right-wing extremism entering main-stream media is certainly present, there is no denying that. News stories covering the presence of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Patriot Front are becoming more and more frequent. The threat of these groups attracting military members became so significant that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin declared mandatory training on political extremism and domestic terrorism. I remember having to personally sit through one of the trainings myself and answer questions about the topics.
But extremists don’t represent the whole of a political party. That’s not fair to any political party to let a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch, right?
Well, it might if republican officials are in direct contact with them. One political advisor to Trump, Roger Stone, was in direct with these extremist groups in a secret and encrypted groupchat. This isn’t “fake news”, this is widely reported across many news outlets and that evidence has been collected by the Jan 6th Committee.
In light of all of those recent events, doesn’t it make this clip of Trump’s “famous-for-the-wrong-reasons” clip of asking white-supremacists and other right-wing militia-like groups to “stand back and stand by” kind of unsettling?
The hesitation and playing dumb Trump displayed when asked to condemn white-supremacist organizations is super concerning, there is no way around that.
You have to stop and ask yourself, why is the GOP looking to garner the support of these out-spoken extremists? These extremists don’t hide their wish to oppress citizens with opposing viewpoints and take any sort of power away from them. That’s the authoritarian extreme right out in the open.
The GOP isn’t making any attempt to distance themselves from these extremists, instead they quietly accept their support and hope no one notices.
Votes for “Yes, the GOP is moving towards Fascism”: 1
Votes for “No, the GOP isn’t moving towards Fascism”: 0
Example 2: The Broad Acceptance of Racism on Public Display
It’s no secret the Nazi Germany was incredibly racist towards Jewish people, but is racism an outright sign of fascism? Again, defining fascism is like trying to nail jello to the wall, and giving a black-and-white stance if racism is a defining characteristic of fascism is fruitless. But no one can deny that they are strongly correlated.
Racists have been all too comfortable with giving their awful views out in public as of late. Typically, racists typically get tips from Tucker Carlson on how to politely and discreetly veil their racism. But as Tucker Carlson gains more and more popularity, the more obvious his target audience becomes. Even though Fox’s own lawyers stated that nothing Tucker says should ever be taken seriously, that doesn’t stop him from making comments that cover up the danger of growing white supremacy organizations in America.
One blunt example of racism on public display in the GOP is the recent gaffe made by Rep. Mary Miller at a Trump rally in June of 2022. She made a head-turning comment following the overturn of Roe vs. Wade, stating that it was “a great victory for white life”. I really want to tell myself that she just misspoke, and its nothing more than that. But:
- She didn’t correct herself after that serious gaffe
- Trump didn’t do anything to correct or even acknowledge the alleged gaffe
- The crowd reacted with applause to the clear audio that came over the speaker
I think the way that event played out was very telling of the MAGA base. I want to believe it was just a slip-up as badly as any other republican out there, but I just can’t convince it wasn’t a Freudian slip of her true beliefs.
Votes for “Yes, the GOP is moving towards Fascism”: 2
Votes for “No, the GOP isn’t moving towards Fascism”: 0
Example 3: The GOP’s Sudden Obsession with Education
One new hot-button issue that the GOP is up-in-arms about is education. Specifically, the main issue is Critical Race Theory (CRT). Ironically, the majority of people know what the difference between previous history education and CRT even contains. In all honesty, I didn’t know for the longest time what CRT was all about until I looked it up. If all you know about CRT is whether or not you like it, and none of the actual contents, look to the Wikipedia article to read about its raw contents.
In short summary, CRT is about applying a “racial” lens to our nation’s history and government structure to how it negatively effects the disadvantaged. The term “critical” does not imply emergency, instead it implies that critical thinking is necessary to understand the topic. Now, I don’t claim to be an expert on what is contained inside CRT, but that short executive summary doesn’t sound like evil to me. I’d counter and say that the “racial lens” should not be the sole lens we use to analyze history, but it would foolish to throw that lens away as race and other disadvantaged groups play a large role in our nation’s history.
Back to the main topic, the GOP obviously feels very threatened by the idea of CRT being taught in schools. Would the GOP be in a negative light if we viewed our nation’s history with that racial lens? I think we all know the answer to that question. So what is the GOP doing to combat the CRT boogeyman?
The answer is more authoritarianism. Red states governments are blocking any mention of CRT in their schools. In Florida, even math textbooks were scanned for any mention of anything resembling CRT. What does math have to do with CRT?
The GOP effort to control education goes beyond CRT. To rival “liberal indoctrination” to children, PragerU announced a kids section for content. After watching their ad for this program, I personally found this ad kind of disturbing.
From the beginning, PragerU states their mission since 2009 is to “combat the left-leaning educational system”. But almost every piece of content that comes out of PragerU is debunked or proven false. PragerU is simply a propaganda machine that hijacked the “patriotism” brand to steer American citizens to one political party.
You can’t kid yourself, setting up your child on any sort of politically-motivated “education” source regardless of the political party is pure indoctrination. That isn’t moral no matter what political party you belong to.
Regardless, the GOP’s effort to control education reminds me of the operations of the Hitler Youth. The idea that teaching anything that puts the GOP in a negative light is immediately declared false, wrong, and evil. But even as the same Rep. Mary Miller from example two puts it…
“Hitler was right on one thing: He said, ‘Whoever has the youth, has the future.”
Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois, Jan 5th 2021
Votes for “Yes, the GOP is moving towards Fascism”: 3
Votes for “No, the GOP isn’t moving towards Fascism”: 0
Conclusion
To answer the question, “is the GOP moving towards fascism?”, I have three votes that say yes. In full fairness, I didn’t spend anytime looking for votes that say no. I’m not a perfect human being, I have my biases too.
Now, three votes isn’t sufficient evidence to officially declare that the GOP is moving towards fascism, but I find these examples compelling. I only found three examples to keep this article short and readable, but there are more out there.
In a follow-on article, I’d like to explore the famous “warning signs of a fascist uprising”, as explained in this famous 2003 article by Laurence Britt. He studied multiple fascist regimes and their rise to power, and came up with the warning signs to indicate that fascism is on the way. I’d say that this is a better method of answering our original question than simple votes.
A Call to Contemplation for Conservatives
For those that still support the GOP, take a minute to put yourself in the following hypothetical scenario: If the GOP publicly declares itself as a fascist political party, would you leave the party?
You can scream fake news all you want and disagree with the interpretation of my examples, but I just want you to be truthful to yourself and ask yourself what you would do in that situation.
The thing is; I grew up surrounded by conservatives, which is why I like to pick on them a lot. But many of the conservatives I grew up with are good at heart, and are outstanding citizens. In my opinion however, I think their good nature is being hijacked by right-entities such as Fox News, sending their moral compass into an absolute tail-spin.
I wrote this article because I don’t want to see the same conservative men and women make the same mistake as the citizens of Germany right before the Nazi uprising. I want them to learn from history and change their course before its too late.
Akin to the analogy that a frog in a pot of boiling water would never notice if it started at room temperature, conservatives are in the pot and the water is just beginning to bubble. Will you notice before it’s too late?
Wrapping this Article Up
First, take the political compass test to find out where you stand, the answer might just shock you! When you take the test, resist any urge to answer such that you fit in with any political group. Just answer the questions with your own moral compass, and how you would run the country if you were the president.
Also, feel free to contribute to more votes by responding to the article! These can be votes for or against the question in the headline, I’m open to hearing all the sides. I am also always willing to change my opinion when new truthful information is presented. Just remember, the burden of proof is on the individual casting the vote, not the individual tallying them.
