Jonathan P. Baird

Eleven years ago, when Donald Trump was first running for President, I wrote in the Concord Monitor about the question of whether he and his MAGA movement were fascist. At that time, I recognized that the word could just be considered a form of name-calling or insult. It has been loosely tossed around.

Recognizing the sloppy use of the word, I do think fascism is the right framework for understanding Trump and MAGA. As the writer John Ganz has said, fascism is a hypothesis. Fascism takes different forms in different nations but it is the best fit to describe what has happened in recent years in America.

Using the term doesn’t negate our hybrid situation where aspects of authoritarianism co-exist with aspects of democracy. Fascism has not been consolidated and it can still be opposed as evidenced by the massive No Kings demonstrations.

The word fascism has a European lineage but contrary to what Americans might think, it has an American variant. The scholar of fascism, Jason Stanley, has elaborated on America’s fascist origins. Unlike the European version of fascism with a tyrant-leader like Hitler or Mussolini, Stanley traces our leaderless fascism back to 19th century Jim Crow. For roughly 100 years in the American South, black Americans lived in a system where they were systematically abused and turned into second class citizens. Stanley cites W.E. B. DuBois, Langston Hughes and Toni Morrison as individuals who saw America as embodying a form of fascism.

What is critical in demarcating a fascist society is the creation of a division between an “us” and a “them”. The system of white supremacy (like the later Nazi system in Germany) effectuated such a distinction. After Reconstruction, Black people in the South were widely deprived of their right to vote. Slavery was replaced by a new system of absolute control enforced by lynching and mass violence. Law, particularly state laws in the South, reinforced white supremacy.

I thought of the “us” and “them” distinction with the birthright citizenship case, Trump v Barbara, currently before the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump through his Executive Order takes the position that babies born on American soil after February 19, 2025 would be denied citizenship at birth if neither parent is a U.S. citizen or has permanent immigration status.

It is hard to imagine anything that could do more to create a permanent underclass. Those babies would become stateless individuals outside constitutional protection. They would join other black and brown people relegated to an inferior status in America. A central MAGA mission has been turning back the clock on race to a time before the civil rights era.

Fascism thrives on racial distinctions. It is a devolution from liberal democracy where equality before the law, even if not practiced, was touted. The Nazis studied Jim Crow laws and admired the system Americans had set up in the South. Nazi authors saw clear parallels between the American “Negro problem” and their own “Jewish problem”. The Nazis lionized white supremacy and they seized upon American race-based immigration and citizenship laws. America was seen as the leader in race law-making. This background is thoroughly explored in James Whitman’s book, Hitler’s American Model.

Trump’s recent comments about Somalis were brutally racist, calling people “garbage” and claiming they “contribute nothing”. They follow his comments about “shithole countries”. He has repeatedly suggested the United States should seek more immigrants from Norway, Scandinavia or whites from South Africa. No one has more clearly articulated a white supremacist vision.

Another part of fascism is the creation of a mythic past (Make America Great Again). Things that MAGA doesn’t like are unconsidered unpatriotic, like Black history. I see the effort to ban critical race theory and to censor museums as part of the fascist re-write of our history. Honesty about racism is a no-no.

Anyone concerned about free speech should be opposing efforts to ban the teaching of critical race theory. MAGA is trying to reverse history and say, without evidence, that white men are victims of discrimination. Critical race theory is about understanding our legacy of institutional racism. MAGA and the Far Right are trying to dictate what we can remember. As Kimberly Crenshaw has said, “Critical thinking is kryptonite to fascism”.

Still, I would not see fascism as primarily a cultural struggle for power. And it is not simply ultranationalism or worship of a charismatic leader. What we are seeing in America is the Executive Branch taking power away from the other branches of government. There is an attempt by Trump to hoard excessive power. At the same time we are seeing the tech broligarchy accumulate unlimited privileges and wealth while rights are taken away from working people.

Fascism wants to replace democracy and pluralism with a monistic, total, authoritarian government organization that enables a massive crime spree by the super-rich. Trump is always talking about law and order but police action is only meant to be enforced against poor people. Law and order talk is a cover for his extensive efforts to loot government resources for his own benefit.

Project 2025 has been our Mein Kampf equivalent. If we are able to salvage democracy it will take years to recover from this entirely retrograde agenda. The damage done already has been enormous.

Historically, fascist dictators have wielded state power to create an economy that benefits the economically top 1% while crushing labor and the racial “other’. It is an elite-driven campaign to seize power. As is evident though, the people of the Unites States are engaged in a massive campaign to prevent the consolidation of fascist power.

I think the No Kings movement has been fabulous and I have no criticisms of it but I would make one suggestion. The problem we face is not so much a king as a fascist system. Even if Trump resigned tomorrow, we would face the same system. Maintaining and making real democracy requires systemic transformation. not simply removal of a king.