Are Democrats or Republicans Fascists? Yes!
Both major parties in the United States are leaning into authoritarian maneuvers. We'll dissect the key pillars of fascism and see how far down the rabbit hole they've fallen.
As we move into 2024, I thought it best to tackle something contentious. I’m not satisfied with how many enemies I made in 2023, so lets add some more.
Before we begin a dissection of fascism, let me be up front: While both parties in the United States, Democrats and Republicans, are becoming more fascistic, the Republicans are closer towards full-blown totalitarianism.
Obligatory preface aside, time to delve into the media’s new favorite word.
Now, let’s start with definitions, something I feel is missing in too many mainstream articles. Fascism, as defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary:
a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control
When you refer to governments as fascist, the first definition applies, but when you are insulting someone, the second is apt. This is why you see an increase in usage of the word “fascist” in modern discourse (definition two).
All fascist states are totalitarian (a state run dictatorship), but not all totalitarian states are fascist. Both ideologies are authoritarian.
So now you are probably thinking, “No way the United States is a fascist country, we have democratically elected leaders.” I couldn’t fault you for that position, naïve as it might be. But, as Princeton discovered in 2014, the U.S. is no longer a democracy but an oligarchy:
“They found that affluent citizens, those at the 90th-income percentile, have the most influence, followed by organized interest groups. However, the preferences of average citizens have no discernable, independent effect on policymaking at all, the researchers found.”
Wealthy individuals get what they want, us citizens don’t. That is the definition of oligarchy. Rule by a small group of rich individuals.
Best we can hope for as regular citizens is that special interest groups can influence the government at our behest. Gone are the days of politicians reading letters and responding in kind.
Brief History of Fascism
While the ideas undergirding fascism were pulled from ancient sources, specifically the Roman Empire, fascism as a governing ideology was coined by Benito Mussolini of Italy with “The Doctrine of Fascism” (published in 1932).
From his essay, this is the core of fascist ideology:
“Granted that the nineteenth century was the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy, this does not mean that the twentieth century must also be the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy…We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the "right", a Fascist century. If the nineteenth century was the century of the individual (liberalism implies individualism) we are free to believe that this is the "collective" century, and therefore the century of the State.”
To summarize, an authoritarian collective state run enterprise. A pure totalitarianism based on a collective identity (race, nation, or other). It’s a repudiation of liberalism (exaltation of the individual), socialism (workers owning the means of production), and all left-wing ideologies (especially communism).
Back when fascism began, a true battle existed between communism and capitalism. They were duking it out for world domination. Capitalism won.
At the time, it wasn’t clear that communism would lose.
Many governments embraced fascism after World War I (Italy, Spain, Germany, Argentina, and others). The most famous state run example of fascism was in Nazi Germany, but it’s not limited to that iteration.
After World War II, fascism faded into the dark recesses of political discourse. It reared its ugly head again after the 2008 financial crises, as it’s always a product of tough times. You could say the same about communism, ironically.
Economic distress drives a popular embrace of fascist ideology.
Additionally, the cold war had reframed the fight from left wing (socialism) versus right wing (authoritarian) ideology to capitalism versus communism.
Neither capitalism nor communism are benign ideologies.
Most experts on fascism link a melding of state and private enterprises as key to the structure of fascist governments. In the modern world, every government runs a capitalist economy and is influenced by private industry (or controls businesses directly like in China).
The cooperation between state and private businesses is how the world works, so this doesn’t go far enough to explain how to diagnose fascism.
Fascism According to the Democrats Refuted
So what are the key pillars of modern fascism? According to the Public Leadership Institute, a progressive Democratic non-profit group, there are three tenets of fascism:
demonization of domestic enemies;
preposterous lies;
contempt for democratic institutions.
That article linked above was written with the sole purpose to point the finger at Donald Trump and the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement in the Republican party.
But, we could easily turn that flawed three point diagnosis of fascism right around on the Democratic party. I will use their metrics to flip their argument on a head as an exercise in why partisan sources are unreliable.
Don’t worry, the Grand Old Party (GOP) will get their just due later.
Demonization of domestic enemies:
Clearly, the Democratic partisans’ demonization of MAGA is a fascist tendency in itself. You could articulate that anti-fascism is not fascism, true, but I’d argue that what the Democrats are doing is demonizing anyone who votes for or voted for Donald Trump.
“When fascism comes to America it will be framed as anti-fascism.” - author unknown (misattributed to Huey Long)
The Democratic Party is not anti-fascist. They’re not wrong about the fascist tendencies of MAGA, but utilizing fascism to fight fascism is not kosher.
Saying your neighbor is a bad person because of what party they support is classic demonization. It is liberal scolding, plain and simple.
All you need to do is look at the comments on any left-leaning website following an article about Trump or other Republicans to prove this point. Yes, any article on a right-leaning website will do the same in reverse.
Thank you for understanding my thesis that both parties are leaning into authoritarianism that borders on outright fascism.
Preposterous lies:
Ignoring the inherent faults of their own status quo geriatric politicians, the Democrats have claimed that the only reason people voted for Donald Trump is due to Russian influence, racism, or stupidity (e.g. Hillary Clinton calling them a “basket of deplorables”).
These are preposterous lies. Hillary Clinton lost because she is a repugnant politician who ran a horrible campaign. Her own husband threw the campaign under the bus in one book in 2017 and then again in 2023.
"Former president Bill Clinton, surveying the landscape and the ham-handed efforts at identity politics, was bereft, lamenting to a longtime friend in the fall of 2016 that Hillary's campaign 'could not sell pussy on a troop train.'"
(quote is from Ryan Grim’s book: “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution.”)
Never mind their assertion that they are the only party trying to save democracy while they dismantle checks on democratic principles.
Furthermore, Joe Biden has repeatedly claimed that he reduced the national debt, claimed he spoke with a dead person, and other demonstrably provable lies. He lies with almost every public statement.
Check out Politifact’s fact check on Joe Biden, the leader of the Democrats.
Contempt for democratic institutions:
Nothing is more clear in the Democratic party than a contempt for democratic institutions. They have cried that elections are illegitimate (with more proof than the GOP) for years.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) was sued by the Bernie Sanders campaign for rigging the presidential primary election in favor of Hillary Clinton (because she had given millions to the DNC to clear their debt issues).
They argued in court that they had no obligation to hold a fair election as they were a private entity. The case was dismissed because the judge agreed - the DNC holds no obligation to conduct a fair primary.
“In evaluating Plaintiffs’ claims at this stage, the Court assumes their allegations are true—that the DNC and Wasserman Schultz held a palpable bias in favor Clinton and sought to propel her ahead of her Democratic opponent.”
Bernie Sanders didn’t lose the case, the judge said he had no “standing” for a case because the DNC is a private organization and there is no obligation for them to provide a fair election.
Removing candidates from your own party’s primary ballot is also not democratic, it’s authoritarian - dare I say, fascist in nature.
Additionally, Joe Biden is refusing to participate in primary debates in 2023. While that’s not atypical, democracy isn’t only applicable when you feel like it.
“Democracy for thee, but not for me,” the new platform of the DNC.
This exercise in showing that the Democratic party is not free from fascist ideology was necessary. We must disabuse the lie that they truly care about democracy.
No institution that holds power wants democracy. Power only relents its hold on the levers of control through force (electoral, judicial, or physical).
Now, let’s look at a more scholarly definition of fascism.
The Tenets of Fascism
Umberto Eco wrote the most definitive discourse on the tenets of fascism in his essay “Ur-Fascism.” Read his piece, it’s eye opening. He broke down fascism into fourteen points and explained them in great detail.
I will summarize them below:
Cult of tradition - traditionalism or a call back to the good old days. The key is a distorted reading of the past to syncretize it with the present. “Truth has been already spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its obscure message,” per Umberto Eco.
Rejection of modernism - society has gone wrong and we must correct it.
Action for action’s sake - doing is better than thinking. A distrust of intellectuals is fomented.
Disagreement is treason - follow the rules or else.
Fear of difference - diversity is bad. Race, religion, or cultural.
Appeals to a frustrated middle class.
Obsession with a plot - inside and outside forces are working against us.
Humiliated by outside forces (wealth or power) - must convince followers that they can overwhelm these nefarious forces.
Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy - violence for violence sake.
Contempt for the weak - a popular elitism. We are the best people.
Everyone needs to be a hero - dying for the cause is venerated.
Machismo or male strength in sexual matters - deviancy is despised.
Selective populism - a dictator interprets what the people want and parliamentary governments are opposed.
Newspeak - controlling language, especially to change definitions.
This is a more robust definition of what fascism will look like in a modern world. The essay was written in 1995, but Umberto Eco had enough prescience to see the rise of the internet and speak on it being what fascists would use to control the population.
What most articles in the media fail to tell you about fascism, is that they will be the ones delivering it to you. In fact, they are already doing it now. Almost every major newspaper/news website is owned by a billionaire.
The oligarchy always loves fascism. It allows them to disperse their ideas to keep the masses in line. You will own nothing and be happy.
What we have in America is a battle between opposing authoritarian factions (Democrats and Republicans) and their monied owners.
Umberto put a quote in his essay from Franklin Roosevelt from November 4, 1938, which I will share here:
“I venture the challenging statement that if American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, fascism will grow in strength in our land.”
Fascism Scorecard
Whelp, clearly the current Republican party under the tutelage of Donald Trump is almost entirely fascist. At best, they have 12/14 of the tenets of fascism guiding their political movement. You could argue that they all apply, but we’ll give the GOP the benefit of the doubt, for now.
Out of those fourteen tenets of fascism, only 9 (pacifism is bad) and 11 (die for the cause) are not fully embraced by the MAGA movement. A heavy undercurrent of isolationism and antiwar sentiment exists in the Republican voter ranks, and Donald Trump hasn’t asked his followers to die for him, yet.
If Trump loses another election in 2024, we might see heroism fully embraced.
Now you see why I waited on the Republicans? Their party is full of fascists. There’s no denying it. This doesn’t mean every GOP voter is a fascist though.
Let’s get the scorecard out for the Democrats too. I score them as yes on tenets 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, and 14. That leaves them with 8/14 of the tenets of fascism. Not looking good for what is left of our republic.
You could argue that 7 (obsession with a plot) and 8 (humiliated by outside forces) doesn’t apply to the Democratic Party, but you’d be wrong. Their fearmongering on China and Russiagate hyperbole are prime examples of that in action.
A better rebuttal would be to dispute 10 (contempt for the weak) and 13 (selective populism). The Democratic Party is subservient to billionaires and money. They ignore the poor. A clear cut case of contempt for the weak. For selective populism, well they clearly think the party knows best.
If I grant you all four of those rebuttals, the Democrats are still 4/14 on the fascism spectrum.
For both parties I took liberty with tenet 4 (disagreement is treason). It’s currently only a social ostracization, not death by firing squad, that’s enforced intragroup. But it always starts somewhere. The groupthink of both Democrats and Republicans enforces ideology disseminated by the party leadership or their firebrands in the media.
Please note: I intentionally did not go point by point in explaining how Democrats and Republicans are embracing fascism as I want you to go back an reread that list over and over again.
Also, go read that essay. Knowledge is power
Summary
So, whatever democracy is left in the U.S. is under serious threat by the two major parties. Without any left-wing political party to counteract the two right-wing parties, we can only hope that the fractured political landscape keeps us from entering a truly fascist dictatorship heavy on totalitarianism.
And yes, both the Democrats and Republicans are right-wing parties. Neo-liberalism is a right wing ideology that underpins all economic thought in the United States.
The Overton Window has moved so far to the right in my forty plus year lifetime that the Democratic Party of 2023 would be the Republican Party of 1980, or possibly even further right than them.
Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants in his second term in office. No elected politician today is asking for amnesty, a full naturalization without hoops to jump through for Latino immigrants. Not even the “progressives” in the Democratic Party.
The left that the right-wing claims is ruining the world is only left by proxy of their position on the extreme right of the political spectrum. Bernie Sanders would be a center-right politician in most European countries.
To be fair, without a true dictator a nation state can not be considered a fascist state. We still have elections, and that keeps the United States in the oligarchy category.
Democracy ended long ago. The republic is a sham as well. Money dictates the laws, discourse, and even which candidates we are allowed to vote for.
Trump says he wants to be a dictator, but I doubt that he could pull it off. The country is far too divided to rally around the flag and a leader, no matter which party is in control.
We live in a polarized world. Both parties are exploiting that for their own personal gain.
Meanwhile, immiseration is the new norm.
Happy thoughts for the holiday season. Like and subscribe. Comment too.