John Donnelly: What is fascism?
In our polarized country, it is important to understand the political extremes. Communism historically has been viewed as on the far left of the political spectrum with its essence being that the government “owns the means of production.”
Communist governments also use top-down planning to decide what gets produced instead of free markets. China today is a hybrid Communist country. State-owned enterprises still dominate the Chinese economy, but markets are largely relied upon, and not government planning, for the “allocation of resources.” Communism is a political system lacking personal freedom and political expression with the government dominating the economy. America today is not a Communist country and it is not trending in that direction.
Fascism exists on the far right of the political spectrum. What is Fascism? Anne Applebaum, Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Jason Stanley have a keen interest in studying 20th and 21st century fascism. Jason Stanley’s father was a young Jewish boy and he was literally on the last boat out of Nazi Germany in August 1939 — just before World War II started. I would like to share with you what I have learned from reading these three students of fascism.
Most people associate fascism with Nazi concentration camps. Concentration camps were a horrific part of the German Nazi version of fascism, but they are simply one of many possible outcomes of fascism. Many fascist leaders do not create death camps.
So what is fascism? Fascism is a path for achieving absolute power in a democracy and thus replacing democracy with a dictatorship. Fascism has two key components. The first is that there is a playbook for winning elections. The second is the steps fascists take to seize absolute power once they have won an election. Fascists strive for absolute power. They want no checks and balances, no guardrails, no Congress with power and no more elections. Once you become a dictator, you can attempt to do whatever you want.
Some fascist leaders may want to revenge what they perceive as historical injustices to their country by attacking other countries. Others may persecute (e.g., by creating concentration camps) a minority group they despise. And others may simply want to accumulate vast amounts of wealth for themselves and their family. Some may try to do all those things. Hitler did the first and the second — he attacked many neighboring countries and tried to annihilate the Jews in Europe. Putin has done the first and third — he has invaded neighboring countries and accumulated vast amounts of wealth. But those actions are not the essence of Fascism. The essence is what steps these dictators took to be able to do whatever they wanted to do.
The three best-known fascist leaders of the last 100 years are Mussolini, Hitler and Putin. All three entered their governments when they were democracies, but quickly turned them into dictatorships. They seized absolute power so that they could do anything that they wanted to do.
The playbook fascists use to win elections and/or win control of a government in a democracy has five steps. Let’s look at each one.
Focus on a mythic national past: Mussolini said in 1922: “We have created our myth. The myth is a faith, a passion. It doesn't need to be a reality. And to this myth, this greatness, we subordinate everything.” Himmler, the Nazi architect of the Holocaust said in 1936: “A people lives happily in the present and the future so long as it recognizes its past and the greatness of its ancestors. We want to make our people proud again of our history.” Jason Stanley said in his most recent book “How Fascism Works”: “Fascist politics invokes a pure mythic past, tragically destroyed … such a glorious past has been lost by the humiliation brought on by globalism and liberal cosmopolitanism. The fascist mythic past exists to aid in changing the present.”
Make dominant ethnic group feel like victims: Hitler said in "Mein Kampf" in 1925: “The ignorance of the broad masses about the inner nature of the Jew makes our people an easy victim for this Jewish campaign of lies.” Jason Stanley: “Fascism is loyalty to tribe, ethnic identity, religion or nation … with the goal of maintaining a position at the top of the power hierarchy.” Hitler said in 1942: “Should I not also have the right to eliminate millions of an inferior race that multiplies like vermin?”
Destroy truth and promote conspiracy theories: Hitler said in "Mein Kampf": “The whole existence of the Jewish people is based on a continuous lie. This is shown incomparably in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (a fake early 20th-century book purporting to show a plot for Jewish global domination). The Frankfurter Zeitung (Germany’s leading newspaper then and now) screams and moans every week that the Protocols are a forgery. This is the best proof they are authentic.” Hitler promoted a wild conspiracy theory and because the leading German newspaper said it was a lie, Hitler said: “Therefore it must be true!” Stanley: “Fascistic politics exchanges reality for the pronouncements of a single individual. Regular and repeated obvious lying is part of the process by which Fascist politics destroys the information space. Conspiracy theories are a critical mechanism used to delegitimize the mainstream media. Fascist politicians accuse them of bias for failing to cover false conspiracies.”
Value pure rural areas over corrupt cities: Hitler said in "Mein Kampf": “I hated the mixture of races displayed in Vienna. I hated the motley collection of Czechs, Poles and Hungarians.” Mussolini in 1932: “At a certain point the city starts growing in a diseased pathological way, not through its own people, but through immigrants.” Stanley: “Cities, to the Fascist imagination, are the source of corrupting culture, often produced by immigrants, while the countryside is pure.”
Develop cult of the leader/only leader can solve problems: Hitler and the Nazis won a plurality of the vote in the November 1932 German elections. Hitler became the leader of Germany and the actions he took quickly turned Germany into a fascist dictatorship. Hitler said in 1934: “I am responsible for the fate of the German nation and I am therefore the supreme judge of the German people.” Stanley: “Fascism is the cult of the leader who promises national restoration in the face of humiliation brought on by supposed communists, minorities and immigrants who are posing a threat to the character and history of the nation. The fascist leader says only he can solve it, and all his political opponents are enemies and traitors.” Ruth Ben-Ghiat: “Many strongmen have entered office with experience in mass communications. Mussolini was a journalist. Hitler took voice and hypnotism lessons in the 1920s. Having direct communication with the public is the key to maintaining personality cults.”
This is the playbook that fascist leaders use to win over people and to win elections. In a future article, I will describe what steps fascist leaders take to achieve dictatorial power.
— John Donnelly is a Petoskey resident.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: John Donnelly: What is fascism?
