What is fascism? And why does Harris say Trump is a fascist?

This photo combination taken Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, shows Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris speaking during a town hall in Malvern, Pa., left, and former President Donald Trump, Republican presidential nominee, making remarks about Hurricane Helene from Swannanoa. NC. (AP Photo)

Washington – Vice President Kamala Harris he was asked this week if she believed Donald Trump she was a fascist and she replied, “Yes, yes.” She later called him the same, saying voters don’t want “a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.”

But what exactly is a fascist? And does the meaning of the word change when viewed through a historical or political lens—especially so close to the end of a packed presidential race?

Here’s a closer look:

What is fascism?

An authoritarian, ultra-nationalist ideology and political movement. It is often associated with the far right and characterized by a dictatorial leader who uses military force to help suppress political and civil opposition.

The two most famous fascists in history were Nazi leader Adolf Hitler of Germany and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Known as Il Duce, or “the Duke”, Mussolini led the National Fascist Party, which was symbolized by an eagle clutching a fasce – a bundle of rods with an ax between them.

At Mussolini’s urging, in October 1922, thousands of “black shirts” or “squadristi” formed an armed fascist militia that marched on Rome, vowing to seize power. Similarly, Hitler’s Nazis relied on a militia known as the “Brown Shirts”. Both men eventually imposed the one-party regime and encouraged violence in the streets. They used soldiers but also spurred civil unrest that pits loyalists against political opponents and larger parts of everyday society.

Hitler and Mussolini censored the press and issued sophisticated propaganda. They played on racist fears and manipulated not only their activist supporters but ordinary citizens as well.

Today, the term fascism has taken on a looser political definition and is often invoked as a catchall for efforts to spread oppression and racism—as well as to denigrate dictators or leaders who embrace totalitarian tactics.

It’s not just the left that has used the term, denouncing a push to the right in the US and many parts of the world. Some conservatives denounced the blockages imposed in time coronavirus pandemic as “fascist”.

What are other historical examples of fascism?

Hitler and Mussolini are its biggest names, but it gets murkier from there.

Does military dictator Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year rule in Chile qualify? How about the Indonesian strongman Suharto or Francisco Franco from Spain? Were the regimes of Ferenc Szálasi in Hungary and Plínio Salgado in Brazil fascist? Where does American neo-Nazi leader David Duke fit in?

Indeed, critics sometimes describe modern extremist groups in the US – including movements that have cheered Trumpthat Proud boys — as fascists or neo-fascists. These labels may be deeper in political ideology than clear historical parallels.

Why is Harris calling Trump a fascist?

The vice president has long criticized Trump as mentally unstable and not a true believer or defender of the nation’s founding democratic principles.

She notes that Trump has hinted that he would deploy the army to target political opponents, including people he condemned as the “enemy within”. The former president has long talked about attacking his enemies and he told his supporters that he will be their “revenge.”

“He’s talking about the American people. Talk about nonpartisan journalists, judges, election officials,” Harris said at a CNN town hall Wednesday night.

Trump has threatened to take action against television networks and news organizations for coverage they deem unfavorable. And when current President Joe Biden challenged him during a 2020 debate to denounce the Proud Boys, Trump answered: “Proud boys, stand back and stand still.”

Lots of pro-Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, seeking to overturn Trump’s loss to Biden after Trump gave a speech in which he spread lies about the election and urging the crowd to “fight like hell”. Among those imprisoned in connection with January 6 was the leader of the proud boysaccused of orchestrating a failed plot to keep Trump in power.

Harris began to move into characterization. During an interview with her in Detroit on Oct. 15, radio host Charlamagne Tha God said Trump is increasingly embracing fascism and asked, “Why can’t we say that?” “Yeah, we can say that,” Harris replied.

Then Trump’s former chief of staff, retired Marine Corps General John Kelly, ADVISED that the former president meets the definition of a fascist. He said that Trump, while in office, suggested that Hitler “did some good things” and that Trump valued personal loyalty above the Constitution.

The Trump campaign accused Kelly of lying and dismissed Harris’ criticism, with spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt responding, “Kamala will say anything to distract from her open border invasion and record inflation.” . Trump described January 6 as “the day of love.”

Trump himself rejected the fascist label in an interview with Fox News on Thursday.

“Everybody knows that’s not true,” he said. “They tell me everything until something sticks.”

How do fascism experts view Trump?

They are divided.

Robert Paxton, a Columbia University professor emeritus who wrote “Anatomy of Fascism,” cited the Jan. 6 attack as evidence of Trump’s fascism.

“It’s bubbling up from below in very troubling ways and very much like the original fascisms,” Paxton told The New York Times Magazine in an article published this week. “It’s the real thing. It really is.”

Some don’t see Trump as meeting the classic historical definition of a fascist, but increasingly moving toward policies that have fascist tendencies.

David Kertzer, a Brown University professor and Italian historian, said he was “a little appalled” to hear Harris call Trump a fascist, given the term’s “historical resonance.” He said there were some similarities, including “the mass movement, a cult of the strongman.” He noted that Trump sometimes sticks his chin out, although he is not prone to tearing off his shirt and baring his chest like Mussolini did.

Kertzer said fascism involves “a one-party state, kicking out all opposition newspapers and imprisoning people who disagreed” and that while Trump has talked about jailing opponents, he has been disinclined to embrace other key facets of the movement.

“There are certain echoes, but in terms of turning the Republican Party into a one-party state, that seems pretty far-fetched at this point,” said Kertzer, author of “The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI th and ascension. of fascism in Europe.”

David Clay Large, a senior research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute for European Studies, said “it may be that the alarm that’s going on now is somewhat overblown.”

“Our democratic institutions, however besieged, remain far stronger than those of the European nations that turned fascist in the 1920s and 1930s,” Large said. Still, he added, there would be “a real danger to these institutions” in a second Trump presidency.

The rise of far-right parties in Europe and Trump’s control of the GOP, Large said, creates “a whole new situation: the center can’t hold out like it once did.”

Add to the mix social media, which in the digital age mirrors the use of propaganda, amplifying emotions and division, he said.

“Where everyone is an expert, we’ve lost respect for facts, objectivity and expert opinion,” Large said.