Trump, fascism and liberalism

This is something that I've been mulling over for the past couple of months but never really put onto paper, so apologies if it comes off as rambly. 

I have a complete and utter hatred for Donald Trump and everything he represents — don't get me wrong — but it irks me to see people categorise him and his administration as fascist. It's understandable why people would think this, but that doesn't change the fact that it is lazy and ahistorical analysis that makes consequences that we're already starting to see crop up.

Fascism is a historic phenomenon, with particular conditions that lead to its growth and particular characteristics. This is by no means an exhaustive overview of it, but it fleshes out what fascism is beyond a vague feeling of "authoritarian nationalism" :

1. Fascism as a social force only arises in conditions of immense revolutionary crisis. It arises in response to a prolonged period of revolution which has fundamentally disrupted the status quo and threatens to end the powers that be, but is stagnant in its ability to seize and consolidate victory.
   
   
2. Fascism *in its infancy* is an anti-establishment mass movement primarily made up of the middle-class and  de-classed elements of society, ideologically catering to petty middle-class interests and reactionary impulses (i.e. "returning to national glory," "ending 'usurious, finance capitalism' in favour of 'productive capitalism,'" "restoring order, family, religion and property," etc.)
   
   
3. Fascism as a mass movement is specifically dedicated to the total physical destruction of the revolutionary movement. Shaken by the crisis stalling onward, the middle-class sees their meagre share of capitalist society slipping away from them ; desperate to hold onto it, they turn against the working class with riffles in hand. Taking to the streets, this mass movement breaks strikes and disrupts political meetings with batons and guns, maiming and killing whoever necessary to put down the revolution.
   
   
4. Fascism as a mass movement can only start to gain serious power once it has been backed by the highest ranks of the capitalist class. When the revolution has broken the old order of society and poses an existential threat to their class position, this ruling class — having no other choice for its survival — may choose to place its lot with fascism as a last ditch effort to save its skin. Weapons, uniforms, vehicles, media — these things all cost money, and as the fascist movement grows so too does its maintenance cost : the capitalist class, now bankrolling the movement, takes on these costs, and in return directs the fascists to kill the revolution wherever they do business.
   
   
5. After taking power in the streets, the fascists aim to take over the state apparatus. Be it through means of election or insurrection, the leaders of this mass movement establish a dictatorial police-state, headed by an autocratic leader ; this police-state kills any surviving revolutionary elements, almost totally eliminating freedom of speech and movement. In rhetoric, the fascist state claims to represent all classes within a nation, hoping to rile up support for its struggle against other nations ; behind closed doors, the state rapproches the big capitalists, solemnly vowing to fight on their behalf in carving out the economy and suppressing labour. 

Taking a critical eye to the U.S, you can see some similarities between the above and Donald Trump's presidency, but there are a lot more very glaring differences. For one, the U.S is not in a period of revolutionary crisis — in fact, it doesn't even have a working class movement to execute a revolution. Given that the capitalist class still maintains control over the economic and political order of the U.S, there is no reason for it to back a movement trying to upend that order. Secondly, while MAGA is certainly a vaguely anti-establishment movement with reactionary ideology, it is not a movement mobilised to eradicate an ongoing revolution. It has shown itself to be potentially capable of an insurrection, but right now MAGA is not roving from town to town, gunning down communists and trade unionists, nor is it consolidating any form of power in the streets, nor does it really have any permanent paramilitary presence to begin with. Thirdly, while Trump has definitely shaken up the geopolitical status quo, while he does seek to gain more power in his hands through the executive branch, and while he has brought oligarchs into his close personal circle with big promises to them, none of these things are exclusive to fascism. Plenty of governments have disrupted the status quo — even invaded other countries — without being fascist. Plenty of world leaders have made moves to gain greater state power and crack down on dissent without being fascists. Plenty of governments are in bed with corporations and billionaires, and that doesn't make them fascist. 

So what? Why is this distinction important? There are many, but these are the two biggest reasons.

This point gets a lot of the spotlight in mainstream discussion, so I wont say much on it, but the muddying down of what fascism actually is almost always going to lead to a "boy who cried wolf" scenario. People will see that Trump is not a fascist and begin to dismiss any claims of fascism that pop up ; actual fascists, with the severity around their image being diminished, can more openly present themselves in society under the protection of plausible deniability and gain considerably more traction.

But the big consequence of this that almost never gets discussed is the fact that labelling everything that is conservative or racist or oligarchic as "fascism" allows for liberal capitalism to wipe its record clean and pin all of the blame for the horrors of the world onto fascism. By offloading these nasty social facts onto fascism, liberalism gets to remain pure. 

"Trump is destroying our democracy! Trump is merging business with politics! Trump is sending immigrants to concentration camps! We must fight to preserve our democracy and combat the slide towards fascism!" This is the battle cry of every Democratic politician and media mogul, and it may sound compelling. But the reality is that Trump has not done anything that has fundamentally broken with how the U.S has operated for decades. Liberal politics has always been a revolving door for business, and vice versa : there has never been a point in U.S history where the government has not been representative of and cozied up to the capitalist class. The working class has never had any say in policy making or governance beyond having the privilege of checking off "D" or "R" on a ballot to see which corrupt bureaucrat will screw them over for the next four years.

And the concentration camps. It gets glossed over very often, but the fascists did not invent concentration camps — they've been used as far back as the 1830's, and have gone by the name "concentration camp" since the 1860's. Many of these concentration camps were set up and operated by liberal governments : the U.S put Filipinos and Japanese into concentration camps, the British employed them against the Irish, Boers and Kenyans, and Canada interned Japanese, Jews and Ukrainians — my own family being among the latter. All of the camps above and many more operated under liberal democracies. As for modern day concentration camps, it would do the Democrats well to remind them that they never took any action to shut down Guantanamo Bay or the "detention centres" at the Mexican border ; they did the exact opposite, running them with just as much (and in the case of the borer, even more) cruelty and ruthlessness.

By laundering its reputation, liberalism tries to legitimise itself again and again, insisting that the real evils of the world are alien to it, when in reality a large portion of them stem directly from it. The truth of the matter is that Donald Trump is a politician operating in the liberal democratic framework with the full intention of maintaining and perfecting it, albeit with more power to his own name and with his wallet a little fatter. 

Instead of declaring "Trump is a fascist, down with fascism, bring back liberalism!" we must proclaim "Trump is a liberal, down with both liberalism and fascism!" For liberalism is no stranger to barbarism, and as long as its capitalist economy exists, so too does the basis for fascism.