John McNeill, a history professor at Georgetown University, wrote an opinion piece published in The Washington Post in October 2016, a couple of weeks before the 2016 election, entitled:
Grading the billionaire on the 11 attributes of fascism.
I thought it might warrant a re-look in light of Mr. Trump’s four years as President and especially given the events of this tragic year.
McNeill sets the stage with this paragraph:
Fascism was born in Italy during World War I and came to power with the ex-journalist and war veteran Benito Mussolini in 1922. Since the 1950s, dozens of top historians and political scientists have put fascism, especially the Italian and German versions, under the microscope. They’ve come up with a pretty solid agreement on what it is, both as a political ideology and as a political movement, factoring in all the (sometimes contradictory) things its progenitors said as they ascended to power. As a political ideology, fascism has eight main traits. As a political movement, it has three more. So: Just how fascist is Trump? On the fascist meter, we can award him zero to four “Benitos.”
Here are the eight main traits:
- Hyper-nationalism
- Militarism
- Glorification of Violence and readiness to use it in politics
- Fetishization of youth
- Fetishization of masculinity
- Leader cult
- Lost golden-age syndrome
- Self-definition by opposition
And the three political traits:
- Mass mobilization and mass party
- Hierarchical party structure and tendency to purge the disloyal
- Theatricality
So how did this so-called “billionaire” Trump fare in 2016 and how should that be adjusted to reflect new shit that has come to light, as The Dude might say while gently cradling his beverage?
Hyper-nationalism
McNeill notes the nationalistic language used by Tump in the campaign leading up to October 2016, but gave him credit for not reaching the heights of nationalism exhibited by certain historical fascists, such as the two cretins in the photo above. 2016 verdict? Two Benitos.
My opinion, and that’s all it is, is that Trump’s actions and those of his administration over the past four years have erased a good portion of the slack McNeill granted him in 2016. The arrogant spurning of longstanding allies and treaties for a go-it-alone “America First” approach, the ridiculous and inhumane border wall and criminal mistreatment of undocumented immigrants and refugees — I would argue that has earned Trump another benny. 2020 verdict? Three Benitos.
Militarism
McNeill notes that Trump has an uneasy relationship with the topic of the military, sees him as someone who would be reluctant to get embroiled in foreign military adventures, and notes Trump’s followers generally wear civilian dress rather than quasi-military dress often promoted by fascist dictators. 2016 verdict? Two Benitos.
What should we say now? Trump’s uneasiness with the military continued. He fired most of the military brass who showed enough poor judgment to serve in his administration. He famously was quoted as being mystified why someone would sacrifice their life for their country. But he also has been rather publicly jonesing for a giant military parade as he saw on the Champs-Elysées in Paris several years ago. And his followers, oh his followers, are now routinely wearing military garb and openly sporting semiautomatic weapons (as well as the occasional paintball gun and bear spray) and have been quite open about their support of Trump. And now we learn that in the past few days Trump had to be repeatedly talked out of launching a surprise military strike on Iran. 2020 verdict? Four Benitos. In my view, he’s pretty much there.
Glorification of Violence and readiness to use it in politics
McNeill draws a pretty wide and bright line between the political violence employed by Hitler and Mussolini and the then nearly empty talk of violence Trump had been heard promoting on occasion in his various rallies. 2016 verdict? One Benito.
The last four years have not been very charitable to the milquetoast view of Trump expressed by McNeill in 2016. The very fine people quote about Charlottesville. The initiation of violence by federal law enforcement troops in Washington DC and Portland, Oregon, among other places. The praise of the murderer Rittenhouse. The ongoing talk by Trump and his lieutenants and legal counsel implying using violence to overturn the 2020 election. It adds up to a pretty sobering assessment. 2020 verdict? Four Benitos.
Fetishization of youth
McNeill believes Trump doesn’t even register in this category, given his age and the fact that McNeill viewed his followers as pretty long in the tooth. 2016 verdict? Zero Benitos.
I largely agree with McNeill when comparing Trump to the youth idolization of, say, Hitler. But I also believe Trump’s vocal support of street brawlers like the Proud Boys and others is his own perverted form of youth fetishization. In other words, I think he’s earned a benny. 2020 verdict? One Benito.
Fetishization of masculinity
McNeill seemed to think there wasn’t much of a question on this point. Trump’s bullying and annoying but transparent fake machismo earned him the full score. 2016 verdict? Four Benitos.
No reason to revisit that score. Trump has only continued being a bully who pretends to be tough but is actually just a miserable, cruel, and frightened loser. His 2016 belittling of Hillary Clinton as weak has been replaced by his “senile uncle Joe in the basement.” Problem is, that guy in the basement just kicked Trump’s can from Georgia to Arizona to Hawaii. 2020 verdict? Four Benitos.
Leader cult
McNeill didn’t see much question here, and neither did most observers. 2016 verdict? Four Benitos.
Looking back over the past four years, it’s only gotten worse and more nauseating to observe. 2020 verdict? Four Benitos.
Lost golden-age syndrome
McNeill notes that, just as Mussolini hearkened back to the glory of Rome, and Hitler cried crocodile tears about how the proud Reich had been stabbed in the back by its enemies within during WWI, only Trump claims that he can “MAGA.” 2016 verdict? Four Benitos.
Same story today. Sometimes the slogan varies, but it’s the same old shit, different day. 2020 verdict? Four Benitos.
Self-definition by opposition
McNeill acknowledges that much of Trump’s rhetoric in the 2016 campaign had fascist tones, but because he wasn’t advocating for the literal annihilation of his opponents, as Hitler had done, he cut Trump some slack. 2016 verdict? Three Benitos.
Slack is no longer warranted. In light of the actions of Trump and his henchmen (and henchwomen) to mistreat and place people crossing the border at great risk of physical and (special for parents and children) emotional harm, and in light of a wasted four years that has little to show for it other than near single-minded determination to oppose and erase the legacy of the nation’s first black President, Trump has shown himself incapable of displaying any vision other than to whine and tell the world — ad nauseam — what he opposes. 2020 verdict? Four Benitos.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
So let’s pause and take a look at the giant tote board. By this point, McNeil had Trump at a subtotal of 20 Benitos.
My take after four excruciating years of watching this evil, ignorant, incompetent loser in action? 28 Benitos as a subtotal.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
On to political characteristics:
Mass mobilization and mass party
McNeill, in his charming youthful innocence of four years ago saw Trump as the leader, yes, of a movement, but one taking place within a party that had not embraced him — noting that “Many in his party loathe him.” 2016 verdict? Two Benitos.
This is another analysis that time has mistreated mercilessly. There essentially is no Republican Party now but the cult of Trump. It’s sickening to see. 2020 verdict? Four Benitos. No question.
Hierarchical party structure and tendency to purge the disloyal
In another assessment that has not aged well, McNeill notes that violence plays no role in Trump’s actions against those who oppose him or support him only tepidly. He charitably assigns a low score. 2016 verdict? One Benito.
Looking back over the past four years, there is virtually no better description of the current state of the Republican Party and Trump’s leadership of it than hierarchy and purging of the disloyal. It’s practically a defining characteristic. I’ve never seen a President use personal loyalty as a criterion for hiring and firing as ruthlessly as Trump and his senior staff have done. To date, yes, active physical violence has not been committed within the party against Trump’s opponents, but that’s a pretty weak defense and ignores the passive violence inflicted on several members of his staff and his party leadership in Congress by Trump’s active mischaracterization and admitted downplaying of a deadly virus responsible for over a quarter million American deaths. 2020 verdict? Four Benitos.
Theatricality
McNeill acknowledges the showmanship of Trump’s rallies and notes their similarities to those of Mussolini and Hitler. But, again in a charitable move, chooses not to assign Trump a top score. 2016 verdict? Three Benitos.
McNeill suffered from his lack of the hindsight we unfortunately possess. Take this sentence from McNeill’s 2016 piece:
Trump does not strut across stages like a Mussolini, and Nazi-style torchlit parades are out, but his rhetoric fits the fascist style well.
These are the words of a person who could not conceive of a Charlottesville in modern day America. Who didn’t anticipate the violence inflicted on peaceful demonstrators so Trump could stroll to a church he never attended for a theatrical photo opportunity. Who hadn’t had an opportunity to see Trump strut and mug across stage after stage while his brainwashed and profoundly misled cult cheers him on. 2020 verdict? Four Benitos.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
So, out of eleven categories, McNeill assigned candidate Trump in 2016 a grand total of 26 out of a possible 44 Benitos, for a grade of 59 percent. McNeill judged that Trump failed the fascist test.
“Trump is a loser,” McNeill writes.
While that quote is accurate today, always has been accurate, and always will be accurate, it doesn’t describe well Trump’s score, as assessed by yours truly, on the fascist test informed as it is with the burden of his four years of failed Presidency.
Using insight gained by watching the loser Trump attempt to destroy the United States of America and its political institutions over the past four years, but especially this year, I assign Trump a score of 40 out of a possible 44 Benitos, for a grade of 91 percent.
In other words, yes, he’s a fascist.