Whatever the outcome of the U.S. election, fascism will not fade away

“Fascism is might over right, conspiracy over reality, fiction over fact, pain over law, blood over love, doom over hope.” — Timothy Synder The underwhelming Democratic candidate Kamala Harris recently painted Donald Trump as a fascist. Not to be outdone, the demagogue and convicted felon called Harris a fascist, a communist and stupid. Trump added that he was “the opposite of a Nazi.” Yet two top U.S. generals who worked with President Trump begged to differ. They described the New Yorker as clearly an authoritarian fellow with a short attention span and no appreciation for truth: a “fascist to the core,” said one. Meanwhile, conservative commentators have begun to taunt their liberal friends about the fascist label. Have they got their passports in order? mocked one. If fascism has truly arrived in the United States, argued another, then why haven’t you packed your bags or joined the resistance? What these Trump apologists have forgotten (and that’s easy to do in this ahistorical time) is that fascism overwhelmed Germany so abruptly in 1933 that few writers, cartoonists and artists had time to leave. Hardly any could appreciate the danger, let alone the fragility of democracy. The psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, who fled Hitler’s regime, later observed that “most people were not prepared theoretically or practically” for fascism. “Only a few had been aware of the rumbling of the volcano preceding the outbreak.” Nor did the regime tolerate much resistance. In fact, the majority submitted in advance.