Fascism as Farce

Sorry, but there's no polite way to put it: The Left has gone crazy

Yes, the comrades actually are this dumb…

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At the recent CNN town hall, Kamala Harris was asked if she thinks Donald Trump is a fascist. Her answer: “Yes I do.” I would love to get in the Bratgirl’s face and ask her for a definition of fascism—her answer would surely be a supersized helping of word salad on which even Godzilla would choke.

Over at National Review Online, Rich Lowery has poured scorn and contempt all over the Left’s characterization of Trump as the American Hitler/Mussolini, which he calls a “stupid smear.” As it happens, I’m in a position to build on his excellent work, for just recently, my reminder to the comrades that fascism has a history at variance with their Trump-the-Nazi charge drew a furious retort. Here is that reminder:

And here is the hysterical meltdown that it triggered in the Substack corner of the leftie fever swamp:

Oh boo hoo. So sorry Mr. Kelly didn't meet your meticulous and exacting standards in providing a definition for fascism. Maybe Hannah Arendt can do better. Let's review what you are supporting.

Let’s review what you are defending and supporting: this is a man who has cheated on all of his spouses; is a convicted rapist; who has separated children from parents, effectively disappeared children into the DHS system; has mocked victims of disasters such as those of Hurricane Maria; has treacherously betrayed the Kurds, a dependable US ally; has used coercion and extortion against a key US ally in return for subverting an American election; has embraced a regime that murdered a US journalist and citizen; has assisted that same regime in the mass starvation of children in Yemen; has actively worked to weaken Europe for Putin’s benefit; has used inflammatory rhetoric which led to the deaths of Heather Heyer, of congregants of a synagogue in Pittsburgh, and citizens of Hispanic heritage in El Paso; has corruptly profited from public office and is grossly nepotistic; is an anti-Semite; gives aid and comfort to repressive regimes; actively works against anything remotely smacking of basic decency or the common good.

Is there more? Hell yes. Most of this could have been written in the middle of his first term. Since then we can add that he’s a convicted felon, expressed his intent to abrogate the constitution, wants to use the military against even peaceful protesters, has concealed classified documents that he stole, committed and insurrection, disastrously responded to Covid . . . and why even bother with his Neanderthal policies? The continued use of fossil fuels, the destruction of social security, the creation of tariffs, the ruin of NATO, the stripping of health care from women.

And I’ve not even mentioned his clear mental deterioration, which you think worthy to handle the nuclear codes because you are so lacking any judgement.

But yeah, Orwell’s definition of fascists renders all this moot. God you people are a special sort of dumb.

Well, yes, Mr. Orwell’s definition does render all that moot. You have to be a special sort of dumb—willfully, deliberately dumb in the mode of doublethink—not to get that.

It will be seen at a glance that my critic’s rant is mostly constructed of non sequiturs: Most of the above charges levelled against Trump have nothing to do with fascism no matter how expansively one defines the term. Cheating on your wife is fascist behavior? Has Bill Clinton gotten that memo? Giving aid and comfort to repressive regimes is fascist behavior? Then Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the arch appeasers of Iran, should be wearing brown shirts.

My critic goes on to charge that Trump is an antisemite. Well, you’d never conclude that from a study of his foreign policy as president. which was pretty gosh-dared Zionist. That certainly can’t be said about Biden’s foreign policy and as for Barack Obama, he was actively hostile to the Jewish state. And I will add that charges of antisemitism levelled by the Left against Trump or anyone else on the Right are specimens of gross hypocrisy, given that the present upsurge of antisemitism in America emanates from the progressive Left. Indeed, I would go so far as to observe that supporting terrorist groups and countries like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran is actual fascist behavior with historical precedents.

Some of the above charges are simply lies: that Trump’s a “convicted racist,” that he’s “stripping healthcare from women,” that he plans to suppress the Constitution and deploy troops against his political opponents, that his “inflammatory rhetoric” caused death and destruction, etc. On that last point, if “inflammatory rhetoric” is invariably responsible for political violence, then the Left’s constant, over-the-top denunciations of Trump —well exemplified by the above rant—must have been the cause of two, maybe three assassination attempts.

Having disposed of the substance of my critic’s screed, I’ll say something about his tone. To describe it in a word, it’s unhinged. This is the foul, polluted stream of consciousness that runs through the minds of the comrades. There are numerous legitimate criticisms to be made of Donald Trump. In many ways, he’s a bad man. But to jumble up the truth, the exaggerations, the distortions, and the outright lies in this manner, and then present the result as proof that Donald Trump’s a fascist is, as Mr. Lowry put it, stupid.

I’ve taken the trouble to write about this left-wing fascism fad here on Substack, drawing on a lifetime of reading and study, because I’m fed up with the distortions of history perpetrated by ideologues, especially those posing as academics. I was still a teenager when I read William L. Shirer’s pioneering book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Though some of the author’s conclusions have been disputed and later works add more detail, Shirer’s account, based partly on his eyewitness account of the rise of National Socialism, remains a good introduction to the subject.

It was The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich that set me on a particular path of lifelong learning. As an undergraduate history major and graduate student, modern Germany was my focus, and it remains so to this day. In short, I know what fascism is and what it isn’t—and it isn’t Donald Trump.

For further reading:

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