Commentary

Who is a Fascist?

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Before throwing that word around, look at the history.

This article was originally published on Rob Roper’s Substack Behind Lines and republished here with permission

By Rob Roper

The accusation of “fascist!” is being tossed around a lot in the closing weeks of this campaign season, which gets me to wondering if these accusers actually know what fascism is. It’s a hard thing to pin down because fascist governments only existed for a very brief flash in the historical pan, and only in a few countries. And most of what folks think of when hearing the term is the peculiar leaders of these governments and the antisemitic atrocities of the Nazis.  But what were the actual philosophical underpinnings for fascism and what were the mechanics upon which fascist governments operated?

Since he coined the term and established the first fascist government in Italy, it’s fair to look at Benito Mussolini’s definitions of what fascism is for clarity. His most famous quote on the subject is, “Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.” In today’s terms that could be translated as, the political class determines the narrative and policy direction, everyone better agree, and nobody who questions or opposes it will be tolerated.

Further, in his “The Doctrine of Fascism” (1932) Mussolini defined it “as an organized, centralized, authoritarian democracy.” Notice how he sees “authoritarian” and “democracy” as linked concepts, which is why those who value individual freedom and rights are fond of pointing out that the USA is a not a democracy, but a republic. The tyranny of the majority is still a tyranny. It’s an important distinction.

Speaking of individual rights, Mussolini wrote, “If the 19th century was the century of the individual ([classical] liberalism implies individualism) we are free to believe that this is the “collective” century, and therefore the century of the State.” He summed that up more succinctly later with, “If [classical] liberalism spells individualism, Fascism spells government.” Hmmm.

So, at its core, a fascist regime is one that embraces the centralized authority of the State, is collectivist in nature, and rejects the role of government as a protector of individual rights and individual agency in favor of State-determined, Sate-directed outcomes.

Il Duce

Understood from this perspective, the ultimate anti-fascist document is the US Constitution which limits governmental power, decentralizes that power through checks and balances such as states’ rights, our three branches of government, bicameral legislature, electoral college, etc., and our Bill of Rights that ensures individual rights take primacy, and government’s role is to protect and preserve those rights. So, when you see some in our country today who want to dismantle those institutional checks and balances by, say, packing the court, eliminating the electoral college, promoting a stronger, more centralized government power at the expense of states, and pushing policies that place government-directed, collective outcomes over individual rights, it’s safe to say Mussolini would approve.

It’s important to remember, fascism in the second quarter of the 20th century was an outgrowth of the Progressive movement of the first quarter. (For example, Hitler really liked Margaret Sanger’s positions on eugenics!) Early 20th century Progressive philosophers inspired fascist politicians with ideas like, “human nature could be improved through the enlightened application of regulations, incentives, and punishments. The second key assumption was that the power of the federal government could be harnessed to improve the individual and transform society” (Kahn Academy). It’s a tempting concept. It just never works, and always ends very badly. 

But, we still have politicians today who are inspired by the notion that it is their role to harness government to transform society, and are fond of applying government “regulations, incentives, and punishments” to achieve outcomes that are at odds with the choices individuals would make if left free to our own devices? Off the top of my head, where would, say, The Unaffordable Heat Act fall on this spectrum? Or Clean Cars II that bans the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles in order to achieve the State objective of transportation electrification? What would Mussolini say?

Mussolini did say, “The Fascist State expresses the will to exercise power and to command.” Or, in other words, government knows what’s best for you, and you will obey government.

Which gets us to enforcement under fascist rule. Mussolini describes, “the severity which has to be exercised towards those who would oppose this spontaneous and inevitable movement of 20th century Italy [fascism] by agitating outgrown ideologies of the 19th century [classical liberalism], ideologies rejected wherever great experiments in political and social transformations are being dared.” In other words, Mussolini would definitely be a eager proponent of “cancel culture” today, deplatforming, demonetizing, and ostracizing those who disagree with the State approved narratives and policies. He would certainly approve of the lawfare being prosecuted against people like Elon Musk now that he is no longer “in the state” promoting the State goal of vehicle electrification, and is “out of the state” advocating for individual rights of freedom of speech and exercising his own to oppose State endorsed policies.  

As for Hitler and the Nazis, they were all on board with this kind of government too but added their own political twist of Aryan supremacy paired virulent anti-semitism. But thank goodness we will Never Forget where that led, and no modern political movement – even one committed to transforming society via an “organized, centralized democracy” — would ignore, apologize for, or even embrace members who pour into public spaces and universities to rally, sometimes violently, around genocidal chants to kill the Jews…. Oh, wait.

The Author is a freelance writer with 20 years of experience in Vermont politics including three years service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free market think tank.

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Categories: Commentary

26 replies »

  2. And fascism is tied to corporate rule through the state… money in otherwords… a marriage made in hell!

  3. As exemplified by the federal government and others using Twitter to censor content that did not forward the interests of the State and international entities like the United Nations, World Health Organization and others.

  4. Fascism. Vermont with all of its public private partners seem to agree with fascism. The taxpayers always get screwed.

  5. “Mussolini in Myth and Memory”, by Paul Corner is worth a read. There are so many instances of the local fascist groups in small towns and villages just going out and surveilling their neighbors in coffee shops, etc. and writing it down if the citizenry said anything that the local fascisti didn’t like. It stopped free speech and it wasn’t the state – it was people. It was cancel culture, c. 1930. The woke mob are the fasciti of today.

  6. The fascists and the communists have more in common with each other than they don’t. I’ve seen a lot of communist flags and avowed Marxists speaking, marching & rioting over the past 7-8 years, and the only “fascists” I’ve seen appear to be Feds dressed up to scare them. Anyway, I’m in favor of limited government, so I guess I’m just an American patriot. Which is also what Trump is.

  7. This description of fascism focuses on one of many features that make up a fascist society. What is interesting is there is no reference to the key feature of fascism, a dictatorial leader. Why? Is it because Trump and the MAGA movement exhibit many of the traits of fascism? Dictator for a day, SCOTUS removed all checks and balances against the President. Use the military against protesters. Arrest and execute political rival. Deport millions. Destroy the administrative state and install your cronies. Protect women. Vermin. Enemy of the people.

    Please be honest with your readers.

    • I am sorry Tom, but you are spewing fiction. What protection of woman are you referring to. The military was never used against protesters evidenced by the 2 billion dollars worth of damage, according to insurance claims, to property during the BLM riots. In Seattle the autonomous zone was allowed to stop all business and take over city blocks for a month as occupied territory. BLM and Antifa restricted access to the area. If what you stated was true I hen none of this would ever have been allowed to occur.

    • Note the sophistry (plausible but fallacious argumentation) in Mr. Treece’s missive when he makes his first of several false dichotomies – regarding ‘no reference to the key feature of fascism, a dictatorial leader’.

      First of all, fascistic governance comes in many totalitarian forms, including monarchies, dictatorships, and oligarchies – not to mention pure democracies (the tyranny of the majority). Mr. Treece is ‘projecting’ the not-so-subtle false assertion that Trump wants to be a dictator. When in fact, we can see for ourselves what Trump actually did as the 45th President. Trump was anything but a dictator.

      And the MAGA movement isn’t exhibiting many of the traits of fascism either. Mr. Treece is the exhibitionist in that regard.

      The SCOTUS did NOT remove all checks and balances against the President. That’s a lie. Trump didn’t arrest political rivals. That was the Biden/Harris DOJ that sent Trump associates Dr. Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon to prison for Contempt of Congress. Meanwhile, Attorney General, Merrick Garland, was found to be in Contempt of Congress too. Did he go to jail?

      Does Trump want to ‘deport millions’. Well, if he’s talking about the millions of people who entered the U.S. illegally, yes. But Mr. Treece didn’t hedge his bet with any context. He said Trump wants to ‘deport millions’, period. After all, if the Biden/Harris administration, that Mr. Treece seems to be endorsing, didn’t let those millions of people enter the country illegally in the first place, Trump wouldn’t have to deport anyone.

      Does Trump want to ‘destroy the administrative state’. No. But he does want to cut it back to a size that’s efficient and effective. He and Elon Musk figure they can save $2 Trillion a year (that’s with a ‘T’) by applying the same management strategy to the administrative state (i.e., unelected, powerful and expensive bureaucrats) that Musk used as he reformed Twitter into ‘X’. Will the replacements be ‘cronies’? That depends on how one defines what a crony is. Mr. Treece doesn’t say.

      Re: “Please be honest with your readers”.

      You first, Mr. Treece.

    • Amen to H. Jay Eshelman on Treece – very well stated Mr. Eshelman. Like all trolling leftists, they project what they do on to Trump supporters and Trump himself. All lies. I’m so happy so many have woken up and seen the dishonety and hypocrisy of the Biden-Harris regime.

  8. Thanks, Rob, for that excellent explanation, and for the examples you used to help illustrate what fascism looks like. It’s amazing how the left, in conjunction with mainstream media, has hijacked and altered many words so that their real definitions are no longer linked accurately with their original and historical concepts and contexts. And with the advent of mainstream and social media-induced hive mind, lots of folks no longer care about or are willing to do the intellectual work required to understand the historical and conceptual veracity of the words and concepts they carelessly throw around.

  9. Thanks Rob nice article, now if we can only get the Left to read it and understand it !!

    • Wow, I had no idea the Libertarian party was pushing this term on all republicans. The interesting part is that many Republicans are anti war like myself. I was at dinner and a friend, who is a libertarian proceeded to tell me how corrupt both parties are and all candidates. I informed him that there are good candidates, like myself, who support limited government, less taxation and term limits. He has known me for years, sees me all the time, knows I am running for office and not once asked my why I was running.

    • @Christine Stone – The Libertarian party sucks as much as all the other “parties”. This is an older writing from Lew in 2004, the era of the patriot act, unlimited funding for war, torture chambers, project pipe dreams, rave act, TSA, No fly list, Secret watch lists, secret wars, DHS, 911 commission, postal service spygate, non existent weapons of mass destruction, anthrax experiment false flags, dangerous vaccine experiments on our military, other false flags, “people who make frequent references to the constitution” being put on terrorists watch lists, all weaponized against non-terrorists and political opponents.

      Thank you for putting yourself out there and doing what you think is best. Hopefully you can deprogram any bias you may have which may seem like “common sense” on the surface, but is actually a violent setback against liberty and justice for all, chasing effects instead of root causes. Freedom is dangerous! Good luck!

  11. If you want to know who the communist/fascist/anti constitutionalists are look at their slogans. The Democrat party has used the word “Forward” for a lot of their political candidates and campaigns. It is a signal to their fellow travelers to let them know what they stand for and who to vote for. This is why Obama used the word “Forward” in his campaign as did Hillary with her arrow pointing forward logo.

    The slogan “Forward!” reflected the conviction of European Marxists and radicals that their movements reflected the march of history, which would move forward past capitalism and into socialism and communism. …

    There have been at least two radical-left publications named “Vorwaerts” (the German word for “Forward”). One was the daily newspaper of the Social Democratic Party of Germany whose writers included Friedrich Engels and Leon Trotsky. It still publishes as the organ of Germany’s SDP, though that party has changed considerably since World War II. Another was the 1844 biweekly reader of the Communist League. Karl Marx, Engels and Mikhail Bakunin are among the names associated with that publication.

    https://duckduckgo.com/?va=d&t=hb&q=communist+forward+poster&iax=images&ia=images

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2012/apr/30/new-obama-slogan-has-long-ties-marxism-socialism/

    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=hillary+clinton+campaign+logo&va=d&t=hb&iax=images&ia=images

    “The enemy is already here”. – Dan Bongino

    • Just the other day in Reno NV Commie-la gives a speech using all the commie buzz words like “forward” and “saving democracy”, the one who got nominated with no votes.

  12. You could write the same opinion piece on other slanderous, belittling, character assasinating taunts such as: racist, misogynist, sexist, anti-vaxxer, climate change denier, and homophobe. Nazi is now the new “n” word flung around so fast and furious, the true definaition and impact is lost in the fray – all by design.

    Make no mistake, the divisive rhetoric and labeling thrust onto society is by design. Some have labeled themselves so they can be inclusive, yet demand special treatment and purposely set themselves apart from the rest of society. Others use labels out of pure spite and mind control tactics. Some have earned their labels decisively through their actions. Witchcraft wordcraft and propaganda – a tried and true weapon of the elites for centuries. We’ve all fallen for it one way or another. Time to stop the controllers tactics and be civil human beings again – the future of humanity and a civil society hangs in the balance.

    • Well said Melissa. I couldn’t agree more. It is time to come together in spirit of our shared humanity and for the common good of Vermont.

  13. They don’t call it fascism anymore. It’s “technocratic governance” that seeks to “maximize social well-being” by having “experts” control our behaviors.

    Smoking directives (I know most will disagree but it was the start of it)
    Mask mandates
    Maximum serving size of sugary drinks (Bloomberg)
    Take the vaccine.

    Pay no attention to the insider get rich quick schemes. They have nothing to do with it, you little worm. Do as you’re told and be quiet.

    • How do you become a fascist you may ask – win an argument with a leftist and boom, you’re called a fascist. And you’re called most of the ists and phobes.

  14. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see our educational system teach the truth that’s researched in Rob’s great article. I’ll say the quiet part out loud, this article perfectly describes the way in which the Vermont legislature works against the people. Remember the legislator who said that only 10 people control what happens in the people’s house.

    If you disagree with a progressive, they attempt to shame you by calling you DNC approved names. Take this election cycle as an example. Trump has been called Hitler, a Fascist, a criminal, a misogynist and others. Hillary called us deplorables and Biden says we are garbage. for supporting Trump/Vance. How about MAGAts, that’s a clever one. Some people are afraid to put lawn signs out or bumper stickers on their cars for fear of retribution.

    The left has burned cities, torn down historical statues, blocked people from speaking at colleges and tried to twist the J6 people’s right to address the displeasure with their government into an insurrection to overturn the government.
    The action that day to be labelled the first ever, unarmed attack ever on the government. All orchestrated by the left with aid and comfort of the media.

    Vermont government is a prime example of the centralized state. This is not a representative government, it’s a corporate government controlled by lobbyists and the money that is sent into the state by NGO representing the leftist vision they all push. Rob described what we are experiencing only it’s fascist-light without the thugs kicking our doors in yet. The legislature is controlled by leaders who aren’t even from Vermont.

    This article is an eye opener, and I repeat that this and other historical facts should be taught in our schools as well as the structure of our constitution and why we are a constitutional republic. The left controls our schools and these subjects have been hidden away as well as the history of the democratic party. Unfortunately, we as a nation have purposely been dumbed down. We are experiencing the result of that now and the reason our nation is divided. I’m old now but I still have hope and maybe this election will start to swing the pendulum back to sanity. That will only be accomplished with uncensored education and knowledge such as what this article does to explain who the fascists really are.

    • I wonder where Pete and Joe found that $20 million, the government is $36 Trillion in debt. Amazing how they can manipulate some cash to prop up one of their yes men in the Senate. I said prop because the picture is as fake as the politician. Imagine Pete as an oil delivery driver. I’m surprised he can even lift the handle of the hose. Like all things liberal, the picture is a mirage.

  16. Want another wake up call? Go to the Vt State list of registered lobbyists and see who really determines legislation in Montpelier! Holy crap!