At this moment, I am on assignment in Europe, a continent that, like America, seems more screwed-up with every visit. To escape the insanity that threatens to engulf us all, this morning I decided to work remotely from a small French town. Hammering away on my laptop, I sat down to enjoy a nice breakfast in a quaint little café. The coffee was good. So were the bacon and eggs. Fearing I would miss a critical news event — you know, like, say, the ransacking of a California university by students deeply concerned with the ideals of democracy — I put in my earbuds and listened to BBC Radio.
This was a mistake.
The brief tranquility of my world was punctured and my coffee made bitter by an interview with a man who warned of a populist “Trumpian fascism” in Britain and America. Yes, a new Hitler, he said, threatened the free world. This is a frequent refrain. Ashley Judd shouted it on the Washington Mall. Social media is bristling with the same. And pundits both here and in America love to say it. That narrative, however dear to the Left it may be, is ignorant and bears no semblance to the modern geopolitical reality in the Western world.
A little political primer for the uninitiated:
Strictly speaking, fascism sees the clash of civilizations as a war between races of people. It is about the blood. Private property and capitalism are permitted, but it is for purposes designated by the state. Fascism is an extreme expression of the Right. Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, and Franco’s Spain were all fascist regimes.
They killed millions of people.
Strictly speaking, socialism sees the clash of civilizations as a war between classes of people. It is about impersonal economic forces. Private property is not recognized, capitalism is a great evil, and the state owns the means of production. Socialism’s highest stage of development is called communism. (It has never been achieved, but that is a discussion for another time.) Socialism is an extreme expression of the Left. Stalin’s Soviet Union, Mao’s China, and Kim Jong-un’s North Korea were/are all socialist states.
They killed millions of people.
Fascism and socialism are “historicist” theories. That is, in these systems, history is governed by predetermined laws; not man and certainly not God. Indeed, both have a great antipathy for God and seek to substitute the state and its pantheon of leaders for authentic worship. After all, salvation, they believe, is found in the state alone.
Fascism enjoys no mainstream support in Britain or America. This has not deterred opponents of Donald Trump from calling him and his supporters “fascists” and “Nazis.” I did not vote for Trump — I damn sure didn’t vote for Hillary — but I must defend the man on this point. To use such labels is outrageous and utterly fails to understand what those words mean. And to use them in this context is to lose all credibility.
As far as I can tell, Trump is a typical Western capitalist and pragmatist. To date, his political policies stand in the mainstream of American presidential tradition in a way that Obama’s did not. There is nothing particularly radical — or fascist — about strict immigration requirements, the protection of U.S. interests and sovereignty, or a wariness of an oppressive, violent socio-political structure like Islam whose core principles are antithetical to Western ideals. Moreover, Trump is no ideologue as Obama and Bernie Sanders certainly are.
No, it is not fascism that threatens the West; it is an anarchy fueled by leftist ideology incubated in our universities, promoted by a willing media, and regurgitated by Hollywood. Furthermore, in trying to redefine what constitutes America’s political center, the Left has sought to give the impression that they embody it.
Don’t fall for it.
You must bear in mind the kinds of behaviors these people want to mainstream: not only the killing of unborn children, but the celebration of it in the manner of an ISIS execution video; gay marriage and its transgender corollary; the full embrace of Islam, the greatest global threat to free peoples since Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany (i.e., authentic fascists); and now, as if this were not enough, some on the Left are suggesting the overthrow of the government.
I’m not talking about the ubiquitous suggestion that the Electoral College be abolished. The comment to which I refer comes from former Obama Administration policy advisor Rosa Brooks. In an article for Foreign Policy titled “3 Ways to Get Rid of President Trump Before 2020,” Brooks, who repeatedly questions Trump’s sanity, suggests a “military coup.” This was not the stuff of clever political satire. She meant it. What’s next? Suggesting that someone blow up the White House? (Oh, wait. Scratch that.)
This kind of talk, which has become commonplace in recent weeks, is alarming and dangerous whether it comes from the Left or the Right. It is the kind of talk that erodes the Rule of Law and encourages the civil unrest we witnessed at Berkeley in recent days. But neither this talk nor the anarchy in our streets is the result of fascism, “Trumpian” or otherwise. Ferguson and Dallas occurred on Obama’s watch and were not funded with money from the Koch Brothers or Chick-fil-A. No, these are all manifestations of the political Left.
Is our democracy imperiled? Undoubtedly. Look Left.
