![Why Liberal Anti-Fascism Upholds the Status Quo](https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/donald-trump-incited-insurrectionist-mob-clashes-with-security-forces-as-they-push-barricades-to-storm-the-us-capitol-in-washing.jpg?id=32257709&width=1200&height=400&quality=90&coordinates=0%2C207%2C0%2C0)
Donald Trump-incited insurrectionist mob clashes with security forces as they push barricades to storm the US Capitol in Washington D.C on January 6, 2021. (Photo/ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
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Donald Trump-incited insurrectionist mob clashes with security forces as they push barricades to storm the US Capitol in Washington D.C on January 6, 2021. (Photo/ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
Is the fascist label useful in discussing Trumpism and the Jan. 6 Capitol riots by hardcore Trump supporters? Perhaps that's a strange question to ask given the oft-repeated claim that "it can't happen here" - a claim that's been a staple of U.S. exceptionalism for a long while. However, the attack on the Capitol represented a crossing of a red line for the liberal managerial class. A liberal/centrist anti-fascist discourse has emerged as an extension of anti-Trumpism. Robert O. Paxton, professor of social sciences at Columbia University, wrote in Newsweek that the breach of the Capitol "removes my objection to the fascist label .... The label now seems not just acceptable but necessary." It's clear that the label can be applied beyond the rioters to other Americans. 2017 polls indicated that 10% of the public supported the "alt-right," with 9% (roughly 22 million people) calling holding neo-Nazi or white supremacist views acceptable.
Even so, there are clear grounds for concern about the liberal anti-fascist discourse. Here are some:
Late capitalist normality produced Trumpism. Liberal anti-fascism obscures this fact. Centrist liberals hide their role in upholding oligarchic class rule and hide the U.S. empire and its alliances with fascist forces. They support suppressing dissent to hide these facts and preserve the neoliberal global order. The U.S. has a tradition of suppressing the independent left. The capitalist carceral state is fascism. The genocide of the natives is fascism. Centuries of racial terror is fascism. Supporting fascists in the global South is fascism. As the Black Agenda Report's columnist Margaret Kimberley told me, fascism is not "something new and Trumpian" and that it's "a mistake to think that he is unique." The left should oppose the centrist liberal consensus on the grounds of principle and self-preservation. Defeating fascism requires that we stop producing the conditions that give rise to it. That means building a radically different society. For now, let's stop the elites from hijacking 1/6 to silence critical voices and make the world safe for capitalism.
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Is the fascist label useful in discussing Trumpism and the Jan. 6 Capitol riots by hardcore Trump supporters? Perhaps that's a strange question to ask given the oft-repeated claim that "it can't happen here" - a claim that's been a staple of U.S. exceptionalism for a long while. However, the attack on the Capitol represented a crossing of a red line for the liberal managerial class. A liberal/centrist anti-fascist discourse has emerged as an extension of anti-Trumpism. Robert O. Paxton, professor of social sciences at Columbia University, wrote in Newsweek that the breach of the Capitol "removes my objection to the fascist label .... The label now seems not just acceptable but necessary." It's clear that the label can be applied beyond the rioters to other Americans. 2017 polls indicated that 10% of the public supported the "alt-right," with 9% (roughly 22 million people) calling holding neo-Nazi or white supremacist views acceptable.
Even so, there are clear grounds for concern about the liberal anti-fascist discourse. Here are some:
Late capitalist normality produced Trumpism. Liberal anti-fascism obscures this fact. Centrist liberals hide their role in upholding oligarchic class rule and hide the U.S. empire and its alliances with fascist forces. They support suppressing dissent to hide these facts and preserve the neoliberal global order. The U.S. has a tradition of suppressing the independent left. The capitalist carceral state is fascism. The genocide of the natives is fascism. Centuries of racial terror is fascism. Supporting fascists in the global South is fascism. As the Black Agenda Report's columnist Margaret Kimberley told me, fascism is not "something new and Trumpian" and that it's "a mistake to think that he is unique." The left should oppose the centrist liberal consensus on the grounds of principle and self-preservation. Defeating fascism requires that we stop producing the conditions that give rise to it. That means building a radically different society. For now, let's stop the elites from hijacking 1/6 to silence critical voices and make the world safe for capitalism.
Is the fascist label useful in discussing Trumpism and the Jan. 6 Capitol riots by hardcore Trump supporters? Perhaps that's a strange question to ask given the oft-repeated claim that "it can't happen here" - a claim that's been a staple of U.S. exceptionalism for a long while. However, the attack on the Capitol represented a crossing of a red line for the liberal managerial class. A liberal/centrist anti-fascist discourse has emerged as an extension of anti-Trumpism. Robert O. Paxton, professor of social sciences at Columbia University, wrote in Newsweek that the breach of the Capitol "removes my objection to the fascist label .... The label now seems not just acceptable but necessary." It's clear that the label can be applied beyond the rioters to other Americans. 2017 polls indicated that 10% of the public supported the "alt-right," with 9% (roughly 22 million people) calling holding neo-Nazi or white supremacist views acceptable.
Even so, there are clear grounds for concern about the liberal anti-fascist discourse. Here are some:
Late capitalist normality produced Trumpism. Liberal anti-fascism obscures this fact. Centrist liberals hide their role in upholding oligarchic class rule and hide the U.S. empire and its alliances with fascist forces. They support suppressing dissent to hide these facts and preserve the neoliberal global order. The U.S. has a tradition of suppressing the independent left. The capitalist carceral state is fascism. The genocide of the natives is fascism. Centuries of racial terror is fascism. Supporting fascists in the global South is fascism. As the Black Agenda Report's columnist Margaret Kimberley told me, fascism is not "something new and Trumpian" and that it's "a mistake to think that he is unique." The left should oppose the centrist liberal consensus on the grounds of principle and self-preservation. Defeating fascism requires that we stop producing the conditions that give rise to it. That means building a radically different society. For now, let's stop the elites from hijacking 1/6 to silence critical voices and make the world safe for capitalism.