Are We Facing Fascism Wrapped in an American Flag?

Or 21st Century Reactionary Republicanism?

4/14/25: I will admit I am biased in favor of the view of one philosopher that what we are seeing now is the latter (a new form of reaction). I’ll start, soon, by discussing this article in the Guardian, once I have had a chance to consult the book by Hirschman, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty. I will also dicuss the new translation of The Japanese Ideology: A Marxist Critique by Jun Tosaka, which I read recently.

4/15/25: See Carl Davidson’s excellent article, my comment and his reply. He replies that American Fascism is a fine label and refers to the Oklahoma City bombing, but he and others are engaged in a more substantial historical/contemporary analysis of neo-Confederatism, Christian nationalism, and so forth. What I have said here so far on other posts is that there is a real danger that a combination of far-right libertarianism, authoritarianism, utopian social conservatism, and patrimonialism— or one one commentator has called patronal autocracy (cited elsewhere)—they could combine into fascism. But while there are neo-fascist individuals and prototypical movements in the US, I do not think it is politically wise to start reifying the Trump administration as fascist. Calling people fascists is not how to defeat fascism. Using the F word also will justify in many muddled minds all sorts of adventurist, ultraleftist approaches and could fuel a left-wing version of democracy denial: critiques of our electoral and governing system as fundamentally undemocratic and under fascist control right now. That kind of thinking can fuel left insurrectionism, when we should be the constitutionalist, anti-insurrectional force in US politics. Now, that is not what Carl is saying; he favors a broad left-center coalition against the MAGA movement, as do I. And he is one of the few doing active actual theoretical work, guided by a careful study of US history. I contend, however, that many of not most of our mistakes have been theoretical in nature. That is why I am now studying the nature of nihilism and the nature of democratic socialism, among other sideline efforts while I focus on primary work on human needs, the social system of real property and the population of policies in higher education related to institutional racism.