Wayne O'Leary

The Winding Road to Fascism

Politically speaking, the question of the hour for Americans seems to be whether democracy as we know it will survive, or whether we are on the inevitable road to fascism, the direction set by the Trumpist extremists now in charge of the Republican Party and about to seize control, it is widely assumed, of Congress. A secondary question, if we are indeed on the expressway to perdition, is what form an American fascism might take.

The events of Jan. 6, 2021, notwithstanding, any such development is unlikely to spring from a seizure of power similar to what transpired in Italy or Germany during the last century — the historical precedents for true fascism. This country is too large, diverse and complex to easily fall victim to a coup d’état or “beer-hall putsch,” such as that instigated by Hitler in Munich in 1923. Nor is it likely to respond positively to the likes of Mussolini’s theatrical March on Rome the previous year.

It is equally unlikely that Americans would be persuaded to annul democracy by collections of street-fighting brownshirts or blackshirts carrying out random acts of violence and destruction. A spectacular Reichstag-type fire like the one Nazis set to panic German voters into supporting Hitler in 1933 would probably be equally counterproductive and unconvincing, given an absence of the obvious scapegoats (Jews, Communists) abundantly available in Depression Germany. Trump tried to use Muslims and Mexicans for a similar purpose early-on in his presidency, but the smears mostly didn’t take.

Also absent would be weak leaders in positions of power ready and willing to sell out the country in abject fear of the extreme right. There would be no one comparable to King Victor Emmanuel III, who effectively turned Italy’s government over to Mussolini without a whimper, and no one like the aged and senile German President Paul von Hindenburg, who lacked the fortitude to resist Hitler and instantly offered him the keys to power.

How would fascism come to this country, then, if actually it did? To begin with, it would have to be a unique formulation, a neofascism attuned to American beliefs, history and traditions, giving lip service to democracy while destroying it. It would necessarily be heavy on nationalistic overtones and references to red, white and blue American exceptionalism — our inherent superiority to other nations — while projecting a siege mentality that implied the rest of the world neither respected nor appreciated us and was, in fact, hostile toward American interests.

Donald Trump used some of these appeals in his tentative half-steps in the direction of American autocracy, exploiting nationalist emotions in particular. Trump’s Achilles’ heel was that he totally lacked the capacity to pull off a successful neofascist takeover.

Hitler, who originated the concept of the Big Lie, which Trump and his followers have happily appropriated, also said the following: “The union of theorizer, organizer and leader in one man is the rarest phenomenon on earth; therein lies greatness.” Trump, it can be argued, is a leader of sorts. But he’s no theorizer and no organizer, qualities der Führer evidently saw in himself. Trump’s undisciplined MAGA movement was and is chaos on steroids.

Some of Trump’s acolytes and possible successors, notably Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, possess more of the requisite Hitlerian attributes and are therefore more dangerous. DeSantis, in fact, has lately made moves toward acquiring his own personal gubernatorial police force, something the full-fledged fascists of the past also did. But he remains a supplicant to the Donald and may ultimately prove to be the great pretender of American neofascism. His decision to literally hide out in the face of Florida’s recently disastrous Omicron surge revealed an utter lack of leadership qualities.

So, is there a model for a successful American neofascism, something that doesn’t crudely smack of jackbooted thuggery, secret police, and a militarized society? Yes, such a model does exist; moreover, it’s been discovered and avidly studied by America’s far right. The prototype is the bourgeois, business-suit authoritarianism of Hungary’s Prime Minister-cum-dictator Viktor Orban.

In office since 2010, Orban has carefully crafted a rigidly rightist oligarchic state he calls an “illiberal democracy.” His Hungary allows elections, but those elections are invariably won by his Fidesz Party, whose structural advantages include gerrymandered electoral districts and favorable voting rules bordering on voter suppression, as well as direct or indirect control of media outlets, a packed and pliant court system, and a revised constitution limiting political rights and press freedoms. (Some of this should sound uncomfortably familiar to Americans.)

Orban’s tailor-made political structure has allowed him and his party to implement a hard-right agenda that is at once religiously doctrinaire, overtly racist, and reflexively xenophobic; it fuses extreme conservative social values with an ethnic nationalism based on a fear of external threats (Middle Eastern migrants, Western liberal democracies). The ultimate political aim is to recreate a mythical Christian-conservative Europe by means of a purifying, continent-wide culture war, beginning in Hungary.

Economically, Orban’s government has perfected a sophisticated form of crony capitalism that favors submissive companies over workers and benefits friends and family members through corrupt privatization schemes and the misappropriation of public money. Favoritism in allocating European Union development funds is part of the equation, funds the Hungarian government eagerly accepts despite its contempt for the EU’s democratic norms.

Last, but not least, is the Orban effort to transform the national educational system to reflect a more reactionary world view. This campaign began with changing school textbooks; it moved on to a successful effort to force liberal philanthropist (and Hungarian native) George Soros to transfer his pro-democracy Open Society Foundations out of the country and to relocate the Central European University he founded and supports to Austria. Next on the agenda was the privatization of Hungary’s public universities and the establishment of a state-sponsored elite college dedicated to training the next generation of far-right nationalist leaders.

Orban’s unfolding neofascist project has been watched with dreamy-eyed admiration by America’s own aspiring neofascists and Trumpian hangers-on. A succession of right-wing celebrities, starting with Trump whisperer Steve Bannon, have turned up in Budapest to hail Orban and observe his techniques. Pilgrims have included Fox News host Tucker Carlson, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and ex-Vice President Mike Pence. If fascism comes to America, it will arrive to the strains of “The Hungarian Rhapsody.”

Wayne O’Leary is a writer in Orono, Maine, specializing in political economy. He holds a doctorate in American history and is the author of two prizewinning books.

From The Progressive Populist, March 1, 2022

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