Reader Roger Meier, commented on the previous post, Trump is forcing us into socialism, hatred and recession.
He makes a good case for Trump not being a socialist, but rather, a fascist. I agree with his comments and have included them below.
However, I stand by the “hatred and recession” claims, as there can be no doubt he is the ultimate hatemonger and that his incoherent use of tariffs will negatively impact our economy.
I opt for Trumpism-Fascism as fascism is an authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology characterized by a dictatorial leader, the forcible suppression of opposition, and the regimentation of society and the economy.
Core features of fascist regimes, such as those that ruled Italy and Germany in the 20th century, include:
- Dictatorial leader: A single leader, often viewed with a personality cult, holds complete control over the government.
- Ultranationalism: The nation and often race are exalted above the individual. The national community’s unity is prioritized over individual rights.
- Militarism: The government actively builds up its military strength and prepares for—or engages in—aggressive warfare to expand its territory.
- Suppression of opposition: All forms of political dissent are suppressed, often through violence. Free elections are eliminated or made fraudulent.
- Rejection of other ideologies: Fascism stands in opposition to communism, liberal democracy, and traditional conservatism.
While not based on state ownership of the means of production like communism, fascist economies tightly control private enterprise to serve the state’s nationalistic goals. This is achieved primarily through a corporatist system.
Corporatism.
This system involves the government organizing the economy into a series of state-controlled “corporations,” or syndicates, that include representatives from government, industry, and labor.
- Controlled “collaboration”: In theory, this arrangement fosters “harmonious cooperation” between workers and employers for the national good. In practice, it destroys independent labor movements and solidifies state control.
- State-directed production: Through these state-run bodies, the government dictates industrial policy, setting production levels, wages, and prices.
- Benefit for favored elites: While claiming to represent all, corporatism protects powerful corporations and existing elites who align with the regime. The state’s power in this “partnership” is always dominant.
Economic examples
- Fascist Italy (1922–1943): Benito Mussolini’s regime implemented a system where private initiative was considered an instrument to protect national interests. By the late 1930s, the state controlled most of Italy’s economy after taking over failing banks that owned many businesses during the Great Depression.
- Nazi Germany (1933–1945): Adolf Hitler’s regime forced businesses into cartels and eliminated independent labor unions. Private enterprise was heavily regulated and directed toward the goals of rearmament and autarky (economic self-sufficiency).
Key takeaways on business control
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Private ownership, public control: Fascism maintains the appearance of private property and private enterprise, but the state exerts total control over production and industry.
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Hierarchy over class struggle: Instead of socialist class struggle, fascism imposes a strict national and social hierarchy where the individual serves the state and economic interests are subordinated to the national agenda.
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Suppression of labor: Independent labor unions are banned and replaced with state-controlled syndicates, often resulting in lower wages and worse conditions for workers.
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Economic self-sufficiency: Autarky, or national economic self-sufficiency, is a primary goal, often achieved through protectionist trade policies and militaristic expansion.
The comments look AI generated (That is not a negative. To my mind the comments are perfectly appropriate, regardless of the source. The format just seems “AI-ish.” As readers know, I often refer to AI.)
I thank Roger for reminding us how seemingly opposite philosophies can circle back and meet at their extremes. Socialism, in its extreme form, communism, and fascism inevitably are dictatorships.
Given absolute power, as the Supreme Court has done with Trump, a leader will use it. “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
In communism, all property is publicly owned, which in reality means government owned and directed by a dictatorial leader. Fascism means a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy.
The two essentially are indistinguishable in practice.
Hitler and Stalin, fascist and communist, were cut from the same cloth. Hitler had his concentration camps. Stalin had his gulags. Trump has his Alligator Alcatraz (“Auschwitz”), and deportations to hellish locations.
In one, people were rounded up and gassed to death. In the other, people were rounded up and worked to death. In the third, people are rounded up, families separated, and deported.
Trump often uses Hitlerian phrases like “poisoning the blood” when referring to non-citizens.
Neither system countenances disagreement with the supreme leader, and both are brutal in their execution of laws as determined at the whim of the dictator.
Donald Trump encompasses all the traits of the fascist/communist leader. Watch a video of a Hitler speech and its translation and you easily can imagine Trump giving exactly the same speech — and receiving the same reactions from acolytes.
The Republican Party is as much an echo chamber for Trump as the Communist party was for Stalin and is for Putin. No difference.
It is no wonder that Trump has expressed admiration for Putin, Kim, Bolsonaro, and Orban. He wishes to be them.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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