Epilogue to Rosenfeld and J. Ward
Note by James R. Martin, Ph.D., CMA
Professor Emeritus, University of South Florida
Fascism Main Page |
Political Issues Main Page
Contents & Introduction | Chapter 1
| Chapter 2 |
Chapter 3 |
Chapter 4 |
Chapter 11 |
Chapter 12
Epilogue by Ruth Ben-Chiat
The twelve chapters of Fascism In America: Past and Present provide overwhelming evidence that fascism can happen in America. All the ingredients have been present for many years. The nation includes the movements, parties, ideologies and demagogues as well as the racism, bigotry and inclinations to violent action that are identified with fascists. The far-right militias and vigilantes, organized extremists like the Ku Klux Klan and Proud Boys, the America First movement and many more groups reveal a living core that can resurface in new movements. Fascism provides a perennial set of practices and authoritarian tools including corruption, propaganda, the fear of loss of social hierarchies, and the cult of victimhood.
Trump can be referred to as a fascist because he is different from any previous American president in his explicit goal of destroying democracy at home, disengaging America from democratic international networks, and allying with autocrats he admires like Putin. Autocrats provide a means for Trump to achieve his real goals that include self-enrichment and self-protection. He domesticated the Republican Party, turned the press and prosecutors into hate objects, and gutted the State Department and other federal agencies. Fascism does not really capture all of Trump's criminality and his connection with flows of illicit capital. January 6 was an assault on the democratic system and a fascist-style scorn of the rule of law. That is something that is not supposed to happen in a country founded on the principles of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law.
_______________________________________
Related summaries:
Anonymous. 2019. A Warning: A Senior Trump Administration Official. Twelve: Hachette Book Group. (Summary).
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Policies of a Second Trump Presidency.
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Shepard Fairey Political Posters.
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Summary of Trump's Seven Part Plan to Overturn the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election.
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Summary of what Trump is and what he is not.
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Why I vote for Democrats.
Oser, J. 1963. The Evolution of Economic Thought. Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. See Chapter 5 for Adam Smith's invisible hand. (Summary).
Stanley, J. 2018. How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. Random House. (Summary).
Unger, C. 2018. House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia. Dutton. (Note).