As I write this, pro-Trump protesters have stormed the U.S. Capitol building seeking to impose Trump’s attempted coup on America. Trump’s hand in stoking the coup is apparent on multiple fronts. He’s been disseminating and mainstreaming baseless electoral fraud conspiracies for months – years really.
Trump encouraged these protesters to head over to Capitol Hill. Once the attacks on and invasion of the Capitol began, he refused to condemn them. And then in his first address to the nation, he poured more fuel on the fire by continuing to traffic in electoral fraud conspiracies. To be perfectly clear, this is not only a coup effort, but one that is being directed by the President of the United States.
How did we get here? And why is any of this a surprise to the legions of fascism deniers in the U.S. who have long insisted that the U.S. is not falling into authoritarian politics? Nothing about what’s happened in the capital should be a surprise to those who have taken a sober look at the rising fascism that now characterizes American politics.
Trump told the nation that he would not accept the results of an election he lost before a single ballot was counted on election day. And he has been leading an effort on countless fronts to overturn the results for the last two months, in the states, in the judicial branch, in Congress, and now in the streets.
The President was caught trying to extort the Georgian Secretary of State by threatening criminal prosecution if he refused to manufacture 11,780 votes, thereby handing Donald Trump a “victory” in the state. This was the second time in a year and a half – the other being the Ukraine scandal – in which Trump tried to extort a political official for electoral gain. Trump’s coup also includes his demand that Congress and Vice President Mike Pence hand Trump the presidency, rather than certifying Biden’s win.
Trump’s dealings with Pence, Ukraine, and the Georgian Secretary of State reflect a fiefdom-style politics in which other political leaders are deemed little more than a means to an end for the President’s personal political aggrandizement. Trump views his interactions with others as an opportunity for personal profit and as instrumental to achieving his own ends. But with this attempted coup, Trump’s politics extend beyond simple corruption and clientelism. His attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election represent a fundamental threat to democracy itself. Because of his conspiratorial propaganda, more than three-quarters of Republicans believe that the election was marked by “widespread voter fraud.” And many are now taking to the streets and engaging in violence and terrorism to overturn the election. Considering recent events, there’s just no way to know how bad this is all going to get moving forward when it comes to the survival of the republic.
Sadly, this fascist threat has been consistently downplayed every step of the way. Being intimately familiar with the mainstream academic work on fascism and the professors who produce it, I can confidently say that there are few American scholars who are willing to openly call Trump a fascist, and even fewer scholars who are willing to publicly claim that the U.S. political system contains elements of fascism.
American journalists have also been squeamish about the “fascism” designation when it comes to their reporting on Trump. A review of the Nexis Uni academic database reveals that from Presidential election to election – from November 8, 2016 to November 3, 2020 – the terms “fascism” or “fascist” appeared in relation to “Trump” in a total of 627 articles in the “paper of record” – The New York Times. The terms “authoritarian” or “authoritarianism” were far more common, appearing in 1,807 articles, or roughly three times as often as discussions of fascism, in relation to Trump. The least offensive and less incendiary terms “populist” and “populism” were far and away the most common in relation to Trump, appearing in 3,422 articles, or nearly five-and-a-half times as often as the fascist/fascism labels [1]. To summarize, U.S. journalists have routinely avoided attacks from the right by avoiding calling Trump a fascist, while deterring discussions of fascism in American politics.
The U.S. has a long history of denialism when it comes to recognizing the dangers of fascistic politics, at home and abroad. We can look back nearly a century to the writings of Sinclair Lewis for a recognition of the “It Can’t Happen Here” willful denialism that has long characterized U.S. political culture.
U.S. discourse is defined by simplistic “fascism-not fascism” and “authoritarian-not authoritarian” binaries, which do a massive disservice to our understanding of the threats to republican governance and democratic electoralism. These dichotomies are not geared toward a good faith discourse on the fascism-authoritarianism question, because they are almost never followed by serious journalistic or scholarly engagements with the available evidence regarding whether the U.S. is slipping into fascistic or authoritarian politics. Rather, these binary frameworks are often used in derisory ways to reject out of hand the use of the fascist classification in U.S. politics. These binaries prohibit any coherent, nuanced, or thoughtful discussion of the matter, since these approaches, by design, cannot recognize that authoritarianism and fascism are real until they are fully consolidated and mature features of U.S. politics. And now that this seditious insurrection has spilled into the streets, the moral bankruptcy of fascist denialism is on display for all to see.
Henry Giroux deals thoughtfully with the authoritarian-fascism question by recognizing that the U.S. contains elements of both neoliberal and fascist politics. In other words, it’s not an either-or choice between the two. One can call our political system neoliberal fascist, neofascistic, creeping fascist, para/proto-fascist or whatever. Regardless of the qualifier that we choose, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the fascist politics that is embraced by this administration. Prior to the attempted coup at the Capitol, there was already an alarmingly long list of transgressions from the Trump administration:
+ Trump’s militant and ritualistic contempt for basic notions of truth, facts, and evidence-based scientific and medical reasoning, coupled with a blind and cultist public devotion to the president via the admission of nearly two-thirds of his supporters that there is nothing he could do to lose their support.
+ Trump’s white nationalist politics and blanket demonization of Mexican immigrants as “drug dealers, criminals, rapists,” and as a national security threat. This xenophobia is clearly racist in orientation, considering Trump’s contempt for darker skinned immigrants, alongside a preference for white immigrants – as evidenced by his marriage to a white first-generation European.
+ His (failed) attempt to use the military to put down Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters, which faced stiff opposition from military leadership. Trump’s interest in using security forces to suppress dissent was hardly abstract, considering his administration’s use of police state-style undercover federal officials and unmarked vans to abduct BLM protesters, and Trump’s own gassing of non-violent protesters in Lafayette Park outside the gates of the White House, which allowed the Bible-toting POTUS to clear away onlookers as he secured a photo op in front of St. John’s Church.
+ His circumventing of Congress and governing by executive order, via the illegal confiscation of taxpayer funds for his wall, coupled with the declaration of a “national emergency” to justify his illegal actions. This use of funds was never authorized by Congress and represented a blatant abuse of the constitutional principle of checks and balances.
+ Trump’s introduction of a needlessly punitive and destructive child-parent separation policy against unauthorized immigrants. This was coupled with his reliance on concentration camp-style mass detainment, which was characterized by dangerous overcrowding, children imprisoned in cages, and the denial of basic needs such as soap, toothpaste, and medical treatment to detainees.
+ His radical crackdown on legal immigration to the U.S., which was cut by a staggering 50 percent during Trump’s term, coupled with the growth in unauthorized immigrant arrests and detainments by 30 percent compared to Obama, and by more than 100 percent compared to George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, despite comparable levels of deportations under Obama and Trump.
+ Trump’s (failed) attempt(s) to have immigrants “gassed, electrified, and shot” in mass and to illegally shut down immigration in total at the Mexican border. These orders were ignored by horrified officials at the Department of Homeland Security, who he promised would be pardoned for their illegal acts if they were ever prosecuted.
+ His propagandistic and baseless demonization of the Democrats for “stealing” the 2020 election, coupled with his own (failed) judicial, state-based, and congressional efforts to pull off an electoral coup by repealing the outcome of the election. This strategy involved nearly 60 lawsuits attempting to overrule state electoral results, and meetings with more than 300 state legislators across nearly a half dozen battleground states in which Trump schemed to overrule popular votes that favored Biden.
+ Trump’s faux Social Darwinian disaster politics, which embrace a “herd immunity,” survival of the fittest philosophy that has actively sought to infect Americans in mass with a killer virus, despite Trump’s own access to cutting edge life-saving Covid drugs and treatments to which the vast majority of Americans have no access. This “let it be” approach, one recent Columbia University study concluded, may have resulted in an excess of deaths that is 60 percent higher than what would have been expected had the federal government and states seriously responded to the crisis.
+ The paranoid and delusional eliminationist rhetoric Trump has embraced against his political enemies, portraying them as a threat to national security that needs to be snuffed out, and as recently reflected in his demand that the Justice Department arrest and prosecute top Democrats including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton based on false conspiratorial claims that they tried to undertake a coup against his administration. There is more than a bit of irony and projection at work here, considering Trump’s own relentless efforts over the last few months to initiate a coup against the incoming Biden administration.
Anyone who looks at this list and concludes that this was business as usual, or who is surprised about what happened in Washington D.C., is engaged in an act of delusion of epic proportions. Considering these developments, it is increasingly absurd to refer to Trump’s politics as anything less than fascist. The path forward is increasingly clear. This president needs to be impeached and removed from office as soon as possible. Trump needs to be charged with treason, for his role in orchestrating this attempted coup. Anything less sets a dangerous precedent for future attempts to overthrow what little is left of American democracy.
First published by CounterPunch – original here.
Tells the facts, names the names. CounterPunch is an independent US based politics magazine and online publication.
www.counterpunch.org/
Comments
21 responses to “The coup in Washington: Why is anyone surprised by Trump’s fascist politics?”
The comments here from Gavin, Slorter and others are heartening and make more sense than the post above from Counter Punch. I agree with Cameron on Biden’s reaction. Biden is an obnoxious old coot and Nancy Pelosi is a horse’s ass, to quote an American expression. The Clintons and Obamas make me puke, to quote another Americanism. I’m more worried about fascism from the Democrats and Silicon Valley than from the 74 million Deplorables who looked to Trump as their only hope after the Democrats buried Sanders. Steve Bannon is running a podcast called The War Room Pandemic.
And who – and how – would you have had them selected for electoral success?
We do and we must live with what we have. Despite our narcissistic sentiments.
I’m interested in politics, Charles, but not sure what you mean here. People are now looking to 2022 mid-terms and one of the most interesting faces to watch is Tulsi Gabbard who was a Democrat candidate for the Presidential nomination and has now left the Congress. Will she remain a Democrat and run again or will she lend her talent to a new Party, or to the Greens? I think that is the priority in USA — to provide an alternative to the two major Parties.
Reading the comments from the ‘Trump Camp” supporters, you would be led to believe that its the politicians who are to blame for the collapse of the “endless prosperity” dream .This malaise seems to be a western problem . It has appeared in Australia, evidenced by the election of conservative governments. It reflects the historical economic and social fabric disruption of the 1930’s,which led to the rise of extreme right Fascist parties. We are seeing the rise of such groups now. China is getting the blame for taking all the low skilled/paid jobs. In earlier times it was Japan. This partly explains the rise of the so called ‘non politicians’ like Donald Trump who push themselves as saviors of the dispossessed . His inexperience and ineptitude soon showed, separate to his weird personality.
The problem, in my view, is that voters, in search of prosperity, declining since the 1980’s, have embraced politicians of the neo liberal tradition sprouting minimalist regulation of business as the answer to society’s woes, in the forlorn hope that unfettered free markets can bring back the ‘good old days’.They forget that today’s world is one big integrated economy where profit is the modus operendi .Big business looks to the developing world for mass cheap labour. Western workers loose out.
When insecurity of employment rises and declining real income become a reality, the chance to succeed , the so called ‘American Dream’ evaporates, even if it was always an illusion for the majority. Disillusioned people turn to the ‘prophets of success’ who promise the world .Trump with his lies and falsehoods became such a prophet.
Trump and his supporters have falsely convinced a large minority that he has the answers to their problems.He hasn’t. In desperation his followers continue to believe in him as there is no other leader who can promise the earth! The riot at the Capitol Building was a sign of their desperation at loosing Trump and his access to what they believed was a solution to their problems.It is a pipe dream, so their reaction; tear the political house down!
I agree. As engineered by those who architected the victories of both Reagan and Thatcher.
https://t.co/3jksNxi30F?sSmH3hF
The coup against working class Americans started in 1980 and was continued by both administrations !
In the last half century Capitalists under neoliberalism ( which inhabit both parties) have been the working out a radical different situation; the capitalists have made an enormous amount of money basically by figuring out how to take advantage of this enormous new mass of poor but capable workers.
Some capitalists did it by bringing in immigrants low-wage desperate immigrants to their own countries. Other capitalists did it in the reverse way move their production out of the old centers of capitalism into China India Brazil etc.
This is a major change and the reason it plunges capitalism into a structural crisis is that while it makes a very small number of people very very wealthy, basically they’re substituting low wage workers for higher wage workers, it also presents itself as a fundamental crisis for the mass of the working class in Western Europe, North America and Japan.
They are being told you are going down to the level of the third world . We’re moving production into the hands of these third world workers.
You have a working class very much more agitated ,very anxious ,very worried . You see that in the movement to the right politically in Germany, the support for right in France, the anger of the French working class against the Socialist Party. It hasn’t helped them.You can add Brexit, the vote for Mr. Trump in the United States or the vote for Bernie Sanders, who for the first time in 50 years an American politician can take the name socialist and millions of people vote for him.
All of these are signs of the failure of this system to manage the transition to extraordinary wealth for the top 5 percent.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it (George Santayana).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Santayana
Calling what happened an “attempted coup” is absurd and idiotic. Parliaments getting stormed by protestors anywhere else in the world is hailed as “democracy in action” by the same people labelling this a “coup attempt”
Let’s have a few examples of these “same people”, please.
Exhibit No 1. Joe Biden.
Only every mainstream journalist anywhere in the world plus the majority of “alternative”, “leftwing” journalists like the ones who write for Counterpunch
Something chickens, something roost.
The facade of stability is crumbling.
Nancy Pelosi on HK rioters trashing HK, beating cops, setting fires, trashing the HK legislature “a beautiful sight to behold”.
I’m sure there are equivalent opinions on Kiev, Syria, Libya, etc.
It seems to me that the hatred of Trump has resulted in the loss of critical thinking faculties.
To call this a coup attempt is a gross exaggeration and likely to be counter productive. If it was a coup attempt, it was embarrassingly poorly organised. An example of a coup is what happened in the Ukraine in 2013-2014; a coup that Biden actively and openly supported.
By Biden labelling the protestors/rioters as terrorists it will sow further/deepen divisions in the United States. It will likely also lead to further unrest. With dissent being labelled as terrorism it seems that the United States is accelerating on its path to authoritarian government. As Chris Hedges argues, the United States is essentially ungovernable at this point.
Another point that Hedges makes is that Trump is a symptom of America’s decay, not the cause. Biden will not stop the decay, he is part of the problem. The 6 January riot is just another data point on the road to the accelerating collapse of the American imperium.
I can’t believe you wrote this purposefully!
Cameron – the storming of the Capitol had all the theatre of a ‘coup’. Convincing theatre.
Biden is a consummate politician. He will play the roles that he believes he must. The principal of which will be to effect a re-unification of this cancerous political quatenary (Trumpists, ‘moderate’ Republicans and Democrats (both moderate and Progressive).
And, worse again, you display your own lack of reflection (“critical thinking faculties”!). How will Biden be able to be credibly accused of ‘worsening authoritarianism’ when he has the backing of both the Senate and the Representatives??
It may have had the the theatre, what it lacked was substance. As I said, if it was a coup attempt, it was very poorly organised, suggesting that a better explanation is that the whole event was largely opportunistic.
You say that Biden will ‘play the roles that he believes he must.’ I agree, however we can already see the path that this is heading in and it is not about reunifying a divided population. New legislation will be enacted to outlaw the most trivial of protests/dissent. The coordinated and targeted removal of social media accounts is another aspect targeted at those with dissenting opinions. In other words we are seeing creeping authoritarianism.
Voting is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a democracy. The United States is an oligarchy (you can’t vote against Goldman Sachs). The extreme and worsening inequality (arguably the greatest upwards wealth transfer in history has occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic) is the root cause of the polarisation of the United States. Which, as Plutarch said 2000 years ago, “An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” So whilst Biden may get the backing of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, this does not equate to the backing of the 70 million plus who voted for Trump. The divisions will still be there and only deepen as the economic condition for the majority of Americans continues to deteriorate.
By allowing the protesters into the Capitol building, the chance to challenge the various States’ electors certification was lost. This was Trump’s and his supporters’ last chance. They were played like a piano. Quite brilliant, in its way. Game over.
Hal,
I assume you are serious? If so I could not agree more.But-Who was playing the piano?? The Russians, the Chinese CCP? someone else?? like Iran? Alqeda etc The U.S has many enemies thanks to their “wars of liberation” to the American way! Either way ‘they’ would be laughing all the way to the ‘bank’!
Gavin O’Brien
I don’t think it’s necessary to go offshore to find the piano player.
Trump can go now. He has done the necessary. He has caused those with power within the Beltway to step out of the shadows and stand naked before all the world.
I predict the next act in this drama will be Biden’s inauguration. Look for Washington DC to be in lockdown with a massive military presence.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has already introduced the Confronting the Threat of Domestic Terrorism Act. This is a sword with two very sharp edges.
The game is starting. I am listening to Steve Bannon’s “War Room Pandemic” on Apple podcast, which does not appear to have been censored. The Congress, by the way, belongs to the people — all of them — not to their elected representatives and the Beltway insiders.