Ah yes, the dreaded F word. Long after actual fascist regimes have ceased to have any significant influence on the world, different political camps have continued to use it as a strawman, with whatever definition best suits them.
Libertarians often complain that any use of government power at all is "fascism" and malevolent. Liberals and left-leaning people often accuse those who wish to use government power to enforce divisive, bigoted laws and social norms of being "fascists". Similarly, rightists also accuse anything they don't like of being "fascism"--although, they are a bit more precise with their terms: environmentalism becomes "ecofascism", Islam becomes "Islamofascism", and feminism becomes "feminazism".
While the libertarian assertion (people and corporations are angels who could live in perfect peace if it wasn't for that dastardly government and its pesky laws) and the conservative assertion (everything not aligned with Western traditionalism is bad) are both deranged, their misguided conceptions of fascism are perhaps closer to reality than that of liberals.
At least meme-makers can see the absurdity of this strawman.
The fasces is a symbol originating in ancient Rome, associated with national unity and government power. The symbol itself is made up of a bundle of rods, which represents that they are more powerful when combined together than when separated. In practice, this is obvious from the example of the Roman Empire, which consisted of many different provinces of diverse ethnic, cultural, and geographic backgrounds united under a single government.
This is also the same sentiment behind the American notion of E Pluribus Unum (from many: one).
E Pluribus Unum: Imperial Roman version.
Fascism: Ben Franklin version.
"Brethren: Our business with you here, besides rekindling the ancient council fire, and renewing the covenant and brightening up every link of the chain, is in the first place to inform you of the advice that was given about thirty years, ago by your wise fore fathers, in a great Council which they held at Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, when Cannassateego spoke to us, the white people, in these very words: ‘Brethren,: We, the Six Nations, heartily recommend union and a good agreement between you, our brethren; never disagree, but preserve a strict friendship for one another, and thereby you, as well as we, will become the stronger. Our wise forefathers established union and amity between the Five Nations; this has made us formidable; this has given us great weight and authority with our neighbouring Nations. We are a powerful confederacy; and if you observe the same methods our wise forefathers have taken, you will, acquire fresh strength and power. Therefore, whatever befalls you, never fallout with one another.’ These were the words of Cannassateego.
Brothers: Our forefathers rejoiced to hear Cannassateego speak these words. They sunk deep into their hearts. The advice was good; it was kind. They said to one another, The Six Nations are a wise people; let us hearken to their counsel, and teach our children to follow it. Our old men have done so. They have frequently taken a single arrow, and said, Children, see how easy it is broken. Then they have tied twelve together with strong cords, and our strongest men could not break them. ‘See,’ said they, ‘this is what the Six Nations mean. Divided, a single man may destroy you; united, you are a match for the whole world.’"
(Speech by American commissioners of a committee signing a treaty renewing peace with the Iroquois Confederacy. Albany, New York, August 25, 1775.)
http://amarch.lib.niu.edu/islandora/object/niu-amarch%3A85664
E Pluribus Unum: US version.
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The goal of this article isn't to convince the reader that Mussolini-style fascism is the source of everything good in the universe, but instead to demonstrate just how terrible of a rhetorical blunder--and just how factually incorrect--it is to call tribalists and bigots "fascists". Donald Trump, Alt-Rightists, and Republicans who support Trump are racists, nepotists and ethno-nepotists, tribalists, dotards, Western traditionalists, tyranny of the majority supporters, professional dividers and fear mongers, and a wide variety of other things--but they are NOT "fascists" in any sense.
To really drive home the point about how misused and overused the term "fascist" is, take a look at the quote below. It was written by George Orwell, who fought against, and was shot by, literal fascists during the Spanish Civil War. ...Ironically, the communist group Orwell volunteered in was labelled as "fascist" by the Soviets and Stalinist-aligned communists in Spain due to its alleged support for Trotskyist-style communism. In any case, the word "fascist" had been so overused that it lost all meaning before Fascist Italy had even been defeated in WWII. Can we stop using this as a buzzword already?
"It will be seen that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley’s broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else." -George Orwell, "As I Please," Tribune (March 24, 1944).
By reducing all our problems to the abstract, and so often meaningless, strawman of "fascism", anti-Trump and anti-tribalist rhetoric becomes muddied. Our arguments lose precision, and eventually our movements lose sight of a purpose. The problems and enemies we face are specific, and so too must be our approach to fighting them. Perhaps it is no coincidence that rightists, who use more precise terms such as "Islamofascism" etc., have been more successful in rallying people to their positions.
All perfectly good words to expand anti-Trump vocabulary, although they are still unclear as to which of Trump's political and social positions they are protesting against!
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Being an ancient symbol of unity and federalism long pre-dating Mussolini, the fasces has found its way into all kinds of symbolism used in the US federal government.
Statue of George Washington in the Virginia Capitol Building. Sculpted during Washington's lifetime (1785-1792). It seems the prominent fasces was the most obvious choice of symbolism to honor the man who did more than anyone to ensure the 13 states would be united and fulfill E Pluribus Unum.
Stamp of Abraham Lincoln (1866).
Lincoln statue at the Lincoln Memorial (1920). Lincoln is in a chair supported by fasces, appropriately symbolizing the lengths Lincoln went to preserve the union (i.e. keep the rods united).
Back of the Mercury Dime, minted from 1916-1945. The designed was changed shortly after FDR's death to commemorate him.
Frieze on the US Supreme Court Building. Liberty is seated in the center, flanked by Order, bearing a sword on her right, and Authority, holding a fasces on her left. The building began construction in 1932 and was completed in 1935.
Fasces above a door in the Oval Office of the White House.
Bronze fasces flanking the podium in the House of Representatives.
Seal of the Senate (adopted 1886). Two fasces crossed on the bottom.
The artists were well aware of the symbolism of the fasces, and understood just how well it meshed with the American government's implementation of Federalism. Of course, this hasn't stopped deranged libertarians from claiming these fasces are proof the US government has been controlled by time traveling Nazi-fascists... And the prominence of the fasces in our government symbolism hasn't stopped liberals and conservatives from completely ignoring it when they use their strawmen insults, either.
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By incorrectly using scary buzzwords and imagining our enemies as being part of something they're not, much of the sting is taken out of anti-racist rhetoric against the far right. For much more heavy-hitting rhetoric, it is necessary to introduce the uncomfortable truth that the far right is succeeding not because of some "fascist" boogey man, but things which pass by unnoticed (or even unquestionably viewed as positive).
Trump is not an actual fascist who seeks to make America more powerful by more closely uniting the rods ("In order to form a more perfect union" -Preamble of the Constitution) or by adding more rods (via immigration and E Pluribus Unum), but an individual who has succeeded by bringing out the most disgusting examples of tyranny of the majority and clientelism which are inherent in democracy. Afterall, rightist propaganda is full of references to their being the majority--i.e. "Silent Majority", "majority rights", "demographic stabilization", "immigration is population replacement", etc...
Trump and Co. are willing to snap 49% of the rods in order to please the 51%. The divisive nature of Trump's success was certainly welcomed by those who wished to see America divided...
A real "fascist" wouldn't be complicit in allowing the seeds of division to grow, nor would he ACTIVELY SOW them!
Anti-Trump slogans are infinitely more "fascist" than pro-Trump slogans can ever be. But until leftists can unabashedly accept this, rightist arguments will have the upper hand.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand," says the man sitting on a chair literally made of fasces.
What are supporters of democracy to do when the majority is morally bankrupt? Clinton may have won the popular vote this time around (on the shoulders of disproportionately-blue states such as California), but, embarrassingly, we are forgetting that she should have won in the largest landslide in US history, considering what she was running against... In any case, if Trump's victory is not representative of the will of the majority, it is much more difficult to explain why all branches of the Federal government, the majority of state governors, and even countless local governments, are dominated by Republicans who march lockstep with Trump. (And this is not even mentioning our history, where slavery and segregation were democratically upheld for nearly 200 years out of our nation's ~240 year history. We all know what era "MAGA" seeks to bring us back to).
Trump is not some "fascist" who is a "threat to democracy." As already established, dividing society along arbitrary ethnic or religious lines is antithetical to fascism--where power is derived from unity. Trump's brazen lack of concern for people who don't support him is perhaps the most pure and honest expression of democracy ever seen in this country.
Neither is Trump a populist. A true populist cares about the interests of non-elite members of society as a whole. How in any sense of the word are refugees and immigrants, which billionaire Trump has spent so much time wailing on, "elites"? Moreover, did anyone really think that New York-based businessman Trump, who is by far the wealthiest president in US history, would turn his back on the elite establishment which his lifestyle is contingent upon? His cabinet is the rankest and dingiest part of that "swamp".
Even some repentant Trump voters have the capacity to understand this. Yet, for some reason, liberals haven't quite caught up.
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To add insult to injury, during Trump's first impeachment, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi wore a large pin of a fasces--the Mace of the House of Representatives. This is a pin she has worn at a few other symbolic moments.
In this case, it would be accurate for rightists to accuse Pelosi of acting like a fascist. As if that were a bad thing in this situation!
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We seek to bring an end to the anti-American attitudes of racism, sexism, nepotism and ethno-nepotism, mentally-deranged foreign policy, party factionalism, tyranny of the majority, elitism, collusion with exploitive foreign powers, the Alt-Right, "crony capitalism", and many other ills in our society. The first step to dismantling these plagues is to precisely acknowledge them in our rhetoric. Only then can we find solutions and act on those solutions.
By conflating everything we dislike with "fascism", leftists are psychologically being primed to reject E Pluribus Unum. However, it is only by utilizing E Pluribus Unum that Americans can defeat those who wish to divide our society along arbitrary lines in order to promote prejudice and personal profit. E Pluribus Unum forms the columns which hold up our society.
"Power to the people" takes on a new meaning if we imagine those citizens who uphold E Pluribus Unum, by acting on the behalf of all sections of American society, as lictors.
This is useful and well-written. I appreciate the clarification.
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