How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them

“[Donald] Trump recalled [Charles] Lindbergh specifically with ‘America First,’ [and] the rest of his campaign also longed for some vague point in history—to ‘Make America Great Again.’ But when, exactly, was America great, in the eyes of the Trump campaign? During the nineteenth century, when the United States enslaved its black population? During Jim Crow, when black Americans in the South were prevented from voting? A hint […] [came from] Steve Bannon, the then president-elect’s chief strategist […][stating that] the era to come […] ‘will be as exciting as the 1930s.’ In short, the era when the United States had its most sympathy for fascism.” 

This quotation aptly summarizes the concerns that seem to have led Stanley to write this book at this time. It shows that the United States’ history is not an unblemished drive toward greater liberal democracy but contains serious stains of inequality and profoundly unjust official policy. More precisely, however, it is useful to illustrate exactly the type of developments and rhetoric in the presidency of Donald Trump that may signal a slide toward the fascist politics that this book aims to describe.

“The dangers of fascist politics come from the particular way in which it dehumanizes segments of the population. By excluding these groups, it limits the capacity for empathy among other citizens, leading to the justification of inhumane treatment, from repression of freedom, mass imprisonment, and expulsion to, in extreme cases, mass extermination.” 

The word “fascist” is widely associated with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany of World War II with good reason. The Nazis are responsible for the industrial scale genocide of Jews, which was their “Final Solution” to the artificial “Jewish Problem.” The so-called problem, however, resulted not from anything about the Jews, but from the extremes of fascist “us versus them” policy. Jews were the vilified scapegoat in perhaps the most extreme fascist state that has ever existed. Hatred of Jews was, perhaps, the core of Nazi thought and identity. This extreme example highlights that which should never be forgotten about fascist thought: No matter how convenient and no matter how challenging the economic circumstances may be, the fascist “answer” is always one that depends upon targeting a relatively vulnerable segment of the population as not worthy of moral concern and thus a “natural” object of blame and hatred.