{"id":97712,"date":"2016-05-30T11:49:43","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T19:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=97712"},"modified":"2016-05-30T11:50:05","modified_gmt":"2016-05-30T19:50:05","slug":"paul-gottfrieds-fascism-the-career-of-a-concept-explains-why-elites-believe-trump-is-a-fascist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=97712","title":{"rendered":"Paul Gottfried\u2019s FASCISM: THE CAREER OF A CONCEPT Explains Why Elites Believe Trump Is A Fascist"},"content":{"rendered":"

From VDARE<\/a>: Donald Trump is \u201chow fascism comes to America<\/a>,\u201d says Robert Kagan. The New Yorker <\/em>warns fascism \u201ccan happen here\u201d [Going There With Donald Trump<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>by Adam Gopnik, May 11, 2016]. Martin O\u2019 Malley complains about Trump\u2019s \u201cfascist appeal\u201d [O\u2019Malley talks Trump\u2019s \u2018fascist appeal\u2019 and Baltimore crime in television interview<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>by Erica Green, Baltimore Sun, <\/em>May 14, 2016]. And Salon <\/em>enlists a \u201chistorian of fascism\u201d to claim Trump is a fascist like Mussolini [Trump\u2019s not Hitler, he\u2019s Mussolini: How GOP anti-intellectualism created a modern fascist movement in America<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>by Fedja Buric, Salon, <\/em>March 11, 2016].<\/p>\n

With the meteoric rise of Donald Trump, the only other word we hear more <\/a>than \u201cfascism\u201d is \u201cracism<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what exactly is <\/em>\u201cfascism?\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Gottfried<\/a> attempts to answer that question with an exhaustively researched study, Fascism: The Career of a Concept<\/em><\/a>. It\u2019s an antidote to the clumsy polemics surrounding the topic. Gottfried alludes <\/a>to Jonah Goldberg\u2019s 2008 Conservatism, Inc bestseller Liberal Fascism<\/em> <\/a>as an illustration of how serious scholarship has been subordinated to crass partisan political purposes.<\/p>\n

Gottfried says of Goldberg\u2019s efforts:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAfter hundreds of pages of\u2026often strained comparisons between fascist and Democratic orators, it is hard to miss the point: if Democratic partisans in Hollywood have gone after Republicans as fascists, then the other party should be allowed to play the same game.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Goldberg\u2019s charging his political opponents <\/a>with the \u201cf\u201d word is just \u201cintermural politics.\u201d And this \u201cgame\u201d of two parties casting aspersions back and forth is hard to take seriously.<\/p>\n

As Gottfried writes:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIf we wish to condemn one of the two institutionalized parties as \u2018fascist\u2019 for building and sustaining a large administrative state, then why not make the same judgment about the other?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In other words, if Goldberg [Email him<\/a>] really believed both that fascism is horrible and <\/em>(\u201cliberal\u201d) Democrats were fascists, then why doesn\u2019t he suggest \u201che would rescind the \u2018fascist\u2019 handiwork\u201d in the event Republicans assume power? Gottfried\u2019s unanswerable reply: \u201cBy now that handiwork belongs as much to his party as it does to the opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast to Goldberg, Gottfried provides an objective historical examination of fascism. And he shows the targets of virtually every accusation of \u201cfascism\u201d are nothing of the kind.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a historic phenomenon,\u201d he writes, \u201cfascism has nothing to do with advocating an isolationist foreign policy<\/a>, trying to restrict Third World immigration, <\/a>or favoring significant income redistribution in order to achieve greater social equality\u201d\u2014as today\u2019s \u201cantifascists\u201d would have us think.<\/p>\n

Nor should we be misled by opponents of \u201cIslamo-fascism\u201d <\/a>and the European \u201cfar right\u201d into thinking their enemies are actually the ideological heirs to the cultural\/ideological phenomenon which emerged in interwar Europe.<\/p>\n

But just because Gottfried says certain people aren\u2019t fascist, that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s endorsing them. Instead, these clumsy associations \u201care characteristic of recent, divergent attempts to identify fascism with whatever the speaker happens to dislike .\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet there\u2019s a method to the \u201cantifascist\u2019s\u201d madness: Upon blasting his opponent\u2019s view as \u201cfascist,\u201d the \u201cantifascist\u201d invariably begins \u201cbelaboring <\/a>his or her target with the accusation <\/a>of sympathizing with Nazi atrocities<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gottfried is having none of it. He goes so far as to argue that Nazism, while containing elements <\/em>of fascism, is not entitled to be regarded\u2014as it always<\/em> is regarded\u2014as a<\/em> species of fascism proper, much less as the<\/em> quintessential expression of fascism. \u201cThe Nazis ran a highly eclectic operation,\u201d Gottfried explains. They borrowed not only from fascism, but from \u201cStalinism <\/a>and, perhaps most of all, from Hitler\u2019s feverish imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nazism, in other words, isn\u2019t a species of fascism at all. Read on.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From VDARE: Donald Trump is \u201chow fascism comes to America,\u201d says Robert Kagan. The New Yorker warns fascism \u201ccan happen here\u201d [Going There With Donald Trump, by Adam Gopnik, May 11, 2016]. Martin O\u2019 Malley complains about Trump\u2019s \u201cfascist appeal\u201d … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29672],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fascism"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t