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Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
(noun) a political ideology – Once thought dead – That seems to be undergoing a global revival
The 2024 US election was unusual in that it featured a lively debate over whether one of the candidates was a fascist. Gen. John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff during his first term, told reporters that his former boss matched his online dictionary definition of fascism: “a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology . . . totalitarian.” Characterized by leaders, centralized despotism, militarism, coercive suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy.”
The Trump campaign responded to allegations that Kelly had “bent on himself” and repeatedly lied. Some of Trump’s sophisticated defenders have argued that the charge is misplaced because Trump is not a militarist. Indeed, the incoming president campaigned as a pacifist candidate and promised to end war forever.
The Harris campaign nonetheless seized on Kelly’s allegations. Democrats clearly believed that Americans must reject any candidate tainted by fascism. But they may have overestimated the average voter’s depth of historical knowledge. Journalists on the campaign trail found that most voters associated fascism with Hitler — and Hitler with the Holocaust. Since no one believed that Trump was planning to build an American Auschwitz, it was relatively easy for the Republican Party to dismiss accusations of fascism as liberal hysteria.
Historians of the 1930s, however, believe that Trump and some other world leaders — such as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping — are reviving aspects of the fascist tradition. Ultra-nationalism, leader religion and contempt for liberal values are back in fashion around the world – not just in America.
