Patricia Roberts-Miller has been talking about demagoguery generally also since forever, which laid the conditions for Trump to rise as the eminent demagogue. In fact, I prefer her analysis over Stanley’s. Stanley, and many historians, think of fascism from the top down: Mussolini or Hitler showed up and charismatically led otherwise good people into evil.
Not so. People were already scapegoating Jews and minorities and dissatisfied with their lives. Hitler and Mussolini just stepped into the a pre-existing national political role. Similarly, Trump’s racism and fake news and whatnot were already trends in American society. He just took what was there an ran with it.
It’s why, even if Trump goes to jail, American fascism will stick around. There are plenty of regular people willing and able to undermine liberty for their personal security.
Jason Stanley has been talking about this for yearsl.
Patricia Roberts-Miller has been talking about demagoguery generally also since forever, which laid the conditions for Trump to rise as the eminent demagogue. In fact, I prefer her analysis over Stanley’s. Stanley, and many historians, think of fascism from the top down: Mussolini or Hitler showed up and charismatically led otherwise good people into evil.
Not so. People were already scapegoating Jews and minorities and dissatisfied with their lives. Hitler and Mussolini just stepped into the a pre-existing national political role. Similarly, Trump’s racism and fake news and whatnot were already trends in American society. He just took what was there an ran with it.
It’s why, even if Trump goes to jail, American fascism will stick around. There are plenty of regular people willing and able to undermine liberty for their personal security.