The first criminal trial of a former president got underway in a lower Manhattan courtroom this week, with Donald Trump reportedly dozing through early skirmishes over which of his public statements and private deeds would be admissible in court.

A few blocks away, editors for The Washington Spectator were working on separate but related charges. The question before us? Has Trump, through his words and actions, launched a new era of American fascism, and would it be wise to say so.

To help steer us through the tall grass, we turned to Mark Green, the political polymath who was one of the early commentators to parse this issue in a piece he wrote for the Spectator a few years ago. Most readers will remember Mark as one of the original Nader’s Raiders, the first elected public advocate in New York City, and the author or co-author of twenty-six books on the political process and progressive policy (you can find information on his latest, The Inflection Election, at the end of this note).

While it may seem obvious to Trump’s critics, there is still reason to be cautious before labeling him a fascist. To the average voter, fascism is a term that evokes Hitler, perhaps Mussolini, and possibly Franco, all European and “foreign” and rooted in the historical past. At a time when our contemporary political discourse is saturated with name-calling, when leaders on the political Right are denigrating immigrants and continually using language intended to disparage women and minorities, the currency and meaning of words like Nazi and fascism are degraded.

But as Green points out, fascism is defined by “one-man rule, based on big lies, nationalist fervor, xenophobia, hatred of marginal groups, displays of militarism, incitement to violence, media manipulation and persistent lawlessness.” And that is an inventory that covers most of what we know and see of Trump every day.

He takes stock of Trump’s endless lies, his threats of violence, his corruption, his attacks on the Constitution and contempt for the rule of law, his embrace of white supremacy and hostility toward Blacks and other minorities.

And toward the end of this audit, after totaling up the hand and glove similarities between Trump and authoritarians past and present, Green asks “there must be a word that describes a corrupt megalomaniac who is running a campaign based, in his own words, on ‘revenge and retribution.’”  The right word, he concludes, is Fascist.

Mark Green has pursued public service and engaged with his ideological counterparts on public affairs programs like Firing Line, Crossfire and Hardball. He’s worked throughout his life in the public interest, he is passionate about small “d” democracy, and he sees Trump as the biggest threat ever “to the story of America.”

Mark’s new book – The Inflection Election (from Skyhorse Publishing, with an introduction by Jamie Raskin) – can be ordered here.

With appreciation,

Ham Fish
Editor