Week 10
Trump, Fascism and the
2024 U.S. Elections
SOCI 229
Lecture 1: November 4th
A Quick Reminder
Response Memo Deadline?
There are no response memos due this week.
A Quick Reminder
Final Paper Proposal
Final Paper Proposal Deadline
Your final paper proposals are due by 8:00 PM on Friday, November 22nd.
A Quick Reminder
Final Paper Proposal
More details will be provided on Wednesday.
A Quick Reminder
The Election Is Here
Reminders
Dr. Stephanie Ternullo will be joining us on November 13th.
Reminders
Dr. Miloš Broćić will be joining us on December 11th.
The Fascism Debate
Back to Week 5
Back to Week 5
So, Is Trump Fascist?
Answer
Depends on who you ask.
So, Is Trump Fascist?
So, Is Trump Fascist?
So, Is Trump Fascist?
This Week’s Readings
The Debate
(Trump) “… is an authoritarian personality devoid of any commitment to the rule of law, political tradition, or even ideology,” the emeritus Columbia historian Robert O. Paxton wrote, in 2017, in Harper’s Magazine. “Are we therefore looking at a fascist? Not really.” Paxton, one of the preeminent scholars of twentieth-century European Fascism, acknowledged that many elements of Trump’s rhetorical style and political program were “fascist staples.” Still, the dissimilarities, in his view, outweighed the similarities.
(Marantz 2024, EMPHASIS ADDED)
The Debate
But history keeps happening, and historians’ minds can change. Here’s Paxton again, a few days after January 6, 2021, contra himself. The headline, in Newsweek, was “I’ve Hesitated to Call Donald Trump a Fascist. Until Now.” “Trump’s incitement of the invasion of the Capitol,” Paxton wrote, “crosses a red line. The label now seems not just acceptable but necessary.”
(Marantz 2024, EMPHASIS ADDED)
The Debate
Gaze at the whole picture for long enough, and you can will yourself to see the line drawing as either a rabbit or a duck; trying to see both perspectives at once is a good way to expand your dystopic imagination, or to give yourself a headache. Did it happen here? To misquote another democratically elected, democratically impeached President, it depends on what the definition of “it” is.
(Marantz 2024, EMPHASIS ADDED)
The Debate
If we were simply litigating an ontological or definitional question, that would be one thing. Instead, the “fascism debate” has become a
proxy in the putative culture wars.
The Debate
Had the fascism question stayed on … (an analytical or purely academic) plane, it could have been a passionate but relatively straightforward debate about what is or isn’t true. Instead, like everything else, it passed through the negative-polarization filters of American politics, becoming both an ontological question and a sociological signifier.
(Marantz 2024, EMPHASIS ADDED)
The Debate
To Steinmetz-Jenkins (2024), “the fascism debate is a Rorschach test for understanding what is ailing American society.”
The Debate
The Debate
During a time of crisis, when the world is made strange, there is an urge to turn to the past to understand the confusion of the present—to find meaning in history. Who and/or what we blame for causing the crisis will often influence the historical comparisons we choose to make. The presentist component is unavoidable as we project our values and anxieties onto past periods. The historical analogies that intellectuals and scholars have picked to understand what happened with Trump’s election, or with the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, are neither random nor self-evident.
(Steinmetz-Jenkins 2024, EMPHASIS ADDED)
The Debate
Perhaps the primary complaint of drawing on the darkest moment of Europe’s history to explain Trump is summed up by the historian Samuel Moyn: It abnormalizes a presidency that is quintessentially a product of the American system and therefore fails to examine “the status quo ante Trump that produced him.”
(Steinmetz-Jenkins 2024, EMPHASIS ADDED)
The Debate
In short, Steinmetz-Jenkins (2024) views the
Trump-is-fascist argument as alarmist.
The Debate
Suffice to say, Ganz (2024) disagrees with this framing—and has argued that Biden’s characterization of Trumpism as a
semi-fascist movement is appropriate.
The Debate
In any case, while some thought the “fascism debate” was fading in resonance (see Greenberg 2021), it has re-emerged
with renewed intensity in 2024.
The Fascism Debate—
A Group Exercise
A Class Debate
In your assigned groups —
Return to Mann’s (2004) treatise on fascism. To streamline things, consider perusing the slide deck for Week 5.
Discuss the main themes or arguments sketched in
this week’s assigned readings.As a group, develop a comprehensive argument in line with your assigned “position” on Trump’s fascism.
After some quick presentations, groups will reconvene to critically
assess the claims put forward by your “competition.”
Lecture II: November 6th
A Quick Reminder
Final Paper Proposal
Final Paper Proposal Deadline
Your final paper proposals are due by 8:00 PM on Friday, November 22nd.
A Quick Reminder
Final Paper Proposal
Guidelines for the final paper proposal can be found here.
A Quick Reminder
Final Paper Proposal
To submit your final paper proposal, click here.
The Election
The Result
The Result
The Result
This map may be especially instructive.
Exit Polls
Exit Polls
More detailed “exit poll” data can be found here.
Exit Polls
Caveat Emptor
Remember, exit polls can be eminently misleading.
Thus, Don’t Draw Hard Conclusions
Informed Speculation Is Fine
A Simple Question
What do you think happened?
Enjoy the Weekend
References
