When Does a Fascist Become a Nazi?

When they espouse overt racism, that’s one answer.

In January, I wrote about American fascism, pointing to Project 2025 as the blueprint for the second Trump administration’s complete reworking of American society and our democratic form of government:

“If the rule of law no longer applies, then we have entered an era that none of us ever imagined we could experience in the United States. The Trump administration is a textbook example of fascism, and it’s time we recognize this fact and call it what it is.”

The precise definition of fascism is up for debate, but it is often identified as a series of characteristics, such as the “Signs of Fascism” list identified with the U.S. Holocaust Museum. As I noted in January, the list includes “powerful and continuing nationalism,” “disdain for human rights,” “religion and government intertwined,” and “corporate power protected.” This fits the 47 administration very well.

But there’s an element that’s missing from the Signs of Fascism list, although you can shoehorn it into the “disdain for human rights” bullet point: overt racism. Racist policies are arguably the bright line between fascism and the malignant subcategory of Nazism.

So it was with great interest that I read Tom Nichols’ timely article in The Atlantic titled, “The Republican Party Has A Nazi Problem.” The author notes that party members are talking and acting like Nazis and even federal agencies are taking on Nazi characteristics, complete with recruiting efforts using “an anthem beloved by neo-Nazi groups, ‘By God We’ll Have Our Home Again.’” “The Labor Department hung a giant banner of Donald Trump’s face from its headquarters, as if Washington were Rome in 1934 or Berlin in 1936, and posted expressions on social media such as ‘America is for Americans’—an obvious riff on the Nazi slogan ‘Germany for the Germans’—and ‘Americanism Will Prevail,’ in a font reminiscent of Third Reich documents.”

Nichols goes on to say:

“As a former Republican, I’m aware that the American conservative movement has spent generations fighting off intrusions from the far right, including the John Birchers and the Ku Klux Klan. But I am still surprised and aggrieved by how quickly 21st-century Nazism has found a home in the party of Lincoln.”

I respect Tom Nichols, but I have to say that as a citizen who has been seriously observing national politics for the last 50 years or so, I am not all that surprised. And, frankly, neither should he be, because later in his essay he admits, “By the 1970s the GOP was the de facto white party of the United States.”

Nichols goes on to say that Nixon and Reagan were both racists, but certainly not Nazis. Maybe so, but that was 50 years ago and a lot of little Nazi seeds can be planted and watered with the winks, nods, and lies available on talk radio and FOX News, not to mention endorsements of bizarre candidates, including Christian Nationalists and White Nationalists. Then too, there are podcasters like Nick Fuentes, who ticks every box in the Nazi checklist, but who leading Republicans seem to be finding it difficult to denounce. Frankly, once you recognize the fact that a leader or political party favors one race over another or consistently identifies some group or groups as “other,” that party should be required to demonstrate why they are not just fascists, but Nazis, pure and simple.

All the party needed was for a narcissistic, racist, sociopath like Trump to come along and fire up the aggrieved portion of our electorate and point an accusing finger at black and brown minorities, and the Republican Party was no longer the party of Lincoln or Eisenhower. To make things worse, members of Congress forgot their oath of office and rubber stamped virtually everything Trump proposed. Oh, and let us not forget that the GOP has been grooming young lawyers to be in a position to fill judgeships and make decisions favorable to the more right wing factions of the party. It wasn’t by chance that we ended up with right wingers like Alito and Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court and a judicial sycophant like Aileen Cannon in a position to play a pivotal role in blocking action against Trump for his illegal activities.

I think Nichols would do well to take a very close look at Project 2025 and recognize that much of it has already been executed in just the first 12 months of the Trump regime. The level of chaos, confusion, and corruption we have already seen is just the beginning as should be clear from the more recent behavior of DOJ, Homeland Security, and DOD.

I can’t wait to see what King Donald has in store for us before we ever get a chance to vote in November. If elections will still be part of the plan by then. Here’s a hint: in 1934, the Italian Fascists allowed an election to go forward, but the only thing on the ballot was a single “yes” or “no” vote on the entire slate of Fascist Party candidates.