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Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
(noun) political ideology – Once presumed dead. – It seems that there is a global revival
In the year The 2024 US election was unusual in that there was a heated debate over whether one of the candidates was a fascist. Gen. John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff in his first term, fueled the debate by telling reporters that his former boss matched the online dictionary definition of fascism: “far-right, authoritarian and extreme political ideology . . . Belief in dictatorial leadership, centralized selfishness, militarism, violent suppression of dissent, and natural social hierarchy.
The Trump campaign responded to the allegations by saying that Kelly had “gagged” and repeatedly called the allegations false. Some sophisticated Trump defenders have argued that the charge is false because Trump is not a militarist. Indeed, the incoming president has campaigned as a proponent of peace and promised to end wars forever.
However, the Harris campaign seized on Kelly’s allegations. Democrats clearly believed that Americans would reject any candidate tainted by fascism. But they may have overestimated the average voter’s depth of historical knowledge. Journalists on the campaign trail say most voters associate fascism with Hitler—and Hitler with the Holocaust. It was easy for the Republican Party to dismiss the accusations of fascism as liberal hysteria, as no one believed that Trump was planning to build an American Auschwitz.
Historians of the 1930s, however, believe that Trump and some world leaders — such as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping — are reviving the fascist culture. Ultra-nationalism, leader worship and contempt for liberal values ​​are back in fashion – and not just in America.
