Contra Robert Paxton, who Corey Robin says wrote "the book" on fascism, I reject the idea, espoused by Paxton three years ago, that Jan. 6, 2021 made Trump a fascist.
It's not whether the Capitol insurrection succeeded or not. It's Trump's degree of involvement or not.
The Beer Hall Putsch failed, but Hitler was actively pushing it. Trump posted a vague message or two on Twitter, did nothing about getting the National Guard involved later, but also did NOT get personally involved with the insurrection (wrong, Blue Anon) and did not block the National Guard from eventually being called up.
Paxton might point to what he's written on the 1934 French coup. True that no leaders of far right parties seemed involved. But, it does seem that people with political standing, not just the 1934 French version of the Proud Boys, WERE active. Paxton himself notes of that:
On that evening thousands of French veterans of World War I, bitter at rumors of corruption in a parliament already discredited by its inefficacy against the Great Depression, attempted to invade the French parliament chamber, just as the deputies were voting yet another shaky government into power. The veterans had been summoned by right-wing organizations. They made no secret of their wish to replace what they saw as a weak parliamentary government with a fascist dictatorship on the model of Hitler or Mussolini.
Trump wasn't looking to replace Joe Biden with Viktor Orban. He was looking to replace himself with more of himself. And, other than Trump himself, while you had many wingnuts in Congress contesting various states' electoral votes, you did not have any Republican leaders outside the Capitol assisting the insurrection as it happened, nor joining Trump in advance to call for something like this.
The reality is that I think Corey Robin's own analysis is still true, as I wrote about a few years ago. Trump was, and is, a "disjunctive president." He's not a fascist. That said, we're still stuck in the Sixth Party System, and as I told Robin on Twitter, I think we're going to remain stuck there and it's a sign the United States is, while not a "failed state," is a "failing state." Also, as I noted at that link, in a comment to David Bruce Collins, it was "The Resistance," aka #BlueAnon, who first called Trump a fascist. It takes two to tango, or tangle, in a dysfuctional (and disjunctive?) political system.
While I'm here on Paxton, I think part of his thesis on Vichy France is wrong. I do think Vichy actively shaped its future, and I think both in France and beyond, Paxton decisively reset the historical narrative. I do NOT think there's a direct line, or even THAT close to one, between Vichy and the Gaullists. In addition, Wiki's piece on the 1934 putsch or whatever we call it, provides broader perspective, including that not all the right-wing groups wanted to replace parliamentary government in general. For that matter, I'm not sure that Paxton is totally right on claiming a bright line between the 1934 putsch and Vichy.
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