Facing The Mirror: How Fascism Masquerades As Freedom And Prejudice Cosplays As Empathy

How we can criticise Donald Trump for his lack of self-reflection if we keep refusing to reflect on ourselves, asks Alex Vickery-Howe?

Donald Trump is not a king.

He still thinks he can be the sovereign of a democratic nation, and that’s merely one of the many absurdities of the silly, silly git. He also thinks he’s trim, jacked, sexually attractive (I wish he’d stop using his relationship with his daughter as an example) and, like, really smart.

This is a man completely immune to self-reflection. Sure, it may be ‘locker room talk’, or whatever his bros want to call it, but the Access Hollywood tape nonetheless confirms that Trump cannot see himself for who he is, and he cannot open a bus door.

Still, we shouldn’t criticise the screwball ex-president for his delusions or his man-boobs. We should criticise him for his invisible healthcare plan, his tearing up of environmental protection laws, his relentless demonisation of racial minorities, his lies, his blunders, and his Covid misinformation campaign that led to an American dying every 38 seconds under his negligent watch.

As the fourth of July approaches, this absurdity extends to his voter base. Who are these people? How are they still following this golden bidet into hell? Do they even realise that they’re betraying the founding values of their own nation?

It has led me into a debate with colleagues over whether Americans even know what Independence Day is about. I have argued that, while world history doesn’t touch the US curriculum, most Americans do know what the Declaration of Independence is, and most do know that the establishment of the American nation was the rejection of a classist monarchy.

Look, I could be wrong… at least one study suggests that two thirds of US citizens fail to spell the word ‘independence’ correctly, let alone grasp what the holiday is about. That said, I don’t think Australia is across its own history either.

‘Curriculum’ is a nebulous concept anyhow, when every state is doing something different. What the vast majority of Americans definitely understand, and this is inarguable, is that Independence Day is about ‘freedom’. And, if Trump sees himself as anything more and anything less than a servant of his people, he is a dictator. He is a king in all but name. The Don is thoroughly, toxically un-American.

I’ve been pointing out the dangers for years. Lots of people have. Why can’t his base see it? How have they been led astray? This is worth unpacking….

There’s a strange link between freedom and fascism. I’m not referring to the obvious way, in that fascism is the suppression of freedom. I mean in the way that one of my favourite articles beautifully captures: it is often, paradoxically, the people who silence, bully and dominate others who see themselves as the upholders of liberty, justice and freedom. This is the failure of the American experiment. It is also the folly of the both the extreme right and the extreme left.

Following the election of their insane reality TV host in 2016, the phrase ‘Rome fell’ has hung like an epitaph over the political discourse of the United States. I don’t think even the most cynical among us imagined Washington would collapse this quickly. Fed by cultish lies and a steady diet not only of fake news but, ironically, the belief that everything legitimate should be branded ‘fake’ too, the Don’s acolytes – many of whom have martyred themselves for their hero – are heralding a true Christofascist dictatorship.

Praise be to Ricky Shiffer, the tragic imbecile who died attacking the FBI.

Praise be to Edgar Maddison Welch, the conspiracy nut who was arrested after waving guns at the Comet Ping Pong restaurant, because he believed Democrats were holding children in the non-existent basement. Welch later admitted, ‘The intel on this wasn’t 100 percent.’ No shit, Ed.

Oh, and praise be to the ‘heroic’ rioters of January 6 who smeared faeces on walls, like all normal tourists do, while beating and tasering police officers in a moving display of love, patriotism and American values. You’re all angels. We’ll always remember how you owned those libs.

Praise be to the weird Viking guy.

Praise be to the unholy trinity – Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene –whose thankless devotion to the magic pumpkin is outshone by their inability to devise let alone pass a single credible policy.

And praise be to James Alex Fields Jr, the neo-Nazi who drove his car into protestors and murdered an innocent activist in the name of ‘freedom’… what a prince. The activist’s name was Heather Heyer. Never to be forgotten. I’m sure Fields still thinks he’s the victim in that tragedy. Or the hero.

Even when the mobster ex-POTUS is indicted for stealing classified documents, even when a judge and jury credibly link him to sexual assault, the faithful flock to their false god. They excuse, they distract, they obfuscate, and they downright dribble bullshit – or employ cheap character actors to do it for them – all the while begging their clown to return to power and rule them like Sideshow Bob.

Godwin’s law, oft-quoted by me, says that any discussion wherein one accuses one’s political opponents of being Hitler ends up jumping the shark like Fonzie. Or something akin to that. I apologise to Henry Winkler… Fonzie and Hitler really don’t belong in the same paragraph. But what if the comparison is historically and culturally robust? What if the discussion can be credibly linked to a scary precedent? Because if four years of climate denial, Covid denial and common-sense denial with the far-right in power has taught us anything, it’s that Trump and Hitler absolutely do belong in the same paragraph. The same rogue’s gallery.

And this is why America is falling….

It’s a country founded on free speech, where books are banned. It’s a country founded on justice, where vigilantes shoot at will. It’s a country founded on democracy, where one of the major parties is flirting with despotism.

There are glimmers of hope. Phantom speckles. When Fields murdered Heyer, he inadvertently convinced Biden to run for president. Nice one, Jimmy. You would’ve been of more value to the white supremacist cause if you’d just wiped your own shit on government property or shot yourself in the balls like your fellow warriors.

The tragedy for all of these ‘men’ is that Trump and his closest goons disavow them when they publicly faceplant. After all, Trump doesn’t actually like any member of his filthy flock. He wouldn’t let them into his hotels. He wouldn’t even let them freeze to death on his doorstep.

If Trump won’t pay Rudy Giuliani for his work, how can anyone expect him to acknowledge the lesser bigots? Alright… Rudy’s campaign contribution is essentially to melt and fart, and make announcements from the wrong place. But he tried to serve his führer. Just like Jimmy, and Ricky, and Ed. They all strived to please the rich man who looks down on them.

If I can drop the snark for a moment – it’s an ongoing aspiration – there is genuine sorrow for both the America that has been lost (maybe, I hope, temporarily misplaced), and for the people who’ve been taken in by the big lie. We don’t talk about class enough.

The last few decades have seen inspiring gains in racial equality, in gender equality, in the acknowledgement of a myriad of identities and different, layered ways of being… this is all, of course, fantastic. But we don’t talk about class. Despite our progress in other key areas, class and classism remain social taboos.

There are reasons why we shy away from class as a concept. It recontextualises every other marker we use to construct our sense of self. It stains us with privilege, despite whatever else may be going on in our lives. It reminds all of us that there are still haves and have-nots. The reality of widespread economic and social inequality clashes with our national image built on an illusion of larrikinism.

We don’t like to think of the homeless when we advertise through AirBnb. We don’t like to consider that postcodes come with judgements. For those of us on the left, we really don’t like to think that maybe our political opponents have a reason to resent the latte set. I’m a proud soy boy… but I know why people hate me.

Confronting class obviously clashes with America’s national image too. In America, land of opportunity, you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps and do anything. Be anyone. If class, with all its embedded prejudices, its lack of exposure to broader ideas, its lack of core critical thinking skills, its lack of healthcare – heaven forbid the commies should bring that one in – its lack of what the middle and upper castes take for granted every minute of every hour of every day of our lives, should ever, honestly and frankly, be taken into account… then we might see how fascism has been resurrected in the young millennium.

We might even see who is responsible.

A clue: it’s not the Jimmy, Ricky and Eds of this world. It’s the people who fly over them.

There is no Trump without a poorly educated base. Lack of access to serviceable, to say nothing of quality, education – always a bit tricky when there are hormones carrying assault rifles – is an act of negligence that has crippled these people.

Yes, bigotry is an appalling response to neglect. Yes, blaming immigrants, liberals, and – for some reason – drag queens for the world’s problems is stupid. It’s incalculably stupid. But it’s human to be tribal and the tribes metastasise when communities are abandoned.

And the backstory that I will never stop repeating – I will never, ever stop lamenting – is that Trump ran a sham university. His rehearsal for the gameshow dictatorship was to fleece poor people of their life savings. I’ve always said that, as conmen go, Trump is pretty transparent. If he is any kind of monarch, he’s the one that wears no clothes… those of you who are eating right now, I genuinely apologise.

The fact that his grift worked, the fact that it continues to work, is not just on those who are smearing shit and self-tasering. It’s on us for refusing to see them, and failing to see ourselves.

Yes, there is an obvious irony in people who ‘love freedom’ embracing an oppressor. Yes, talking heads from red states are often batshit crazy. But is it ultimately their fault? What do we gain by picking on them over and over? Does it make us feel good, in our bubbles, in our towers, while the fabric of a leading democracy frays apart?

To not look deeper into this is to stay on the merry-go-round of weaponised ignorance for those who’ve been vilified and forsaken, and smug superiority for those of us who have the luxury of a panoramic perspective. Our story of freedom-loving fascists may actually be the story of systemic multigenerational neglect. Until that inequity enters the public consciousness, our course will not change.

Maybe we could consider some introspection before Washington burns.

Maybe America needs to get its independence back.

Maybe it’ll take a collective effort.

Nah, self-reflection is for the weak… the best president ever taught us that! Bring on the holiday! A celebration of all things free! This is how America becomes great again, right?

Happy Fourth of July, Donnie!