Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
It is necessary to talk again about fascism in modern society and about recent fascist experiences. We must reflect on what fascism was and whether today it is an emerging alternative in societies such as the United States or Mexico.
Umberto Eco wrote an essay on fascism centered on his personal experience with Benito Mussolini in Italy. Eco defined fascism as a political expression without a defined ideology because the leader was important, not its programmatic content. Eco says that fascism has no essence, expressing a confused totalitarianism, a collage of different political and philosophical ideas, and a hive of contradictions. For the fascist leader, the important thing was not to be tied to a particular ideology because everything revolved around his figure, and he did not want programmatic commitments.
Thus, every fascist project contained an anti-capitalist tone, but not in the Marxist sense of the term. For the fascist, to be anti-capitalist is to oppose the principles of, for example, the French Revolution, liberty, solidarity, and equality. The fascist regime is against liberties but not against profit or the war for power.
The fascist leader can rant against capital and promote ultraliberal economic principles the next day. One day, he may be ultraliberal; the next, he may be statist. It all depends on what suits him in terms of his political project to stay in power.
Hitler came to power through electoral means and a national-socialist agenda. He was the first world leader to apply, in the early stages of his government, the Keynesian economic model: the Welfare State. At the same time, he promoted a political model of persecution and annihilation of the liberties of the German people and then launched the Second World War.
Hitler’s famous book My Struggle is basically a list of bitter grievances and resentments against the society of his time, including the art school that did not admit him as a student. It was not an agenda for the country.
Fascisms share an essential idea. Mussolini’s and Hitler’s anti-capitalism was a rejection of modernity, not of capitalism as such.
The driving force of these fascisms was the exploitation of feelings of frustration, anger, and resentment over the aftermath of the First World War. The two leaders knew how to harness these emotions and connect them with their own resentments. This was the perfect breeding ground for an ambiguous political model without a clear ideological compass, combining a hodgepodge of the languages of the time: anti-capitalism, authoritarianism, communism, socialism, nationalism, and longing for the bygone days of the great monarchies.
AMLO shares many of these elements of Hitler and Mussolini. He came to power by democratic means and has dedicated the six years of his administration to sabotage and cancel that same system that allowed him to come to power, with the sole purpose of not ceding power to another. He carries the deep narcissistic wound that he was denied power in 2006. He conveys this in all his books, including the last one, when he bids farewell, saying, “Thank you, but I consider all of you traitors.”
His economic management is very similar to that of Milei in Argentina: cuts to social services of health and education, austerity in public spending without distinction, and the elevation of the armed forces. His economic policy, which includes the CUSMA/USMCA/T-MEC, is more ultraliberal than neoliberal. Thus, he shows that he has no ideology but rather interests that move according to the political compass. Likewise, he is anti-modern, coinciding with the extreme right in rejecting what they call “gender ideology”, a position he expresses with actions (or lack thereof), not words.
Resentment is an essential driver in the construction of a fascist leader. All of them have been able to mobilize their societies from class resentment but to elevate the leader without establishing programmatic, ideological, or political commitments. Their ability to mobilize the fear and resentment of millions is what makes them unique leaders, capable of creating a cult of followers until death. Perhaps this is the element that causes the most consternation.
Liberalism has not found a way to confront fascism’s resurgence in the modern era successfully. Societies disdain democratic procedures for dealing with fascism’s rise. Fascism moves at full speed, challenging or destroying democratic institutions, which are, by their nature, legal instruments that take time to study, agree on, and act in the face of threats from anti-democratic forces. Democratic slowness is overwhelmed by the speed of political forces that ignore democratic rules and institutions. It is a serious dilemma for today’s democratic forces.
Is AMLO a fascist? Not yet, but he has all the elements for his transformation into a fascist.
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