Did It Happen Here?

Matt and Sam take up the question that's dominating The Discourse: Is Donald Trump—and the movement he leads—fascist? To provide an answer, they turn to the rich historiography of fascism and some key essays on the subject published since Trump's election. Along the way, they break down different approaches and sets of criteria for evaluating fascism, consider the similarities—and differences—between the 1920s and '30s and today, and ponder whether or not the "fascist question" is the right one to be asking. Listen to the end to find out where Matt and Sam finally land! Further Reading: Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism (Vintage, 2004) Friedrich Reck, Diary of a Man in Despair (New York Review of Books, 2013; originally published in 1947) Federico Finchelstein, From Fascism to Populism in History (University of California Press, 2017) Kathleen Belew, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America Harvard University Press, 2019 Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (Penguin, 2018) Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism (1950) George Jackson, Soledad Brother , (1970) Robert O. Paxton, " I've Hesitated to Call Donald Trump a Fascis…