Palin Rallies Ignite Widespread Talk of 'Fascism'

Because I published a book recently on the harm done to U.S. democracy by violent rhetoric, I get lots of calls for comment on whichever right-wing shock jock uttered the most menacing words on air in any given week. Lately, however, those questions have shifted in a very noticeable way. Whereas the public concern used to be focused on violent terms and phrases used in broadcast media, nowadays all the talk is about Sarah Palin's speeches and fear of 'fascism.' And even if 'fascist' is not a very accurate description of Sarah Palin -- neither sociologically nor historically -- public concern in response to her campaign events is a social fact well worth noting, if only for the sheer scale of it.

Palin Events Evoke Image of 'Rallies' Seen in History Museums
The most common point brought to my attention in this new concern for Palin is that her events remind people of the kind of 'rallies' people have seen in old newsreels and exhibition photographs in history museums about the fascist period.

Many people have said to me, in so many words, 'I went to a Holocaust museum, recently, and the kinds of rallies they had in the 1930s are exactly what we are seeing now at these Palin events.'

What is it that makes people see events from 1930s Europe and Sarah Palin's campaign stops in Florida (e.g.) as similar? People repeatedly mention three things:

(1) Palin's claim that Sen. Obama has covert ties to 'domestic terrorism'
(2) Palin's claim that Sen. Obama wants to see the U.S. military defeated in war
(3) Shouts from attendees calling for physical harm against Sen. Obama

Interestingly, I have heard these observations from Democrats and Republicans. The logic is that it is not just one feature of the Palin events that leads people see them as 'rallies' of the sort they have learned about in history museums, but three elements combining together: claims of Obama's covert terrorist ties and desire to see the military fail, combined with voiced calls for harm to Sen. Obama.

Palin Events Elicit Talk of Attendee 'Mentality''
After talk of historical references, the most common concern I hear is about the 'mentality' or 'psychology' of the attendees at Palin events. When put to me, the question is often phrased as:

Is there some reason why the people at these events -- and not other people -- are susceptible to the kind of political rhetoric Palin uses?

The psychology questions are most often posed in response to several observations made about the attendees:

(1) Since Sen. Obama has no ties to terrorism, why do some people believe it?
(2) Why are these people susceptible to right-wing propaganda while other people are not?
(3) Why do people continue to accept the 'terrorism' and 'treason' smears even when presented with facts about Sen. Obama?

Nobody who has presented me with these questions has claimed any kind of expertise in psychological theory. Rather, they seem to be looking for a scientific sounding answer for what they observe as an irrational 'anger' at Palin rallies and, in general, a 'mentality' departing from 'normal.'

We find these same kinds of questions about 'anger' and 'mentality' in the writings from observers of the rise of fascism in the 1930s and 1940s -- such as Dialectic of Enlightenment by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. What I hear in these questions about the 'mentality' of the Palin attendees is not a return to social psychological theories of the postwar period, but a voiced concern for what people view as behavior in the public sphere that strikes them as a departure from normal, healthy behavior.

Palin Events Provoke Talk of Acting Before 'Too Late' to Stop Fascism
The third most common kind of chatter in response to Sarah Palin's events focus on the idea of 'proto-fascism' or the process of becoming fascist. These discussions often reference certain lists or books that describe the emergence of fascist totalitarianism in terms of a series of elements that emerge over a given period of time.

The people who ask these kinds of question all express a very similar concern about identifying fascism 'before it is too late to stop.' These arguments emerge from people who have gone out and read books and articles that talk about fascism emerging in small steps that nobody notices until it is 'too late,' to stop -- a common argument made in polemical writing about fascism.

Of note, this kind of concern is often the most fear-filled -- the most advanced. Often, the people who ask me if it is too late to stop the 'fascism' Palin brings to our system had voiced concerns about 'fascism' prior to Palin's nomination.

Conclusion: Palin Not Fascist, But She Sparks Talk of Threats to Democracy
To call someone a 'fascist' is a very serious charge. Despite all these questions and concerns, I have not concluded that Sarah Palin's past or recent campaign events represent the emergence of fascism in American politics. In particular, Sarah Palin does not bring anything even closely approaching a comprehensive totalitarian nationalist ideology to the campaign trail. Instead, Palin merely thumps the war drums of George Bush's 'robber baron' style Republicanism.

What she does bring is a noteworthy skill with extreme, often violent populism. As a result, she has succeeded at creating intense loyalty to her personally, and deep antipathy for Sen. Obama -- also on a personal level. And while this populism has succeeded only amongst small core of the Republican base, the fervency of Palin's supporters has been amplified a thousand times over by the obsessive media coverage that she enjoys.

So, Sarah Palin is not 'fascist,' but that does not mean her language and her events have not had a dangerous impact on our democracy.

Beyond adding populism to the campaign trail, Palin has also done something else: she has re-framed the McCain campaign in violent terms -- terms that had been used predominantly by right-wing shock pundits on TV and radio.

Whereas politicians like John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Newt Gingrich had occasionally used violent rhetoric in stump speeches, Sarah Palin's use of it has resulted in a complete repackaging of the Republican presidential campaign. And thhat use of violent rhetoric has threatened to clogged up any attempt by the American public to have serious, pragmatic conversation about the problems we face and the solutions necessary to solve them.

In our gut, Americans feel that the violent rhetoric in Sarah Palin's campaign events poisons the productive pragmatism of American Democracy. In response to that gut feeling, some people reach for the word 'fascism,' most likely, because that is the word used in popular culture most frequently over the past ten years to describe threats to democracy.

Even if 'fascist' is not an accurate description of Sarah Palin, the scale of the public concern in response to her campaign events is a social fact all by itself. And as we head into the final weeks of the campaign, the scope of that social fact grows by the hour.

Crossposted from Frameshop

Follow Jeffrey Feldman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JeffreyFeldman

Comments

[joe2891]

Combine this with extreme anti-immigrant rhetoric, and extreme anti-liberal rhetoric, and you certainly have the basic ingredients of a fascist movement. At the root of the right-wing war on culture and ideas is a deep hatred of "cosmopolitanism", of global influences playing themselves out in the national sphere. Palin's Alaskan comrades and well-wishers are extreme anti-New World Order paranoiacs who surely view it in the same way Hitler and the Nazis viewed the Bolsheviks. Obama is seen as a representative of this new, cosmopolitan, internationalist political mindset. So there is, in addition to extreme anti-leftism, extreme nationalism.

There is also a right-wing, albeit concealed version of anti-capitalism that the Nazis also were able to use. Palin used the phrase "greed and corruption on Wall Street" more than McCain did, more than Obama has. Granted, it is what everyone wants to hear right now. Others have noted how in her debate with Biden she simultaneously called for more regulation and oversight while mouthing Reaganisms about "government getting out of the way", etc. I think the former is what she really wants, while the latter is what she was told will play better politically. I believe she does want a strong, powerful state that will order business about in a corporatist way - not in the interests of the workers and the poor, as with genuine socialism, but in the interests of the American empire.

one more to come

[joe2891]

I've been thinking about this a lot myself as of late. There are different reasons to use or avoid the word "fascism" in describing the Palin phenomenon. It would be wrong to apply it simply because the mobs that surround her are growing increasingly violent and desperate in their rhetoric. That said, what is fascism, where does it come from, and how do we know it when we see it? All over the Internet we find lists of the "10 features of fascism", but that is a quantitative approach that does little to explain the essence of fascism.

Fascism is, I believe, first and foremost a reaction to socialism and communism, or short of that, a well-organized labor movement. America lacks these things, BUT - the American right is so far to the right that even centrism looks like far-left extremism. We saw how at one of the latest rallies for McCain a man stood up and railed against "the socialists" that are "taking over the country". The far-right believes Obama is a socialist. Whether he is actually a socialist or not (he isn't) seems to be less relevant than the mere perception that he is.

more to come

[harrymellon]

I think the phrase is "friendly fascism".

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

She is the Governor of a Corporate state, as Benito Mussolini said%2

[bluevillage]

On the most immediate level, it's obvious that what Sarah Palin is doing (via her programmers) is just to repeat Sean Hannity's talking points, giving them a currency they wouldn't otherwise have. Though the people at her rallies are probably viewers of Hannity, it's the TV coverage of them that has introduced this BS into the wider dialogue. Maybe the media should grow a pair and refuse to broadcast her trash talk. They can cover her and McCain's rallies but keep the film in the can for future storage in a holocaust museum. God forbid.

[nestmart]

sounds like a fascist pig with lipstick

[mouselion]

Palin is not a fascist but she is appealing to the fascist tendencies of certain segment of the population -

**fascism (also Fascism):
noun
an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.
- (in general use) extreme right-wing, authoritarian, or intolerant views or practice.
... Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one national or ethnic group, a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach.*­*

Palin and McCain certainly are trying to wear the mantle of "populist" -- but voters already believe that Obama represents populist interests --

** populist:
noun
a member or adherent of a political party seeking to represent the interests of ordinary people.
- a person who holds, or who is concerned with, the views of ordinary people.
- ( Populist) a member of the Populist Party, a U.S. political party formed in 1891 that advocated the interests of labor and farmers, free coinage of silver, a graduated income tax, and government control of monopolies.

Palin could not be a fascist in the classical sense (supporting a nationalistic authoritarian regime) considering her address last year to the Alaska Independence Party’s annual convention (which her husband was once an official member).
http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/the-palins-imperfect-union/

Her persona, background and political spin suggests "populist" -- but it is not clear whether this is how she would govern if president since she has not articulated policy positions beyond campaign rhetoric.

[Ponzipuppet]

The ideology of fascism can be defined as populist rhetoric invoking (in this order): God, Country, Family.
That is a very accurate description of Palin's brand of Republicanism. For instance:

1) Palin's preacher has anointed her as someone who has been "touched to do great things."

2) Palin accuses an extremely talented, accomplished, civil servant of being a terrorist who will destroy the country. Although she does not specifically incite people to violence, she does nothing to squelch a mob's hatred of a man that she has told her crowd to perceive as "other."

3) Blah blah blah Family values.

I think it is fair to say that the rhetoric is proto-fascist.

[stlrfan]

This is my unsophisticated view. When I see these Palin events degenerate into mob scenes from some Hollywood message movie from the past, I can't help but think that these are the same folks that watch Jerry Springer just to see other people let their emotions get the best of them. They have sad little lives and spend a lot of time figuring out what they are going to be afraid of next. Sarah Palin is Joe McCarthy in a skirt, Just change a red under every bed to a muslim terrorist cell in every neighborhood. They have the balls to say Obama is nothing but rhretoric, when Palin's substance would fit in a thimble.

[bellepepper02]

I agree with you. Perhaps it's going overboard to describe her as a fascist, but certainly she can be linked to McCarthyism.

[dshwa]

Agreed, McCarthyism is much closer to the truth.

[bellepepper02]

But just to add to my other comment, Palin's behaviour is congruent to accounts of Hitler's rallies given by the Frankfurt School of cultural critics who try to explain the emergence of fascism. Slavoj Zizek talks about how, doing a time of economic crisis, Hitler talked the talk of racial purity and blaming the racial 'other' for the economic problems. Palin doesn't do this overtly (because in the US, she would get arrested for this). But she appeals through racial coding to these emotions of anger, fear and racism on the part of the uneducated folks. She knows what she is doing and saying. Just as with Hitler, it was done during an economic crisis (when such fears and feelings work best).

[WayUpNorth]

I think you are right about who these people are. In addition to feeding on the misery of Springer's guests, the have also been getting heavier in their hate by feeding at the troughs of the right-wing nutoshpere. Only now, instead of listening to the hate alone in a dark room somewhere seething in silence, they can finally get together and hate as group and give voice to the rage that has been building inside them.

[NeoLiberal]

From a psychological standpoint, those people who espouse or adopt the opinions or positions put forth in her rhetoric NEED something fulfilling in their lives. They are missing a connection with others in their society or environment and are open to suggestion or fast conditioning that preys on their personal predicaments.

That is how you get defeated and poor Germans after WW1 to follow a dictator. His party fed them the lines they NEEDED to hear, to recover their self-esteem by projecting their apparent victimization onto others.

Feldman is correct in writing and implying that Palin's rhetoric and populist style could be construed as 'proto-fascist' without having crossed the line into fascism itself.

The far right-wing soil, however, is obviously very fertile for the planting of these seeds. The only thing missing is whom they will characterize as their enemy, the focus of their apparent victimization.

Muslims? Arabs? Gays?

They are very carefully using their words in stump speeches and can't be overt. That's even worse, because it allows the crowd's fervor to fill in the gaps---and that is when it becomes dangerous and out of control.

If violence occurs, they will be accomplices and will have stoked the fire with their words or omissions.

[bdaved]

It's a shame we need to be reminded of what ugliness our own people are capable of.
In Zeev Sternhell's article "Fascist Ideology" he says "there still exists no definition of fascism acceptable to all, or recognised as universally valid." Fascism may be, like obscenity, the kind of thing you'll know when you see it. Incidentally, Professor Sternhell was wounded in a pipe bomb attack on his home a couple of weeks ago. He is a supporter of peace efforts in Israel.
In Christopher Flood's paper "National Populism" on the Front National in France he characterizes a populist movement as one which "seeks to mobilize support by claiming to speak on behalf of the mass of ordinary, decent people against a corrupt, degenerate ruling elite." I think Governor Palin could be characterized as a nationalist populist, or populist nationalist. But then again, she's only been at this for a few weeks, so who really knows?

[Shadow08]

I read the article and many of the astute comments. I don't know if it's worth the effort in splitting the hairs of the definition of Facism to seperate Sarah Palin from her obvious authoritatian vision for America. I heard President GW Bush use the term Islam-o-Facsim, given that, I think we can throw the classic defintion out of the window.

Palin's address to the crowd where she stated Obama's idea of America was different than "ours" was very alarming and defining it as anything other than dangerous to a free society is superfluous.

Her intent to divide America is no secret, everything she does is to seperate her group of "good guys" from Barack's group of "bad guys." It's so childish I cant believe it's happening in 21st century America but it is.


One thing I think she does have in common with the classic defintion of Facsism is whipping up rabid nationalism. Of course that's just an extension of our post 9-11 nationalistic fervor that gave us the USA Patriot act.

So, I have seen the buds of facism grow in America and Palin could well be a carrier, certainly her garb of the last few days, the dark heavy uniform tightly belted jacket only lacks an armband to give her the seal of an offical of the party.

[NoSillyName]

I noticed that outfit as well.

[sboucher]

The first tip-off was when Palin asked the library "how they would feel about" removing a list of books she created. She is also driving deeper the divide between "we Americans" and those who are "the other," playing those who don't know better. Some people go to NASCAR to see the races, others to see the crashes. My mother is a Holocaust survivor, and she voiced concern the first time she heard Palin speak.

[blastit]

One of the sad thing about this ignorant people who are finding a vent for their hate in Palin and McCain is that, they don't seem to realize or care that McCain/ Palin and the the Bush's of the world have such disdain and comtempt for them.. These people are being used and some of them may have enough sense to realize it, but doggonit, they think they are going to benefit from supporting them somehow.., wink, wink,.. They think that McCain/ Palin is going to protect their white privlage, the truth is..the only privlage McCain and Palin are interested in protecting is their own.

[bubito54]

I think a good case could be made that the hard Republican Christianist right is quintessentially fascist in its class background and consciousness. I date myself and my undergraduate poli-sci studies at UNC-CH reading Marcuse under post-Prague Marxians like Jeffrey Obler, but bells, whistles, styles, and stagecraft aside, fascism's roots are solidly in the middle class, and its adherents are overwhelmingly intellectu­ally-stunt­ed, change-averse petit bourgeoisie- the shop-keepers and clerks and low-tech tradespeople who are scared of everything that doesn't glorify their pedestrian Weltanschauung as transcendent and implicitly derived from some first principle or principles: e.g., race (Volk); conspicuous, jingoistic Christianity and its vocabulary of purposefully simplifying slogans and euphemistic code words; and saccharine kultur. U-S-A!!!!!
I think these lunkheads are clearly fascists, and the parallels between militia like Blackwater and the S.A. , e.g., are patent and terrifying. I hope BHO has the chance to dissolve them all on Jan 21, 2009, and does so. I don't want them looking us up in a Palin/Gingrich administration in 2013.

[InjunTrouble]

Fascist or not (actually Palin is not smart enough to even know the meaning of fascism), Palin's rhetoric and tone are very similar to what Milosevic used to whip up the Serbian population against the Bosnian muslims.