Benito Mussolini was a few months away from consolidating his position as supreme dictator of Italy in 1924 when Kleenex brand soft facial tissues were first introduced to the public here.
“Kleenex” is the trademarked name of the soft facial tissue manufactured and sold by the Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Kleenex is a specific brand of soft facial tissue. But today, the word “Kleenex” is also universally used to describe any brand of soft facial tissue. You don’t say, “please hand me that box of soft facial tissue”; you say, “please hand me that box of Kleenex.”
Similarly, “Fascism” is a specific brand of far-right, ultra-nationalist, autocratic political movement. It refers exclusively to the Mussolini regime in Italy rising in 1922, becoming a dictatorship in 1925, and ending in 1943. But today, the term “Fascism” is also widely used to describe any far-right, ultra-nationalist, autocratic political movement.
It causes confusion because, according to Robert Paxton, a Columbia University professor emeritus, widely considered the father of fascism studies, each nation’s far-right, ultra-nationalist autocratic movement has its own unique characteristics that are commensurate with each individual nation’s culture and society – leading to very different far-right, ultra-nationalist regimes being lumped together under the umbrella of “fascism.”
For example, Paxton correctly predicted that “religion … would play a much greater role in authentic fascism in the United States” than it would in the more secular Europe. Although Francisco Franco’s far-right, conservative nationalist regime in Spain was allied with Italy and Germany, it did not share their imperialistic lust, and stayed completely out of WWII – and, thus, Franco’s fascist dictatorship lasted until his death in 1975.
But Italy’s far-right, ultra-nationalist, autocratic political movement, i.e., “Make Italy Great Again,” was the original version of “fascism,” a term coined by Il Duce himself. Fascism prioritized the nation over the individual and scapegoated socialists, but not Jews.
Some years later, when Hitler incorporated the tenets of fascism into to his own Third Reich, the resulting Nazi dictatorship was dubbed “Nazism” – or “Make Germany Great Again – and Ethnically Pure Again” – because it did scapegoat Jews (Hitler eventually persuaded Mussolini into scapegoating Jews as well).
Some decades later, in Afghanistan, the Taliban’s version of far-right, ultra-nationalist, autocratic political movement, took the form of a theocracy based on a warped, far-right, version of Islam. “Make Afghanistan Fundamentalist and Holy Again.”
And now here we are in the United States, on the verge of a complete takeover by a far-right, ultra-nationalist, autocratic political movement called MAGA. “Make America Great Again – and White Christian Again.” Of course, they don’t say the last part out loud, not yet, anyway. This American brand, once fully consolidated, will manifest as an autocratic regime based on a warped Old Testament, Christofascist theocracy.
That is, if they can hold onto power in the 2026 midterm elections in November; an emerging fascist dictator’s worst fear is open and free elections. That’s why Trump wants escalation and chaos in the streets of Minneapolis and other cities, so he can declare martial law and suspend or cancel the November elections – or at the very least make them less open and less free.
To distinguish our unique brand of far-right, ultra-nationalist, autocratic political movement, I call it “American fascism” for lack of a better name. But Yale Divinity School Professor Halford E. Luccock warned in a 1938 speech that disguised fascism in the U.S. “will not be labeled ‘made in Germany’; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, ‘Americanism.'”
INTERVIEW: The History of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in America, with Bill Mullen and Christopher Vials
Disguised it is, indeed. American fascism, or “Americanism,” has effectively fooled the masses by slipping like an autocratic hand into a Republican glove. Like a virus, it replaced the GOP’s DNA with its own DNA, and began replicating – while still calling itself the “Republican Party” – as a disguise, mostly to keep up hollow democratic appearances and give a false sense of normalcy.
Because the last thing it wants is to spook any of the 90 million eligible American voters who didn’t bother to vote in 2024 – many of whom are still sitting like frogs in a pan of rapidly-heating water – and cause them to finally look up from their phones and say: “Holy shit! – he took over Venezuela without Congressional approval and now wants to take Greenland, and he is threatening bombs and tariffs against anyone who stands in his way- and he sent paramilitary forces under his sole control into U.S. cities in blue states, and they’re disappearing people and shooting Americans in the face, and now threatening anyone who publicly dissents with obstruction charges? – Oh, crap! – I guess I better vote this time!”
Per “Kleenex paradox,” I say that ANYONE who still supports MAGA Trump one year into his second term, is an “American Fascist.” Still wrestling with my use of the “F” word? Then call it “Competitive Authoritarianism,” “Illiberal Democracy,” “Electoral Autocracy,” or simply an “Anocracy,” instead, all of which are used by political scientists and historians to accurately describe our current fascist transition from democracy to autocracy.
Whatever we call it, it is profoundly sad to witness firsthand, a fledgling regime of uniquely American-style fascism incrementally develop before our eyes – knowing that it is almost too late to reverse course now.
So, last one out, please shut off democracy’s overhead lights – and maybe democracy’s emergency lights will turn on. Because that’s what this is. An emergency. But before you go, please hand me that box of soft facial tissue.
