Unite the Right rally, Charlottesville, VA. USA TODAY Network/PA Images. All rights reserved.The Nazi killing of a protester at Charlottesville, and the president’s subsequent equivocation about racist violence, reveal the contrast between Trumpism in power and its predecessors. Such incidents and statements, and there have been many more, raise the question of the resilience of American democracy. How much authoritarian populism can the system withstand without turning into dictatorship? In this article, we suggest that one answer might be found in looking at the nature and history of resistance to fascism and populism in the past.
New studies show that fascism and populism in government were successful when relied on their ability to keep support by mixing coercion and demagoguery. But they also succeed when the opposition was divided and the population became apathetic and politically disengaged. Trump fomented such divisions after Charlottesville by distributing blame for violence between the Nazis and the "Antifa" movement, and was echoed by others who sought to depict anti-fascism as just another form of totalitarianism. These politicised reactions are not surprising, but they present a genuine challenge: to what extent successful resistance to these governments requires coalitions of political parties, labour movements, and other mass organisations.
Some would argue that an approach of this kind is too slow, and that countering the rise of fascism of the kind encouraged by the Trump government should embrace the active resistance and defensive violence that anarchists, communists and punks have long embraced in Europe against neo-Nazis. There is evidence that this combative stance can deter public displays similar to the shameful "tiki-torch" march of Charlottesville. But fuller historical evidence casts doubt on this partisan approach.
