People attend a rally organized by the Patriots for Europe group at the European Parliament in Milan on April 18.PIERO CRUCIATTI/AFP/Getty Images
Omer Aziz is the author of Shadows of the Republic.
A singular question haunts Western democracies today: How should we respond to the resurgence of the far-right across nations?
In Germany, the far-right polls first. In France, the same thing. Last year, Alternative for Germany became the first far-right party since the fall of Nazism to win state elections.
In America, some version of the ultranationalist right – let us call them fascists – exists well to the right of most MAGA Republicans. They are young, diverse and will be with us for years.
I had noticed millennial and Gen Z men drifting to the far-right. Polls consistently showed boys becoming more conservative, while girls became more liberal. In the cultural sphere, on podcasts, streams and UFC matches, the far-right is even more popular – effectively monopolizing political energy for entire strata of the population.
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Fascism has returned because it was never fully defeated. As an intellectual, cultural and political movement, it went underground, waiting for new leaders. The chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials gave a chilling prophecy in 1945 when he said the Nazis “represent sinister influences that will lurk in the world long after their bodies have returned to dust.”
There are countless historical linkages between America and Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Newspapers gushed about Mussolini and early Hitler. The Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s controlled multiple state governments. And the most prominent pro-fascist preacher in America, Father Charles Coughlin, who broadcasted fanatical sermons to more than 30 million Americans, was from Hamilton.
From the Confederacy and original KKK to the fate of Indigenous peoples, fascism has been with us. The fate of Europe’s racial minorities in the 20th century was rooted in ideas going back centuries. This movement is not new and not imported. It is central to the story of America – and the West.
Carl Jung spoke of the “shadow” we all carry, that buried part of us that contains our capability for evil. All humans have this shadow. Fascism is the shadow of democracy – and when this shadow takes over, it manipulates the masses into hallucinatory fantasies of autocratic power and cruelty.
It would be a categorical mistake to assume that fascism came out of nowhere, that the Nazis were mystical demons emerging from a netherworld. Indeed, Hitler admired the United States for its racial laws and praised it in his unpublished Second Book.
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Fascism was a reaction to the turbulence of the interwar years. The original movement attracted diverse voters from the margins to the more privileged. One of the most reliable predictors of whether someone joined the Nazi Party was whether they had come of age after the First World War.
In many respects, fascism borrowed from the revolutionary fervour of communism.
Today, the far-right attracts young, diverse followers. It appeals to young men and women. It finds people of all racial backgrounds and classes, though the most numerous recruits are young men who have fallen behind. It defines culture and politics, transcending any one president or politician. This was the paradoxical power of the far-right: that it could now recruit from its own supposed victims.
There has been a loss of meaning and purpose today, and that’s what the far-right offers: belonging. Some students I spoke to for my book were moving to the far-right because it welcomed everyone, and was home to a certain pugilistic intellectual energy.
Throughout my research, I was propelled by the idea that fascism could be defeated for good, not militarily, but politically and culturally, with the organizing force of regular people.
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I spoke to U.S. lawmakers, attorneys-general, even the Trump-appointed federal judge who, earlier, as U.S. attorney, prosecuted the Charlottesville neo-Nazis. I spoke to students and young people, activists, academics and ordinary citizens who had ideas on how to improve democracy from the ground up.
Amid the fascist winter, I found the beginnings of a democratic summer.
A sense of hopelessness pervades this topic. But it shouldn’t. The fascists only truly win when we give up hope – when despair turns to inaction.
Fascism elicits fear and anger. It should also provoke our fierce rededication to imagine a better future, and work to build it. Fascism is a movement of hatred. Democracy is a movement of renewal and joy and serving the people and communities who make our countries great.
At a time of fascist resurgence, every ordinary person has the chance to be extraordinary. By remaining free and living with dignity. By speaking the truth and living with courage.
By recommitting to the democratic project with hope – and passing on something better than we inherited.