(Editor's Note: The following opinion column does not constitute an endorsement for any political party, or candidate, on the part of Newsmax.)
Last week, CNN talk-show host Anderson Cooper asked Vice President Kamala Harris, "Do you think Trump is a Fascist?" Her reply: "Yes I do."
Of course, Cooper failed — by design, no doubt — to ask the logical follow-up question to the vice president: "Please define fascism."
Can you imagine the answer if he did?
Her response would have been an award-winning word salad. Harris can’t explain the ideology of the Democrats, let alone elucidate the tenets of fascism.
As a public service, what follows is a primer on fascism.
The architects of Fascist ideology borrowed from Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), the concept that the state was the supreme manifestation of God on earth.
They preached that every citizen must surrender their individualism in favor of the collective. Their slogan was "nothing for the individual, all for the state." They also coined the term "totalitarian," which means the state controls every aspect of a person’s life.
Fascism’s most prominent thinkers, Giovani Gentile (1875-1944) and Giuseppe Prezzolini (1882-1982), argued that there should be no conflict between man and the state because "the maximum of liberty coincides with the maximum force of the state."
They called for the state to control individuals to strengthen the nation and proclaimed fascism as a "true religion that manifested the most exalted conception of the patriotic spirit."
Gentile and Prezzolini influenced a socialist agitator, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), who would go on to become the "Il Duce" —leader of the Fascist movement.
The word "Fascist" stemmed from "fascio" or "club," which Mussolini founded for supporters of his brand of anti-Communist national socialism.
In October 1922, 40,000 Fascist "Black Shirts" marched on Rome.
A frightened King Victor Emmanuel III invited Mussolini to form a government and to serve as prime minister.
Shortly thereafter, the parliament granted Mussolini dictatorial powers, and he ruled Italy with an iron fist until he was deposed in 1943, and subsequently executed in 1945.
For Mussolini’s Fascists, the nation is the cornerstone of their ideology.
The nation represents the common history and culture.
It is above the individual. Article 1 of the Fascist Charter of Labor describes this viewpoint thusly, "The Italian nation is an organism having ends, a life and means superior in power and duration to the single individuals or groups of individuals composing it."
"Fascism," Mussolini declared, "conceives of the state as an absolute, in comparison with which all individuals or groups are relative only to be conceived in their relation to the state."
People do not possess any natural God-given rights or personal identities.
They are not persons created in the image of God, but specks within mass society, devoid of freedom, self-responsibility, and conscience.
They exist merely to work for the nation’s well-being.
People only have civic duties to obey the absolute state.
As for the economy, Fascists insisted it must be controlled by the state.
From the national standpoint, the Charter of Labor of 1927 stated, "mass production represents a single unit, it has a single object, namely the well-being of individuals and the development of national power."
The Fascists developed a "corporate state" which permitted privately held companies to exist so long as they served the state. Industries that manufactured the instruments of war were controlled by public-private partnerships.
State monopolies included the coal, tin, and nickel plants. The Fascists portrayed themselves as pseudo-divine and elevated their cause to religious status.
Mussolini — the god-man — described fascism as "a religious conception in which man is seen in his immanent relationship with a superior law and with an objective Will that transcends the particular individual and raises him to conscious membership of spiritual society."
The Fascist youth movement issued a catechism whose creed included these words, "I believe in Rome the Eternal, the mother of my country, and in Italy her eldest Daughter, who was born in her virginal bosom. . . . I believe in the genius of Mussolini, in our Holy Father Fascism, in the communion of its martyrs, in the conversion of Italians, and in the resurrection of the Empire."
Okay, let’s review: Fascists called for a "corporate state" whereby the government and corporate giants partnered to control the lives of middle-class and working-class folks.
They opposed laissez-faire capitalism and called for a planned economy.
They trampled individual rights in favor of the collective.
They supported empire building. And they hated religious institutions — particularly the Catholic Church — which opposed their ideology.
Do the tenets of fascism resemble Trump’s "Make America Great Again" agenda?
I think not.
Trump is the champion of the middle class.
He supports the free enterprise system and opposes socialism, and the alliance of big government and big corporations. He is no threat to the God-given rights of every person nor to the practicing of one’s religion.
Actually, several tenets of fascism read like the platform of the radical socialists who have infiltrated the Democratic Party.
Let’s face it, Kamala Harris has no idea what the term "fascism" means.
For her, it’s just a phrase that’s employed to smear anyone who disagrees with her.
Hopefully, the American people realize Harris is a political and intellectual lightweight and vote accordingly on Nov. 5.
George J. Marlin, a former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is the author of "The American Catholic Voter: Two Hundred Years of Political Impact," and "Christian Persecutions in the Middle East: A 21st Century Tragedy." Read George J. Marlin's Reports — More Here.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.