ABSTRACT
The January 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C., raised renewed questions about rising fascism in America, and the Trump administration’s place in stoking that fascist threat. This introduction discusses the events of January 6, as related to Trump’s efforts to stoke insurrection. It argues that Trump should be understood as central to a rising neofascistic movement in the United States, that if left unchecked, represents an escalating threat to the rule of law and democratic governance. In laying out my argument, I review the academic literature on authoritarianism, historical fascism, and neofascistic ideology in contemporary times. While the United States may not be a fully consolidated fascist regime comparable to the classical fascist regimes in Italy and Germany that existed in the twentieth century, the form of neofascistic politics in the United States poses its own unique threat to representative government and republican electoralism.
