How to Make a Semi-fascist Party Who Knew It Could Be This Easy?

In mid-September, I attended the National Conservatism Conference in Miami, where Republican politicians, right-wing thought leaders, and various party apparatchiks had gathered to articulate their vision of the conservative movement's future.

- By Jonathan Chait

The National Conservatives are only one faction vying to define the Republican agenda, but in a short period of time, they have sharpened their focus and expanded their influence, and the conference gave them a forum to display the dominant position their ideas have achieved on the right. Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation and one of the conference's speakers, recognized their triumph when he announced from the stage, "I come not to invite National Conservatives to join our conservative movement but to acknowledge the plain truth that Heritage is already part of yours."

What exactly this movement entails has been the subject of a long-running debate largely obscured by the figure of Donald Trump. When Joe Biden warned in August of the rise of "semi-fascist ideas on the right, even many Trump critics suggested that the president had gotten carried away. CNN's John Avlon said this rhetoric was "not befitting" a president. Larry Hogan, among the most staunchly anti-Trump Republicans left in the GOP, scolded Biden for his "divisive rhetoric." The implication was that it was a miscategorization of Trump and a smear of his followers to suggest that his anti-democratic behavior in any way resembled an ideology, let alone the fascist regimes of the 20th century. And it is true that Trump gravitates toward power instinctively; as president, he dispensed with democratic norms in large part because he did not understand them. Trump’s authoritarianism is sub-ideological.