Trump's "soft fascism," for now

Once commonly observed was that Trump lacked an ideology. He rolled out his first term in spasms of erratic decision making and disorienting, uncoordinated and often contradictory impulses. Ideologically he was incoherent; no traditional political designation applied.

In Trump's second go-around, the once-observable has been invalidated. He has settled ideologically into what can only be called a "soft fascism," a system characterized by authoritarian power, the purge of internal party dissent and the suppression of opposition though official demands for conformity — the key word being suppression, a fascistic stage of relative softness, one short of the opposition's elimination.

"This should be a warning to every other university to get your act together" — chilling words spoken by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on Fox News after she ordered Harvard University to discontinue its enrollment of international students. The NYT's straight-news coverage of her action was unusually blunt: "[It] intensifies the administration’s attempt to upend the culture of higher education."

The culture is, in part, one of wide-ranging inquiries into the human condition, conducted independently of government's self-interested authority and oversight. Academic conformity to the latter is at the motivating core of the Trump regime's hostile acts toward Harvard and other institutions of higher learning. Intellectual independence will not be tolerated by an authoritarian actor, thus Trump intends to financially bleed Harvard dry. He "will destroy the university as we know it," said professor of Latin American history Kirsten Weld.

Richard Grenell, Trump's new head of the Kennedy Center, formerly a dangerous venue of multicultural celebrations, charged this week that the institution's pre-regime deficit and deferred maintainance — commonalities among nonprofits — were "criminal" in nature. "We’re going to refer this to the U.S. attorney’s office here," he announced. Among others, seated on Trump's Kennedy Center board are the artistically vacuous Attorney General Pam Bondi and Fox News' Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo. Their classically authoritarian objective in place of art: nationalistic fervor. (Same at the "new" Smithsonian Institution.)

Also this week the Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation of Media Matters, a watchdog organization troublesome to Trump. The cause of his discomfort is obvious: The FTC is demanding "information about Media Matters' communications with other groups that evaluate misinformation and hate speech in news and social media," reported Reuters.

In a direct assault on political opposition, Trump has ordered the (his) Justice Department to investigate ActBlue, Democrats' top fundraising organ, based on the allegation of its having accepted illegal campaign donations. (Not, however, to the extent of $400 million cryto dinners and flying conveniences.)

Want more? Wednesday, the Times' Peter Baker posted this: "Charged, investigated or threatened with investigation by Trump or his team just in recent days:

Letitia James

Andrew Cuomo

LaMonica McIver

Kamala Harris

Bruce Springsteen

Beyonce

Bono

Oprah Winfrey

James Comey

Unnamed "treasonous" Biden aides

City of Chicago

Baker added the already noted Kennedy Center to the list. One could go on, for example Trump's persecution of anti-Trump-defending law firms and lawyers such as, he said, the "bad people, really bad people" and "radicals" like Democratic attorney Marc Elias, who "tried to turn America into a corrupt, communist and Third World country." Several firms have since bowed to Trump's authoritarian will.

For now, Trump's will is one of soft fascism. His actions have confirmed the ideological label beyond incontrovertibility. The modifier "soft" applies since the opposition's suppression has not escalated to elimination by any means. Yet inherent in any soft fascism is the tendency to turn hard. Fast.