Is Trump a fascist? Some help with the question

Some years ago I wrote an article suggesting the answer lay with you – and with all of us – personally. Was that reasonable, is it now?

Since then, many Americans have become convinced President Trump is a fascist, as many round the world are convinced. Others still vigorously deny it and ridicule the idea. Their case is Trump simply tells it like it is. He's a patriot, fighting for his country, not running a charity. He drives a hard bargain and so he should. Who’s right? What is the answer?

The difficulty is trying to define the word ‘fascist’ or, let us say, to start by trying to define it by reference to some agreed standard. Hitler? Why not Stalin? Jean-Marie Le Pen? Bashar al-Assad? Nigel Farage? The next-door neighbour? 

Take another word and condition: 'bald'. The average human has between 90,000 and 150,000 hairs on their head. Does that mean you’re balding if you have 149,846? And are you definitely bald already if you have only 89,846? Why do we not seriously argue these points? 

Splitting hairs, getting bogged down in definitions and details, so often loses sight of the issue. Rather decide what democracy is and means to you. Then consider if Trump's way is a better way to organise society.

First off, democracy is a form of government that authorises people - that’s all of us, theoretically - to have a say in our government: the idea of ‘the consent of the governed’. Dispute it as everyone may, it is never clear how that principle can be improved on.

That is because if and when and where democracy is successful, it is evidently the fairest basis for government, even though in other respects fairness means different things to different people and democracy cannot in practice deliver a perfect balance of interests.

But if that sounds like an irredeemable deficiency and good reason to look for an option, it’s important to remember successful democracy is also self-correcting: people can demand fairness and change their minds when any fairness becomes unfair.

Faced with these circumstances, fascism must always insist it has the permanent solution, while democracy is the solution to there being no permanent solution.

That’s the question for the Trumps of the world. In a time when democracy has never been more importunate, they aren’t really democrats; they don’t believe that. Do you?