The Attraction of Fascism

A new, aggressively pro-Trump video showcases the self-righteous hostility and increasing extremism among the right-wing elite

“It’s time for Republicans, including those who doubt him or even can’t stand him, to get behind him,” Claremont Institute chairman Thomas Klingenstein insists. (Screenshot of Klingenstein video)

A few weeks back, I listened to Donald Trump’s speech in Dayton, Ohio—you know, the “bloodbath” and migrants are “not people” rant—so you didn’t have to. But I suggest a different response to a new video, a look into the hostile, hateful view of Tom Klingenstein, a mega-rich Republican donor, investor and chairman of the increasingly extremist Claremont Institute in Southern California of which he is a major funder. The video, which is narrated by Klingenstein with an apocalyptic tone, is ingratiatingly dedicated to Trump and the need to defeat “woke communists,” America’s “evil” enemies better known as progressive Democrats.

This eight-minute battle call, unironically titled “Trump’s Virtues Part II,” requires your attention because it provides such a vivid expression of the toxic mindset that is enabling Trump among a so-called conservative intellectual elite that has become so openly contemptuous of diversity and democracy. An avid supporter of Trump back in 2016 and one of the GOP’s largest donors of more than $11 million between 2020 and 2023, Klingenstein showcases the authoritarian and fascistic, anti-democratic and anti-diversity goals that are driving various pro-Trump groups. It’s no wonder that Trump has proudly posted this video on his Truth Social platform.

I have questioned whether I should amplify this poisonous work. But I am increasingly convinced that—now and in the coming months—we cannot be indifferent or turn away from the hostility and hatred that surrounds us. This is especially true when the hateful message—dressed up as righteous thinking—reduces the people of America to good and evil and transforms the ugly malignancy of Trump into messianic-level necessity.

As mad as this thinking may sound, we have to look squarely at what these right-wing extremists, especially those with deep-deep pockets, are saying and doing. Not because their messages are entertaining, but because they provide us clarity about what they’re pursuing and what they believe will resonate with the Trump cult’s followers and leading enablers.

Klingenstein’s opening makes clear that it’s time to toss away the values of decency and compassion to stand with Trump. Why? Because he wants Republicans to accept that they are at war with the “woke regime,” which “will not stop until it destroys America.”

“It’s time for Republicans, including those who doubt him or even can’t stand him, to get behind him,” Klingenstein asserts. “The times demand it…I call our enemy the woke regime or the group quota regime. This war is a contest between those who love America and those who hate it.”

In the face of this presumed moral collapse—what he has called elsewhere a cold civil war—Klingenstein argues for Republicans to put aside their traditional values and throw their lot with Trump. “We shouldn’t much care whether our commander-in-chief is a real conservative,” he says, “whether he is a role model for children, or says lots of silly things, or whether he is modest or dignified. What we should care about is whether he knows we are in a war, knows who the enemy is and knows how to win. Trump does.”

Put aside Trump losing the 2020 election and significantly contributing to the GOP losses in 2022. The video never discusses voting or the need for Republicans to win elections; the focus is on fighting and winning a war. It is laced with malice, an unspoken readiness to pursue political violence if that’s what it takes.

As this narrator notes later in the video, Trump is molding “patriotic Americans into an army. We cannot stop the left’s revolution and retake the nation without these men and women. Unlike most conservatives [and here we see footage of Mitch McConnell], they will actually fight for America.”

And what are they fighting for exactly? And why is Trump the man to lead them?

“Trump never apologizes for America,” Klingenstein says with admiration. “Trump says in effect we have our culture, it’s exceptional and that’s the way we want to keep it. And we won’t keep it if we usher in millions of immigrants with cultures different from our own. Trump knows his job is to protect Americans—and just Americans. Protect them not just from enemies abroad, but from the woke globalists within. He knows America does not need more diversity. It needs more cohesion.”

Let’s put aside the ludicrous notion that Trump has any interest in cohesion. Klingenstein’s words underscore the divisiveness that he and his fellow Trumpists are spawning with their aggressive rejection of efforts to achieve racial equality in America. As this narrative unfolds, Klingenstein articulates the rationale for denying Trump’s criminality, rejecting the pursuit of justice and the rule of law—and letting the Trump cult revel in bigotry.

“The woke radicals tell the Trump voters they are a threat to democracy and tell us, ad nauseam, that America is systemically racist. Trump knows this is deadly nonsense,” he says. “This charge of systemic racism bounces off Trump because he has no white guilt—or any guilt for that matter. Trump tells his supporters what they already know: They are not racist and they do not have white privilege. The woke radicals shut up those who disagree.”

And here’s the kicker: “Trump will not be shut up. If they manage to put him in jail, he will still roar like a lion.”

In contrast to Klingenstein’s insistence that “the woke radicals have the moral arrogance of fanatics,” he lovingly describes Trump as the reasonable businessman and a man of the people. Clearly, psychological awareness is not high on this man’s list of attributes.

“Trump is a businessman who takes the world on its own terms and navigates by facts and common sense,” he says, noting that his base loves him and “they know he loves them.” According to Klingenstein, Trump doesn’t talk down to his crowd: “Despite his billions, he is one of them.” His proof? Trump is “a man who takes catchup on his steak and is as disgusted as they are with the anti-American elite.”

When his rally crowds begin cheering “USA, USA,” he says, “Trump and his audience mutually pledge to each other their fidelity and their sacred honor.”

While Klingenstein doesn’t directly discuss the January 6 insurrection, he does talk about Trump’s growing “army” of “patriotic Americans” who will “fight for America.” And he turns the advocacy for democracy and fierce rejection of Trump into “a reason for hope,” explaining that “the America haters rightly fear that Trump and his party are on the threshold of a successful counter-revolution.”

Ignoring Trump’s use of Hitlerian phrases and his pledge to be a dictator on day one, he talks about the “hysteria” of Trump’s enemies who are disturbed by these behaviors. Then this: “Trump hates his enemies as much as they hate him. His enemies are America’s enemies,” he says, showing footage of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley. Klingenstein expresses excitement that Trump would “go after the deep state without pity or compassion.”

Inevitably, this poisonous pro-Trump attack ends with the biblical, just in case we doubted the necessity of another Trump term and the singular moment his ascendancy represents. “Is it too much to wonder if the appearance of this most unconventional man is providential?” he asks.

His answer to this seemingly rhetorical question is squarely targeted to Christian evangelicals and White Christian nationalists: “Trump gives hope” that God will not forsake America.

In the coming months, we should expect more of such incendiary, apocalyptic, good- versus-evil justifications for why America must align itself with Trump—especially if the criminal defendant finally goes to trial and faces convictions. Years ago, before Trump descended his golden escalator in 2015, Klingenstein’s Claremont Institute was considered right-wing, but not extremist. Those days are gone: The prospects for moderation by almost any influential leader in the GOP has become nigh impossible.

As for Claremont, writer Katherine Stewart may have summed it up best in her New Republic profile of the institute last year. “…the men of Claremont aren’t here to propose practical policy solutions to the problems facing America,” she writes. “They come to rile up a grievance-addled base and satisfy their own resentments—and to raise enough money to keep the circus on tour.”

As for Klingenstein, who may be both a true believer and cynically calculating the way into Trump’s inner circle in an imagined second term, Stewart describes the conservative influence peddlers who are now embracing authoritarianism and even dictatorship as the inevitable outgrowth of “polluting American political discourse” over the last half century. “If your power depends on lying to the people, that doesn’t make you noble,” she concludes. “It just leaves you with a choice: Accept that you are a fraud, or embrace the lie.”

Sadly, I’ve never been wrong by predicting—when it comes to Trump and his influence—that it will get worse before it gets better. Klingenstein’s video is a reminder of that reliable adage. Let’s keep paying attention.

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