U.S. Sen. Ernest Lundeen’s head was down, his eyes red and cheeks wet when his secretary arrived at his office to take him to the airport. The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party senator, formerly a Republican, refused to explain, saying only: “I’ve come too far to turn back.”
Hours later, Lundeen would die in a plane crash along with 25 other people, including two FBI agents and a prosecutor from the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. About 100 yards from the site of the crash, amidst the carnage and debris, responders found a copy of the speech the senator had planned to give—a speech praising German culture and warning the U.S. against getting involved in the war against fascism in Europe.
At the time of his death, the senator was under federal investigation for his ties to Nazi Germany. Indeed, as Rachel Maddow recounted in her podcast, “Ultra,” a paid agent of the Third Reich had ghost-written the speech for the American senator.
Lundeen is not a one-off; he is far from the only powerful American in history to collaborate with autocrats, spurn democracy and promote fascism as a solution to our problems. Just a year before his death, a pro-Hitler American Nazi group known as the German American Bund held a mass rally in Madison Square Garden that attracted thousands. They even declared that George Washington was “the first fascist” merely because he had expressed uncertainty about whether democracy would work when the American republic first formed.
Fascism is a word that gets thrown around a lot—and not always in a way that is tethered to its meaning (kind of like socialism, communism and Marxism). A 1983 copy of Encyclopedia Britannica notes that all fascist movements share in common “an emphasis on the nation (race or state) as the centre and regulator of all history and life, and on the indisputable authority of the leader behind whom the people were expected to form an unbreakable unity.”
Under fascism, classical liberal notions of emphasizing the rights and liberties of individuals are discarded in favor of obedience to the state and the promotion of diversity conflicts with the mandate to raise a nation deeply rooted in ancestral soil. French philosopher and nationalist politician Maurice Barrès articulated these ideas in the late 1800s and early 1900s, emphasizing lineage as the determinant of who is truly French and railing against Jews and others he regarded as foreigners who were importing values, art and ideas (including about race and the role of women) that could destroy the nation’s integrity.
‘The Greater Enemy Within’
Adolf Hitler emphasized the importance of “blut and boden,” or “blood and soil,” as he sought to “purify” the Aryan race—with special targets on Jews, non-Aryans and others he considered a threat to the nation’s DNA. He called Jews “parasitic vermin” who were corrupting the nation. Jews were poisoning the blood of the nation, he claimed.
“Those nations who are still opposed to us will someday recognize the greater enemy within. Then they will join us in a combined front, a front against Jewish exploitation and racial degeneration,” he said during his 1924 treason trial over a failed coup in Munich, weaponizing it as an opportunity to spread his message.
In Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf,” written while he was in prison, the future German dictator wrote that propaganda should not target people’s intellectual sensibilities nor concern itself primarily with truth, but instead that “the more exclusively it considers mass emotions, the more complete will be its success.” The Nazis rose to power stoking the passions of fear, resentment and vengeance.
Before the Third Reich would carry out the Holocaust, the regime carried out a campaign of censorship, famously the book burnings in Berlin, seeking to quash ideas that challenged Nazism. That included the burning of the archives of the Institute of Sexology, which promoted sex education, offered contraceptive services for women, supported gay people navigating a society where homosexuality was outlawed and even provided surgical treatments for transgender patients. Fascism has always deplored sexual freedom for women and expressions of sexuality and gender that threaten the traditional sex roles that uphold male hierarchy.
There has never been and will never be another Hitler. But there have been and will be other fascist leaders and movements—all of which express themselves in their own unique ways despite their commonalities.
Fascism in America
The United States, despite its reputation for liberalism and democracy, is no stranger to fascism. Elements of fascism—the emphasis on racial hierarchies, the fear of foreigners, the revulsion to autonomous women and sexual nonconformity—are all just as much a part of the American story as emancipation, civil rights and feminism.
The Red Scare (and the accompanying Lavender Scare), the Ku Klux Klan’s campaigns of mass terror, the jailing of queer people, the rounding up and internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, and the enforcement of racial segregation in the South (and elsewhere in the country) were all in the spirit of fascism. But good people throughout our history have fought back, time and again.
Fascism is not only in our past, though. It’s in our present. And fascism is present in the growing efforts to ban books in schools and public libraries. It’s present when politicians pass laws to intimidate educators out of teaching our true and full history of racism. It’s present when demagogues target efforts to promote diversity in public life.
It’s present when courts roll back women’s sexual freedom and bodily autonomy. It’s present when society begins to isolate and strip transgender people of the freedom to be who they are and enforces strict binary gender norms. It’s present when the state empowers police officers to kill innocent, mostly Black people with impunity.
It’s present when leaders stoke violence and terror against groups of citizens they deem unfavorable. And fascism is present when candidates attack, weaken and undermine trust in American democracy—and incite violence to cling to power.
Don’t get me wrong; the U.S. has never fully achieved those democratic ideals, despite making great strides since the fall of (most of) Jim Crow. In a more democratic nation, five of the nine people on the U.S. Supreme Court would not have been appointed by men who came to power despite losing the popular vote. In a more democratic country, my state’s people wouldn’t be ignored by presidential candidates because we aren’t one of a handful of “swing states.”
In a more democratic country, fewer than 600,000 people in Wyoming would not have the same amount of representation in the U.S. Senate as nearly 3 million people in Mississippi and 39 million in California. But in the U.S. for now, there is at least hope for greater democracy and for the expansion of freedom, even amid a rise in revanchist attitudes.
But voters, if they choose, could use the power of democracy to extinguish that hope, too. One candidate for president, Donald Trump, has already attempted to subvert American democracy and has campaigned on an inherently fascist set of promises.
Trump Vows to Go After American ‘Vermin’
Donald Trump, who rose to power fanning the flames of fear and hate against immigrants who he claims are “poisoning the blood of our country,” has vowed to round up millions of undocumented immigrants—including families and children. He promises to do this, he says, by becoming a dictator on “day one” if elected to a second term. Trump has also vowed to seek retribution against his political enemies and even to use the military to go after them.
“We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country,” Trump said in New Hampshire in November 2023.
Then, in October 2024, Trump declared that Americans who oppose him are “the enemy from within.”
“We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the big—and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen,” he said.
Trump once again vowed to fight “the enemy from within” during his rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Oct. 27—a rally where other speakers made deeply racist remarks about Hispanic Americans (singling out Puerto Ricans specifically) and Black people.
Just as frequently as Trump has echoed Hitler with his remarks about “poisoning the blood of our country,” “vermin” and “the enemy within,” he has denied ever having read “Mein Kampf.” I don’t doubt that he has never read Hitler’s tome (though it must be noted that his ex-wife, Ivana Trump, once told her lawyer that Trump kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bed). In fact, I’m not positive that Trump has read his own ghostwritten best-selling book, “The Art of the Deal.” Fascists share a lot of ideas in common, and it’s no surprise that they’d gravitate towards the same turns of phrase.
Trump’s own former chief of staff, John Kelly, has publicly said that he heard Trump praise Hitler, and express his desire for generals like the one Hitler had. Retired Army Gen. Mark A. Milley (who served as Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), has called Trump “the most dangerous person to this country” and a “fascist to the core.”
A Journalistic Abdication of Duty
Despite everything, much of the mainstream national media has insisted on presenting the 2024 election as any normal election between a Democrat and a Republican. In the presentation of much of the horserace-obsessed corporate media, Vice President Kamala Harris’ proposals to build more housing and codify Roe v. Wade are on the same level as Trump vowing to round up millions of people and send the military after his enemies. It’s all about the economy, and how many states are leaning red and how many are leaning blue, they say.
And when anyone dares to point out the obvious stakes—that this election really could usher in the end of any hope for American democracy and the rise of a fascist authoritarian regime—the really smart, “objective” and “rational” people in our media mock and scorn. “If he really wants to be a fascist autocrat,” they say, “why didn’t he do it in his first term?” When I hear that, it reminds me that a lot of the folks who control our national media are allergic to context and to history—even recent history.
Did they forget about the thousands of immigrant children who Trump ordered to be torn from their parent’s arms and placed in camps—many of whose families still have not been found? Did they forget that both Milley and former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he tried to have the military go after and shoot Black Lives Matter protesters? Did they forget that he spent much of his presidency praising and coddling dictators, and saying he wished he had their powers?
Did they forget that he said that there were “good people on both sides” when violent Nazis and Klansmen marched on Charlottesville, Va., chanting “blood and soil”? Did they forget that the domestic terrorist who murdered 22 people in El Paso, Texas, echoed Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants and claimed a “Hispanic invasion” prompted his rampage? Did they forget that, when he lost the 2020 election, Trump lied and said it was stolen from him and incited a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in a bid to hold onto power?
Trump’s first term more than hinted at many of the things he has threatened to do in a second term. But this time, he has promised to run an administration full of loyalists who won’t push back and to purge the Pentagon of those he sees as disloyal. Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation document that dozens of Trump allies drafted, lays out a plan to fire and replace tens of thousands of government employees in order to ensure the government is run by people obedient to the leader. Though Trump now claims no ties to Project 2025, he previewed it in a 2022 Heritage Foundation speech when he said the organization was “going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do … when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.”
And thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling this past summer saying that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for “official acts” as president, Trump would have far less reason to fear consequences for exceeding executive authority in a second term—freeing him to pursue his ambitions to rule like the autocratic leaders of Russia and Hungary.
As a nonprofit, the Mississippi Free Press believes in holding leaders accountable, no matter their party. And unlike some traditional outlets, we have never endorsed candidates for political office. But as the news editor, I believe it is important for us to communicate that the stakes in this election are far greater than any one economic or social policy. This presidential election is more than just some partisan horse race for pundits to pontificate about. As millions of American women can attest after the last few years, freedoms long held can suddenly slip away. We can even vote them away.
It is up to American voters to decide on Tuesday, Nov. 5, whether we will continue to strive toward greater freedom in this imperfect democracy or embrace a fascist future. If we choose the latter, there may be no coming back.
Editor’s Note: This story originally featured an Associated Press photo of Donald Trump’s silhouette as he stood in front of a round, four-grid window at Mar-A-Lago. After several readers on social media mistook the window grid for crosshairs, however, we changed it to avoid confusion.
This MFP Voices essay does not necessarily represent the views of the Mississippi Free Press, its staff or board members. To submit an opinion for the MFP Voices section, send up to 1,200 words and sources fact-checking the included information to voices@mississippifreepress.org. We welcome a wide variety of viewpoints.
Read more coverage of this year’s elections cycle at our Election Zone 2024 page.
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