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Mar 1 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I will add: The latest research on the history of modern U.S. conservatism and the American Right very much emphasizes the importance of domestic far-right extremist and fascistic traditions, and most serious historians agree that Trumpism needs to be situated in that context.
You haven’t been following these serious debates over Trumpism as fascism, are unaware of the state of the historical/political debate surrounding the American Right? Fine, no worries. But then why do you feel the need to opine publicly?
My own interpretation, by the way, is that the animating vision and ideology on the Right is best described as white Christian nationalism. Within that broader context, we need to acknowledge a domestic tradition of fascism / fascistic tendencies, and that’s where Trumpism falls.
We also just had a fantastic discussion about the fascism question in my grad seminar on “The 21st-Century History Wars” - literally just this afternoon. Here’s what we debated, in case anyone wants to go beyond the “Trump, a fascist? Lol!” level of discourse.

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More from @tzimmer_history

Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
Mar 3
One week after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a personal reflection on the strangely disorienting experience of everyday normalcy in moments of world-historic importance - from the perspective of a citizen and a historian:
I want to be absolutely clear: Everything I say comes from an enormously lucky and privileged position of someone who is thousands of miles away from where the war is raging, who doesn’t have to worry about family or friends immediately affected by the invasion.
Obviously, how you’ve been experiencing these past few days will have been shaped, first and foremost, by how you are personally affected by what is going on in Ukraine. I am only trying to articulate a few thoughts from my individual perspective.
Read 26 tweets
Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
Mar 2
Always remember that we have to think beyond the “red states vs blue states” binary. There are so many people in those red states like Texas who strongly oppose the white reactionary regime that’s being installed there, and suffer greatly from these authoritarian policies.
It’s not realistic to expect people to just move away. I’m sure a lot of young people, especially, will do exactly that. But it leaves those behind who aren’t able to uproot their entire existence – often precisely the people who will suffer most from white reactionary politics.
And even if, somehow, everyone who prefers multiracial, pluralistic democracy were to get out of these “red” states, leaving behind only those conservative white Christians who desire to be surrounded by people who reflect their own image back at them, it’d still be a disaster.
Read 5 tweets
Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
Feb 28
Crucial analysis by @RonBrownstein: The country is turning into a dysfunctional pseudo-democratic system nationally – and on the state level will be divided into democracy in one half of the states and authoritarian one-party rule in the other.

I’d like to add some thoughts:
Put differently, America will be divided into a multiracial, pluralistic “blue” part that accepts the country’s changing social, cultural, and demographic realities vs. a white Christian nationalist “red” part that is led by people entirely devoted to rolling back those changes.
From a liberal, blue-state perspective, it might be tempting to say: Well, let them! Let them ruin those states and turn them into reactionary backwaters! But that would be disastrous, and not just for the white Christian nationalists who are assaulting democracy.
Read 15 tweets
Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
Feb 26
This is not some far-right internet troll, but a Republican state senator - and it’s impossible to adequately understand American politics without grappling in earnest with why her radicalism is widely seen as justified on the Right and within the GOP.
Every “Western” society harbors far-right extremists like Rogers who dream of committing acts of fascistic violence. But it’s the fact that the Republican Party embraces and elevates her, and others like her, that constitutes an acute danger to democracy.
Just ignoring this won’t work, because it’s not coming from some rightwing troll, but a Republican elected official who’s in good standing with the rest of her party. No use making fun of it either: These people are in positions of power, intent on using that power.
Read 12 tweets
Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
Feb 26
Now that the President has nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson, I’d like to re-post my column on why Biden’s pledge to send a Black woman to the Supreme Court was so significant - and why conservatives are so furious even though it won’t change the balance of power on the Court:
This captures precisely why conservatives feel threatened by this nomination: They understand it symbolizes the recognition that having white men dominate the powerful institutions of American life is a problem that needs to be rectified.
Conservatives fear the acknowledgment that the country’s institutions should reflect the composition of the people; they understand that representation matters, that a Black woman ascending to a position like this is also an acknowledgment of past injustice.
Read 12 tweets
Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
Feb 24
Take note: Reactionaries and far-right movements across the “West” are siding with Putin. They see him as an ally in the struggle to uphold white Christian patriarchal rule – the kind of authoritarian strongman that can turn the tide against the forces of “woke” pluralism.
None of these rightwingers who are currently professing their sympathy for Putin know much about Russia or care about the specific causes and dynamics of what is going on in Ukraine. What matters to them is an imagined Russia: a stronghold of white patriarchal Christianity.
Putin understands that this is his appeal to Western reactionaries. Democracy is a real threat to him and his regime – not NATO, not Western military might. It is useful to him to be able to present himself as an ally in the fight against “wokeism” and for “traditional values.”
Read 16 tweets

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