Fascism in the United States

[1] When looking to the origins of fascism in the US, scholars point to early 20th-century groups like the Ku Klux Klan, and domestic proto-fascist organizations during the Great Depression, which flourished amid social and political unrest.

Alongside homegrown movements, German-backed political formations during World War II worked to sway US public opinion towards the Nazi cause.

[1] The recent resurgence of fascist rhetoric in contemporary US politics, particularly under the administration of Donald Trump, has highlighted the persistence of far-right ideology.

During the early 20th century, several groups were formed in the United States that contemporary historians have classified as fascist organizations – with a prominent example being the Ku Klux Klan.

Scholars have characterized the Klan as America's first terrorist group,[2][3][4][5] and compared its emergence to fascist trends in Europe.

[6] Historian Peter Amann states that, "Undeniably, the Klan had some traits in common with European fascism—chauvinism, racism, a mystique of violence, an affirmation of a certain kind of archaic traditionalism—yet their differences were fundamental.

He wrote articles and produced radio broadcasts that were critical of the United States, international bankers, Franklin Roosevelt, and the Jews.

[19] In 1936, the group was suspected of having killed as many as 50 people, according to the Associated Press, including Charles Poole, an organizer for the federal Works Progress Administration.

[16] The Associated Press described the organization as "a group of loosely federated night-riding bands operating in several States without central discipline or common purpose beyond the enforcement by lash and pistol of individual leaders' notions of 'Americanism'.

[15] Father Charles Coughlin was a Roman Catholic priest who hosted a prominent radio program in the late 1930s, on which he often ventured into politics.

[22] When the United States entered World War II, the U.S. government took his radio broadcasts off the air, and blocked his newspaper from the mail.

[26] Across the US, so many small groups sprang up wearing uniforms and identifying as fascist that in 1934, the American Civil Liberties Union released a pamphlet titled “Shirts!

[27] In May 1933, Heinz Spanknöbel, a German immigrant to America, received authority from Rudolf Hess, the deputy führer of Germany, to form an official American branch of the Nazi Party.

The Friends of New Germany dissolved in December 1935 when Hess ordered all German citizens to leave the group after realizing that the organization was not beneficial to advancing their cause.

The Bund reasoned that this support for the German war effort was not disloyal to the United States, as German-Americans would "continue to fight for a Gentile America free of all atheistic Jewish Marxist elements.

Its leaders denounced the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jewish-American groups, Communism, "Moscow-directed" trade unions and American boycotts of German goods.

After many internal and leadership disputes, the Bund's executive committee agreed to disband the party on December 8, 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

On December 11, 1941, the United States formally declared war on Germany, and Treasury Department agents raided Bund headquarters.

Supporters of the acts exhibited only slight awareness that Nazi war criminals would exploit the legislation to enter the United States.

The case of Hermine Braunsteiner, the first Nazi war criminal to be extradited from the United States, received widespread media coverage.

[42] In the United States, organizations such as the American Nazi Party, the National Alliance and White Aryan Resistance were formed during the second half of the 20th century.

[43] While initially formed of distinctive movements, in the 21st century, many US Neo-Nazi groups have moved towards more decentralized organization and online social networks with a terroristic focus.

[51][57] According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Alliance had lost most of its members by 2020 but is still visible in the U.S.[55][44] Other groups, such as Atomwaffen Division have taken its place.

It seeks the transformation of the United States into a white ethnostate from which Jews, non-Whites, and members of the LGBTQ community would be expelled and barred from citizenship.

[105] Jason Stanley argued in 2018 that Trump employed "fascist techniques" to mobilize his base and weaken liberal democratic institutions.

[111][112][113] However, the historians John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr have written that no documentary evidence has been found of the US government referring to American members of the International Brigades as "premature antifascists": the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Office of Strategic Services, and United States Army records used terms such as "Communist", "Red", "subversive", and "radical" instead.

Indeed, Haynes and Klehr indicate that they have found many examples of members of the XV International Brigade and their supporters referring to themselves sardonically as "premature antifascists".

The NWCAMH brought together over 200 affiliated public and private organizations, and helped people, across six states--Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.

Antifa political activists are anti-racists who engage in protest tactics, seeking to combat fascists and racists such as neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other far-right extremists.

[139] There had been repeated calls by the Trump administration to designate antifa as a terrorist organization,[140] a move that academics, legal experts and others argued would both exceed the authority of the presidency and violate the First Amendment.