Madeleine Albright’s latest book Fascism, A Warning, is mainly just that: An alarm bell for liberty lovers and “lowercase democrats” that the warning signs which anticipated the arrival of history’s most famous fascists are present and thriving in the United States and Europe.
Apart from being a love letter to democracy and liberalism, the book starts with a pocket history of the lives and rise to power of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, and reviews the political and socio-economical context which led to their unraveling. Their stories are then contrasted with other examples of authoritarian leaders, whom she doesn’t qualify as all-out fascists, but rather as having ceded to some autocratic tendencies. Hugo Chavez, Slobodan Milosevic, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Vladimir Putin make the list, as does President Trump, whom she qualifies as “the first anti-democratic president in modern American history.”
This leads us to what I believe to be the main angle of this book, the current American presidency. For her, Trump is anti-democratic because of his constant praising of autocratic leaders, his vendetta against the press, and his constant disdain towards democratic institutions, as well as his alarmist view of the United States as being victim to some unknown “others.”
On these fronts, it is hard to disagree with her. There is no doubt that Trump’s stances ridicule the role the U.S. is supposed to play as the world’s bastion of democracy. His use of Twitter as his main foreign policy tool has alone hurt America’s credibility more than you might think.
There are two reasons Albright sees this as dangerous. One: Fascism doesn’t arrive overnight, and implements itself little by little, “plucking the chicken one feather at a time.” Two: that the U.S. is a trendsetter. If Trump allows himself the mildly anti-democratic urges he is prone to, other countries with less robust institutions are more likely to follow suit and descend closer into full fascism.
This last point, which puts the U.S. at the forefront of international affairs, seems dear to her. She refers to the United States an “indispensable nation,” essentially echoing the view of W.E.B Du Bois, the American civil rights activist: “Either the United States will vanquish ignorance, or ignorance will vanquish the United States.”
Recognizing the U.S. as being primarily responsible for maintaining the standard of democracy and liberty throughout the world is a stern reminder to our libertarian isolationists friends that our role is still vital. She pairs this opinion with a fresh and crisp brand of rational internationalism and cooperation, producing the sort of foreign relations worldview that any freedom-loving globalist would cheer at.
Her recollections of many of these world leaders are quite poignant. Her personal anecdotes about world leaders add an almost human touch to these personalities, opening up a tiny window into the everyday thought processes of these men, and a glimpse at their humor. Putin, when claiming Russia to be closer to Europe than China, told Albright, “Sure, it’s fun to use chopsticks, and I’ve been doing judo for a long time, but this is trivial stuff, our mentality is European.” Kim Jong Il apparently told her in a meeting in 2001, “We want to do business with the United States. I try to convey this message before through the South Koreans, but Americans always respond with suspicion, like a jilted girl.”
For Albright, fascism is not merely an ideology, but rather a willingness to do whatever is necessary to achieve one’s end. This definition is far from satisfying as it omits the importance of ideology completely.
One of her major omissions is her failure to criticize the one pernicious brand of fascism oppressing billions today: Islamo-Fascism, which contrary to Albright’s definition, is deeply ideological. There is not one criticism of Islamic governments and their doctrinal influences on terrorism. How she can ignore the 1 billion people currently living in an autocratic cult-like religious system opposed to democratic thought is baffling considering the aim of the book. She warns multiple times against “Islamophobia”, as if contempt towards a religion is the same as contempt against a people. This effort to avoid upsetting the politically correct left me unsatisfied.
In a final salvo to future leaders she offers this advice: Check your own autocratic impulses, rely on democratic institutions, don’t play into people’s fears (Hello religion!), and stop plucking the chicken.
On that last point, we agree.
Louis Sarkozy is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a student in philosophy and religion at New York University. He is the youngest son of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
