They also want a subclass that sucks up to them and is grateful for whatever meagre morsels they are provided. A subclass that knows its place.
Y’know, like back in them ‘good old days’!
One common thing that many fascists and fascism-supporters share in common is the perception that there is some major, serious threat facing society and that TPTB are either doing nothing to combat that threat, or, even worse, may even be in cahoots with that threat and willing to let the threat grow unabated.
I feel like it was more that economic conditions were so bad, and here comes Hitler and the NSDAP promising a simple solution, and a ready (and familiar) scapegoat in the Jews. So if you’re a German who’s not terribly intellectual or clued in, and are suffering economic deprivation, this was probably mighty attractive, as you want this hyperinflation, etc. to stop, and the Jews are already othered due to their religion and culture, so who cares?
We see the same situation here in the US in that you’ve got rural people with zero resources and zero opportunities wondering when/how all this “good economy” stuff is going to reach BFE where they live, resenting the cities because they seem to be where the economic action is (true), and they’re also perceived as being full of “others” who get special treatment (thanks to the right-wing propaganda), and snooty people who look down on them for living how/where they do (not entirely untrue).
So they attach themselves to politicians who tell them that they do have value, that their viewpoints are valid, and that they’ll change things in their favor. This usually takes the form of somehow punishing or screwing the “others” or the snooty people, engaging in economic practices that benefit the rural types, even at the expense of the greater whole (coal mining, oil production, loosening things like pollution, pesticide, and safety regulation, and similar things.
On top of it, there’s a sort of pervasive mentality among conservative white people of all stripes that things were somehow “better” or that the mid-1940 through the mid 1950s were some sort of golden age of prosperity, religious and civic participation, etc. and that the nation should try to return to that age. In fact, it was never that, and they’re just idolizing something that never actually existed, and that most of them wouldn’t really like if it were to come to pass. Never mind what people of other religions and ethnicities would think.
While I agree that they don’t see it as fascism, I do think it’s all acts of desperation on the part of the proletariat of that element. They desperately don’t want to be poor, powerless, or to struggle like they do, and this seems like a way out of that.
As for the bourgeoisie and decision making types who subscribe to this stuff, it strikes me as extraordinarily, irredeemably cynical. Some small business owner/professional person living in suburban Dallas who is an avid MAGA type is almost certainly voting with his wallet or letting his racism bloom, knowing full well that this screws others and damages our political/legal system.
For non-fascists, the only thing that could even remotely be “attractive” about fascism are the uniforms. For those who aspire to be fascists, footwear especially is important given the high priority ascribed to boot-licking.
Economics certainly was a major factor but not the only significant one. The German people collectively felt humiliated by the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles, that this was undue and imposed by bullying victors. The treaty also contributed to their economic misery, to be sure, but it’s important not to discount just how critical this “humiliation” was to the national German psyche.
Additionally, there was strong and widespread sentiment that the loss of territory and colonies as a result of the treaty was itself unjust and unfair. Germans likewise held a common belief that they were betrayed by their leadership in these capitulations, and that a strong leader not only would never have made these concessions, he would have won the war. All they needed was an iron-willed man at the helm.
Germans also generally believed in a duty to protect ethnic Germans living elsewhere (keep in mind that borders changed every other Tuesday back then as a result of wars). And while the general antisemitism then was perhaps not as enthusiastic as the Nazi’s, it was widespread.
Hitler, of course, recognized and expertly exploited these feelings. He was as brilliant a politician as he was, for the most part, a shitty military strategist. But the main point is, it was complicated.
This is very very valid. I read an essay about 6 months ago on this. No clue where, by who, title, etc., or I’d give a cite.
But the author, a respected sociologist, said the so-called white working class racism is a facile false answer. A lot of what’s going on is that rural and small town America is dying economically. These people were raised from birth to want to live only near their ancestors and never want to leave that county. They don’t want a handout.
They want living in a nothing’s happening dead end town or rural county to be a viable lifestyle with similar economic benefits to life in a city. The 1940s/1950s were no Golden Age, but they were an era when a lot of sudden prosperity hit the middle and working class and by and large, that tide did raise all boats, both suburban and rural. Not quite equally, but things were not economically stagnant in 1950s Smallsville or Bumfugue County. A 1950s Smallsville resident thought the whole country, including him, was going plenty good and getting better all the time.
Of course it greatly helped that after WWII the US saw some of the smallest income inequality figures ever. And the nature of work then had lots more room for smart but uneducated workers. And notso smart workers. All could earn a living wage. Not a city wage, but they didn’t pay city prices since there wasn’t that much of a consumer goods economy . Yet.
They see the changing world of the last ~20 years as an assault on their lifestyle and their heritage. Not their wallet; their heritage. They can’t move to wherever the jobs are because their psychological attachment to their grandfather’s plot of land and their lifetime neighbors is stronger than their pangs of economic need.
This economic disconnect will only get worse as the cities continue to accelerate away from the depopulating hinterlands. And the cultural disconnect will become only wider as well.
These folks desperately want there to be a solution that doesn’t feel like a handout, doesn’t force them to change their behaviors and self-reliant mindset, AND leaves them free to live in granddad’s house with grandad’s neighbor’s family downline still living next door. While being able to afford all the crap they see on TV and online. And for their kids to get a good education then upon graduation still want to stay in the same old town.
That’s all an unfulfillable fantasy. But lots of people vote for pols who will promise you that your fantasy isn’t.
That is intriguing. If you do recall and can provide a cite, that would be terrific and appreciated.
Anyway, that seems entirely plausible to me.
Unfortunately Obama’s take on this-
And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
-came across less like sympathy and more like condescension. Which is pretty much why these people will vote for anyone, even Trump, rather than the liberal status quo. Saying “your problem is that everything you think, say and do is wrong, unlike us” is not going to endear the Democrats to Trump’s base.
I just spent some time searching in my own subscription sources and came up empty.
The more I noodle on it, the more I think it was probably a cite posted here on the Dope by someone else that I followed to read. If so, it’s got a good chance of being in The Atlantic and within the last 12 months for sure, and more likely 6. I don’t subscribe to them, but I often read gift cites to them. If you have a subscription, startginthere would not be a bad choice. I’m far from certain it came from there, but that’s the only named possibility emerging from my mental murk
Searching the 'Dope for embedded URLs is not all that easy. But I did not find what I was looking for.
And yes, it profoundly altered my own lazy and semi-prejudiced perspectives on this social problem.
Right. They want Right Wing Populism. Which makes beautiful promises- which they can not keep. And they pick someone to blame. The Jews were a good target but now it is migrants… and for some reason Trans people here in the USA.
Remember-First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
They werent always volunteers- sometimes the choice was camp guard or the Russian front- or a bullet to the head and your family in that camp. I would really hate to have to make that choice. I like to think I would pick the Russian front, but …
And every police officer I have worked with has been one of the Good guys. I suspect then that most cops are like that…okay maybe in the deep south…
Bwahahaha! 
I am sure they would say this but, the reality is they benefit from government largess in a big way.
If they want to end all subsidies I am fine with that. They are some of the biggest consumers of the government sending them checks. Ask them if they want a new law that says all states can not receive more money from the federal government than they pay in. See how many sign up for that.
Stop making ISPs provide service to them. Stop making Amtrak provide service to them. Make them pay their cost to bring electric power to them as well as plumbing. Not to mention medical services of all kinds.
It’d sure be better for my state if we didn’t help pay for that.
But ISTM they figure they deserve that money while everyone else collecting are undeserving layabouts.
FTR: I am fine with the help they get. We live in a society and that means helping others. We all benefit in the end. My issue is they like these benefits but seem to feel they should not help back and make a better society.
Thanks for checking, all the same!
Yep, most of the MAGA states take in more Federal Bucks than the pay in- they are welfare states in that way. They rely on handouts. It is just bad if “the other people” get handouts since obviously the MAGA states are deserving but those “other people” are not. 
Red States Lead With Federal Dependence
But you see, when we point out that they do benefit from redistributive policies, it sounds to them like we’re rubbing it in their face that they do get a handout, and that we look down on them for it. They say “I don’t want a handout” and what they hear back is “Bwahahaha” and, well, that’s gonna feel, shall we say, unsympathetic.
I get the feeling you would NOT be surprised to hear them say they “just know” that it’s THEM who are subsidizing us urbanites who don’t do Real Work™ .
They may well have the delusion that they enjoy no disproportionate benefit from the Federal government, but that doesn’t change the point of @LSLGuy’s cite (well, his memory of his cite).
That point is about their perception of the world and the country, and their desire to have all the opportunities the “elites” do—and that they once did, or at least a satisfactory share—but without changing anything else (e.g., their place of residence, their choice of employment, etc.). You know, restore things to the way they used to be.
They want a combination of things that are impossible. Those factories aren’t reopening. Family farms are not going to make a resurgence. There’s no breakthrough industry on the horizon ideally suited for rural / non-urban areas. It’s a cycle of despair; things only get worse.
They don’t see the tremendous change as society progressing. No, someone is cheating them; the system is rigged. Trump alone promises to restore things, to make things “great” again—or at least make those elites suffer.
This is the part (or one part) that really gets me.
Trump/republicans have never, ever delivered on this “promise.” Not even close. In fact, they have made it worse than the dems ever would have.
It seems the poor are those ever temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Life is bad today but “tomorrow” they will be rich and when that happens they don’t want to part with a penny to the government.
Fascism seems a road to that. Fascists will make sure that only the “special” groups get rewarded and benefits. The rest will be lucky if they aren’t murdered.
That’s fully understood. At least by me. The point of the attitude expressed by the people in the article was that they did not want to “get a check” every month so they could stay in their dead end town. They wanted to work for real in the old way and earn adequate wages in the old way. In their dead end town.
Yes, rural self-sufficiency is a huge illusion. They are utterly dependent on the cities’ tax money for their roads, etc. And on the cities’ factories for everything, except maybe locally grown food.
But on a day to day basis they’re gettin’ by doin’ their chores and using or re-using supplies they bought years ago. It’s a much less directly consumptive lifestyle than an urbanite’s. So it feels self-sufficient.
And their perception shapes their reality. They are, in their own minds, living the Legend of How America Was Built. And they worship that idea.
Sure. I remember when Hillary Clinton went to West Virginia and told them she wanted to provide programs (at the government’s expense) to re-train them for jobs like building/maintaining power generating wind mills. They sure did not like that at all. They wanted a job in the coal mines! Never mind they were shit jobs in a dwindling industry…that’s what they wanted and Clinton was lambasted for it.
Of course, Clinton was right. The coal jobs have diminished (dramatically) and the windmill industry has grown.
The subsidies are mostly sponged up by the coal mine owners too. The workers see almost none of that as the companies work diligently to reduce costs.
Fascism would just accelerate that.
There’s a saying about the difference between the fears of men and of women (something like):
“Men fear that women will laugh at them. Women fear that men will kill them”.
I would here paraphrase the way the right reacted to Obama’s statement:
“The left says conservatives are bitter. The right says liberals are satanists/pedophiles/cannibals”.
And to return to Obama again, telling them “you didn’t build that” is going to get an even poorer reception.