Fascism in Russia and the United States

Historian Timothy Snyder recently identified the hallmarks of Fascism. Russia is a fascist country. Among other indicia, it has a cult of the leader, Putin, and it has the myth of a past golden age of imperial greatness that must be restored through war and conquest. It helps Putin that he can claim that God is on his side. The patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church supports his messianic cause.

The United States is heading in the same direction. There’s the cult of Trump, the myth of White Christian Nationalism, bringing with it divine approval of Christian evangelical pastors, the cult of guns and militias, the righteous crusade to restore America’s golden age by stripping away the institutions of an ordered society, and the subordination of truth and honorable behavior to overriding ideology and greed.