There are many different ways to accuse conservatives of fascism.
You could, for instance, claim that the Federal Communications Commission is really just the punishing arm of a fascist government when it suggests that maybe late-night show hosts should try not to peddle obvious lies.
Or, you might insist that Sunday’s faith-filled and inspiring memorial for Charlie Kirk was really just “NOT-C PROPAGANDA,” as D.L. Hughley, a former CNN commentator, two-time New York Times bestselling author, and self-proclaimed comedian, did on Instagram. After all, Stephen Miller sounded an awful lot like Adolf Hitler’s chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, and the conservative response to Kirk’s death looks an awful lot like the Nazi response to the killing of Horst Wessel in 1930. (READ MORE: The SPLC and the Radicalization of Charlie Kirk’s Killer)
Then again, you could take an entirely different tack. You could, as Adrienne Matei did in the pages of the Guardian on Monday, point to stay-at-home moms who are trying to clean up after a two-year-old while folding laundry and planning dinner and call them “fascists” — or at least consider them the victims of age-old fascist propaganda.
You see, Donald Trump, like Hitler, “touts pronatalist rewards, such as a $1,000 government-funded investment account for new babies, and has discussed others, including a ‘National Medal of Motherhood’ for women with six children.” Women who fall for such pressure? They’re simply the unwitting slaves of the rising authoritarian regime that depends on them “to keep society stable and operational on a household level, framing regressive policies in more approachable and alluring terms.”
Calling Just About Everything Fascist Obfuscates Its Definition
Where does one even begin unraveling this mess? On one hand, there’s the egregious cheapening of the term “fascism.” On the other hand, the Guardian’s argument fails to take into account the many incredibly successful women in the MAGA movement who hardly practice (or preach) the “trad-wife” lifestyle. Then, of course, there’s the very simple fact that Matei has it all wrong. To be a stay-at-home mother isn’t some kind of primitive slavery; rather, in the words of C.S. Lewis, it’s the living out of “the ultimate career” for which all other careers exist.
A month ago, Scott McKay noted in these pages that our liberal opponents sometimes display an embarrassing lack of understanding about the actual position of national socialism on the ideological map. As a general rule, the MAGA Republican is not a huge fan of socialism, regardless of whether it manifests in corporate national form (which it did in fascism) or in communist international form. All that to say, “calling a small-government conservative, or even a MAGA Christian nationalist, a fascist is an utterly stupid, onanistic exercise by the modern Left.”
It should go without saying that totalitarian fascist ideology does not depend on promoting conservative lifestyles. It is primarily an economic and political theory. It’s true that, at one time, it exploited the West’s dying sense of Christianity (including its sense that motherhood is a glorious career) to accomplish its totalitarian ends, but that certainly doesn’t mean that fascism is intrinsic to Christian culture.
If you were to grant the logical fallacy that the promotion of stay-at-home motherhood is a uniquely fascist position, you could hardly accuse the Trump administration and the MAGA coalition that surrounds it of being guilty of that crime.
Just take White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, whose one-year-old son was born while she was working on the Trump campaign, and who frequently posts about both her job and her son’s milestones on her Instagram. Abby Johnson, ex-Planned Parenthood director turned pro-life advocate, balances her busy work schedule with raising a family (she’s admitted that doing so has meant that she’s missed important moments in her kids’ lives, like first steps). (READ MORE: Republican Responsibility for Charlie Kirk’s Assassination)
At this precise moment, the most lauded woman in right-wing politics is Erika Kirk — and rightfully so. Her grace and dignity in the face of horrific tragedy have been nothing short of absolutely inspiring. She is her husband’s natural heir and, as it turns out, more than qualified for the job. She not only won Miss Arizona back in 2012, but she holds several degrees (including her Juris Master’s in American legal studies) and has founded multiple successful businesses — all while encouraging women to be the “guardian” of the home.
What Liberal Feminists Are Really Worried About
Even the Guardian had to point out that some of the most prominent voices in the “womanosphere” aren’t practicing what the Guardian claims they preach. Take Candace Owens, Brett Cooper, Isabel Brown, Riley Gaines, or Allie Beth Stuckey — all of whom have continued their very public jobs while having babies. We can debate about whether they’re promoting a realistic balance of motherhood and career, but it’s impossible to look at their examples and conclude that they’re telling women it’s best to leave public roles to men and instead subscribe to “life on the patriarchal homestead.”
What the feminists at the Guardian really have a problem with isn’t that these members of the “womanosphere” are promoting a rosy life of sourdough bread, small children, and fascism, but rather that they’ve refused to demonize the women who have chosen to sacrifice a career teaching other people’s children arithmetic in order to teach their “own children about the universe.” Instead, women on the Right have opted to promote the creation and cultivation of life.
These leftist feminists are horrified by the prospect that women might just have discovered that pursuing narrow specialties in corporate offices isn’t quite as fulfilling as attempting to be everything to a small army of eternal souls they helped bring into the world — a gigantic task, to be sure, but hardly the slavery and drudgery the Left told us it was.
So, they hurl the ultimate invective: fascist.
If we’ve learned anything from the last several weeks, it’s not just a petty, nonsensical label; it’s a dangerous threat.
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