The Face of Fascism

And Then They Dropped the Mask

Halloween decoration, Asbury Park, 2023.

I remember reading, years ago, an article with the title "Fascism with a Smile." This would have been back around 1980, when Reagan was elected president. The idea was that Americans did not respond well to the shout-and-pout style of a Hitler or a Mussolini. After all, one of the things Nixon had going against him was the fact that he was so obviously a darkly angry man. Let's call it, in retrospect, fascism with a scowl.

I remember having some reservations about this idea. After all Senator Joe McCarthy did seem to have a grumpy side, and for a while it looked like he was running the country.

However, Reagan did seem to be on to something with his geniality, and his widespread popularity clearly helped him get away with some pretty amazing stuff. And I think, at least partly because of Reagan and his smile, I was unprepared for the popularity of the Former Guy and his sneer, at least with a segment of the population.

And now I think we have come to the final act of a Shakespearean tragedy or, perhaps better, one of the history plays about the Wars of the Roses. But certainly not a comedy. It puts me in mind of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, where Mr. Gray does not age, but a picture of him does. Gray enjoys a long life of dissipation and the portrait becomes uglier and uglier. Then Gray dies, and all the ugliness moves from the portrait to his face.

Hmm. What if Dorian Gray is not just the Former Guy, but the entire Republican party? 

In the last few years we have seen the reveal, and it turns out that the scowl, the smile, and the sneer were all masks. If you want to know what was always behind the masks, go back to the top of this story. I have seen no truer portrait of the monster that we are up against. 

See also How the Ship Sinks, Angry and Ridiculous, Trial by Combat, The 800-Pound Gorilla in the Oval Office.