During an interview with NPR’s Terry Gross last week, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright discusses her new book titled, Fascism: A Warning. Albright understands the terrors of fascism better than most and had to flee from it twice. She was born in Czechoslovakia where her father was a diplomat and they fled the murderous fascism of Hitler when she was a child. After moving to England, they returned to Czechoslovakia after World War II, but fled again when the Communists took over. To the good of our country, Albright moved to America and became the first female secretary of state. President Bill Clinton appointed her in 1997 after having served as his U.N. ambassador.
In her book and in the interview, Albright is foreboding with her words. She has studied how Hitler and Mussolini came into power during the 20th century, and warns about today’s authoritarian rulers in Eastern Europe, North Korea, Turkey and Russia. She calls Trump “the most anti-democratic leader” that she has studied “in American history.” While speaking with Gross, Albright’s shares her motivations for writing her the book—and ultimately her fears of the growing fascism in this country.
“It can happen in countries that have democratic systems, that have a population that’s interested in what’s going on, that is supportive. ... That’s what’s so worrisome, is that fascism can come in a way that it is one step at a time, and in many ways, goes unnoticed until it’s too late.”
Albright sees Trump’s “America First” ideology and criticism of NATO an unbelievable step backwards. America is stronger with allies, she says, and believes Trump has a lack of understanding in there matters. Albright sees Trump making America look like a victim to the rest of the world. Everything is somebody else’s fault...making international divisions stronger in terms of who is with us, who is not with us—Albright sees that as totally anti-American foreign policy.
When asked if she thought Trump has the instincts of an authoritarian leader, Albright replied:
ALBRIGHT: I think that he is the most anti-democratic president that we have had in modern history and that his instincts are really in that direction. And I think that that’s what worries him. And the passage that you read really does show that what he’s trying to do is undermine the press and has disdain for the judiciary and the electoral process and minorities. And I think that his instincts are not ones that are democratic. And he is interested basically in, I think, exacerbating those divisions that I talked about. And so I am very concerned. And basically, this is - you know, I’d written the book because I have picked up that phrase, see something, say something. And I am seeing some things that are the kinds of things that we’ve seen in other countries. And so I’m saying—not only should we say something, but we have to do something about it.
Albright sees truth as something we normally expect of a president, even one of an opposing party, But the fact is “ there are deliberate ways of misstating the issues” She says the people think, ‘if the president said it, it must be right,’ —when it’s just “a deliberate untruth.”
Gross asks Albright what she is hearing from those across the Atlantic.
ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that - there are several things that I’m hearing. One is that people have no idea what Trump is actually trying to do to really terrific confusion about that in terms of how democracies have supported each other in the past and that the United States has really been, as we have all spoken about it, is the beacon of freedom and hope. And all of a sudden, we are not viewed as that. And, in fact, the opposite, which is that Trump supports and praises people like Orban or Kuczynski in Poland and then he goes, for instance, to Poland and stands next to the leader and is very happy that they have in fact lowered the role of their judiciary or are speaking against the press.
So the United States is behaving in exactly the opposite way from what had been expected before. And so that is the issue. America has been viewed as really a country that stood behind democratic principles, human rights, was not for torture, was not for really undermining aspects of democratic society and that we're not fulfilling the role that we're supposed to. And America, the leader - the chair of the leader of the free world is empty.
Click here to read and/or listen to the entire transcript of Albright’s extensive take on Trump, John Bolton, DACA, Congress, North Korea, foreign affairs... and more about her experience and research on fascism.
There seems to be no end to the strong concerns and harsh criticisms expressed against Trump by respected former diplomats and government officials. Sadly and alarmingly, there also seems to be no end to Trump’s perversions against American democracy and everything that was great about this country before he took office.
Thank you to Madeleine Albright and all those in positions of power, or formerly in positions of power, who are speaking out against the fascism evolving in America today. Albright uses the world unabashedly, and if you’re not fearful and angry—you’re not paying attention.
Madeleine Albright also did a piece about fascism in the New York Times. You can read more about it in a diary by Daily Kos community member xaxnar.
Albright is currently a Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.