Out of time: Expert says America may be nearing its point of no return

Canadian lawyer and author Omer Aziz is warning Americans that fascism has not only arrived, but it's also been alive and well in the U.S. for some time. The real chore is in ending it before it goes too far.

In his book Shadow of the Republic, Aziz explains that it appears the pro-fascist group “is using the machinery of constitutional government in a partisan way to make it subservient to the political party and then to turn it against ordinary citizens, dissidents, free thinkers, journalists."

It's something that horror writer and anti-fascist activist Stephen King explained, "should be an alarm bell announcing that the American house is on fire."

Speaking to Zeteo's Mehdi Hasan, Aziz walked through America's long flirtation with fascism that is too often glossed over in a history that prizes American exceptionalism above reality.

“By the time the fascists are building the camps, it’s already too late and we have lost," Hasan read from the book. It prompted him to ask just how close the U.S. is.

Aziz said that currently, Trump likes to "cosplay as a fascist," using things like his "weaponization fund" and "the prosecution of political enemies" as examples. Republicans dismiss such claims as hyperbolic and symptoms of the imagined "Trump derangement syndrome" or "paranoid liberals."

But Aziz said there is "substance" to the claim.

"I think when you look at Trump's rhetoric around poisoning the blood of immigrants and some of the language he has used and his team has used, they're clearly drawing from this common wellspring of influence and inspiration. At the same time, I would say, he is an opportunist. I think he likes the idea of himself thinking of himself as a Mussolini or someone of a strongman character. But in terms of the rabid ideology, I don't think he has that."

He explained that it's important to understand that the emergence of Fascism is different from every society. Germany, for example, was very different from Italian fascists and American fascists are also different. For Trump, his fascism is "particularly American."

Hasan noted the administration declaring "antifa" a terrorist group while conservative states throw the book at peaceful protesters.

Aziz said that these kinds of arrests, even of non-violent protesters, will continue as Trump and his ilk continue to lose their political battles.

"They will use the state and politicize it to destroy and dismantle their political opponents who are exercising their free speech rights right and we're seeing this across the board: the weaponization the prosecution of political enemies," he said. "This is clearly part of the fascist playbook and we need to be clear here because there is a cultural side of this. There's a far-right influencer far-right protester side of this. The Jan. 6 folks, for example."

The more dangerous part of fascism, he said, isn't the obvious ones waving Nazi flags in the street. Aziz called the "fascists in suits" far more of a threat to American ideals, because they are the ones using that machinery of government to subvert the citizenry, just as Italy and Germany did with journalists and dissidents.

One group he talks about in the book that Hasan said he found particularly interesting is the younger spectrum of voters who are growing more attracted to fascism, Nazism and white supremacy.

Aziz said it's even starting to pop up with young men of color, whether South Asian or Latino.

"I think the reason why that's happening is because neoliberal economic policy has failed young people, in particular," he said. "Whether that's the financial crisis, whether that is the enormous amounts of greed, outsourcing of industries. And then, of course, the wars on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan."

He said that it makes it easy to drift further right.

"There's an analogy here to young men who would join ISIS, for example, 10 years ago," Aziz continued. "Again when you don't have something within your community within your body politic that supports and uplifts you, it becomes a lot more tempting."