Trump's loss to Biden - a reprieve for democracy, but the Republican Party is still a Trumpist authoritarian party

"Trump is unusual, but the Republican Party has been preparing the way by becoming the voter-suppression party. They’ve become a party which is about a minority bullying a majority." - Timothy Snyder

Shalini Randeria and Timothy Snyder discuss Democracy in question: A Trumpian blip or a fundamental flaw in American democracy Eurozine 11/25/2020. The discussion was on a podcast of 10/08/2020, the month before the Presidential eleciton, sponsore by the Institute for Human Science (IWM) in Vienna.

Snyder analyzes Trumpism as "sadopopulism," which he describes here in this way:

Sadopopulism is a type of populism where people actually don’t get anything other than pain. In populism, the assumption is, ‘I, the leader, and you the people are against some elite’, and the policy is, ‘I’m going to transfer some of the wealth of that elite to you, the people’. The critique of populism is then usually, ‘the elite is mythical’ or ‘the elite is an ethnic minority and they’re being oppressed’. But Mr. Trump is not a populist in that sense. He isn’t transferring wealth from any kind of elite to the people. On the contrary, he’s transferring wealth from the people to the already existing elite. He’s not giving people greater chances to pursue happiness. He’s actually doing the opposite: he’s creating more pain in the system. And he’s very good at persuading people that it’s good, it’s ok for them to be hurt as long as others are hurting more. [my emphasis]

In in the following comments, I think he may give Trump a bit too much credit for not using militarism in a way that is typical of classic fascists like Mussolini. But it's an important analysis of Trump and fascism:

Trump clearly draws from a fascist toolbox, consciously, half consciously, unconsciously. One can debate how much it matters that his father was in the Ku Klux Klan and whether he knew or not that ‘America first’ could be used as a fascist slogan when he chose it for his presidential campaign slogan. Who knows? But he certainly uses fascist rhetorical tricks ­ the ‘us’ and ‘them’ ­ the quick slogans, the rallies.

So, let me try to put this carefully. I think it’s impossible to talk sensibly about Mr. Trump without invoking the history of fascism. That said, when pressed, I’ve tried to use phrases like, ‘not even a fascist’, meaning I think he does some but not all of the things a fascist would do. I think they are enough to bring down a republic, but do not include redistribution and war.

Mussolini fought wars in Ethiopia. He joined in Hitler’s wars in Europe: although little known, tens of thousands of Italian soldiers died around Stalingrad. Trump does not like war. He’s afraid of physical violence and is less of a militarist than previous American presidents have been. He does not want to control the world and does not have the tools of redistribution and military expansion. [my emphasis]

Snyder in this interview is addressing primarily Trump's political style, and he has some important insights. He doesn't talk in this interview about the sociology of Trumpism. So, no magic answers here to the "economic anxiety"-vs.-"liberal identity politics" argument that will be going on for quite a while.

The quotes here are from the article's edited transcript.