In The Great Fascism Debate, we see the emergence of a rough analogue to to the Popular Front of the 1930s. In listening to people tell it, it goes something like this: a grand coalition of leftists, progressives, liberals, moderates, and soft conservatives must come together to fight the great authoritarian right threat of the 2020s.
Readers of my previous work won’t be surprised to find that I greet this claim with skepticism.
It’s not that the authoritarian right doesn’t pose a threat in the 2020s. Rather, it’s that I’m already well on record pointing out that the threat in the 2020s doesn’t look much like the one from the 1920s to the 1960s. However, I also think, for quite different reasons, that a ‘Popular Front’ is the wrong frame. That kind of alliance today holds little potential to help the left achieve its goals.
Let’s focus on that.
