“The Start Of Something That Is Very Difficult To Turn Back”
This piece was written by Walker Bragman.
After supporters of departing President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday in an attempt to halt the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, I spoke to Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University, an expert on fascism.
Ben-Ghiat is the author of the new book, “Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present,” which is described as “the first study to place President Donald Trump in the context of a century of authoritarian leaders that use a playbook of corruption, violence, propaganda, and machismo to stay in power.”
I asked the professor for her thoughts on this perilous moment in American history. What follows is a lightly-edited transcript of our conversation.