Political Ideologies: Fascism

Political Ideologies: Fascism

From The Politics Guys by Michael Baranowski

April 7, 2026 · 16 min

About this episode

Trey and Justin conclude their exploration of political ideologies with a deep dive into Fascism, discussing its core principles and critiques of democracy.

In this supporter-exclusive midweek episode, Trey is joined by Justin, and they conclude their exploration of the classic political ideologies with a deep dive into Fascism. On this week’s show, Trey and Justin discuss: Fascism’s rejection of reason and its rejection of Enlightenment rationality. The centrality of violence and struggle as an enduring premise of fascism. How fascism holds the past as idyllic goal that that will lead to greatness in response to a degenerate modernity. Fascism’s rejection of democracy with a specific focus on Carl Schmitt’s critique parliamentary democracy in which Schmitt argues that a singular leader can be more authentic to a peoples will than a process of voting. The Politics Guys on ⁠Facebook⁠ | ⁠X⁠ Trey’s Substack on the Federalist Papers Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at⁠patreon.com/politicsguys⁠ or⁠ politicsguys.com/support⁠. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys. The Politics Guys is part of⁠ The Democracy Group⁠, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…

People in this episode

Host: Trey

Guest: Justin

Topics covered

  • Fascism
  • political ideologies
  • violence and struggle
  • rejection of democracy
  • Enlightenment rationality
  • Carl Schmitt

Keywords

  • Fascism
  • political ideologies
  • violence
  • Enlightenment
  • Carl Schmitt
  • democracy
  • modernity

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Politics Guys, The Democracy Group

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