After my recent post about fascism was published in the local newspaper, Trumpists pounced, swearing that Trump was not a fascist. Here is my reply in today’s Wakefield Daily Item in keeping with the ‘all politics is local and personal’ strategy :
Not according to Mr. Puglisi, in response to “Fascism is coming to America” based on a recent Hillary Clinton speech. But other than irrelevant, false, ad hominem, personal attacks against Clinton, he offers no evidence to the contrary except to acknowledge that Trump was elected. So was Hitler. Except in Hitler’s case it was by popular vote, not the Electoral College. But I digress.
Let’s begin by defining exactly what we’re talking about. Fascism is the control of government by corrupt crony corporate capitalism driven by right wing racist ideology and violent authoritarian bellicose nationalism. Therefore, can we all agree that Adolph Hitler was a fascist?
Some of the early warning signs of fascism include: disdain for human rights, identification of enemies (immigrants, free press, democratic allies, ethnic and religious minorities) as a unifying cause, rampant sexism, labor power suppressed, disdain for intellectuals and the Arts, fraudulent elections.
The most chilling evidence of Trump’s eerie fascist proclivities was this psychological profile of Hitler in a report prepared during WW II by the United States Office of Strategic Services – CIA precursor : “His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there might be some good in your enemy; never accept blame; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; repeat it frequently enough people will believe it.”
Sounds like Trumpism in a nutshell to me.
I laughed out loud when Trump’s first wife wrote that the only book she ever saw him read was Hitler’s autobiography which he kept close by on his bedroom nightstand.
In conclusion; if it walks like a duck, quacks (or tweets) like a duck, acts like a duck. Guess what? It’s a duck. As in Donald Duck.
I find Mr. Trump even more similar to Mussolini — generally acknowledged to be the world’s first explicitly fascist leader.
You say Duce, I say Douche. Let’s call the whole thing off. 🙂
Forgive me but that’s how my twisted mind is working these days.
Hitler was the most dangerous threat to freedom and democracy in world history.
…….a form of radical right-wing, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition.
Of course he is a fascist.
But the left has done a piss poor job of using the fascist albatross on its foes, in part due to their stupid reliance on big dollar donors who are also fascists, but fascists with liberal social points of view.
I have a different explanation for the shameful paralysis of Ms. Pelosi and House Democrats.
I think Ms. Pelosi is acting from pure, short-sighted political expedience. I think she sees Donald Trump and his Trumpist Collaborators as the ideal foe during the 2020 election season, and I think she is doing all in her power to keep things just as they are in eager anticipation of the various matchups.
I think it’s a dangerous game chock full of unexpected consequences.
I remember when Democrats cheered the nomination of the “unelectable” Ronald Reagan, confident that he was so “extreme” that he would be an easy target in the 1980 elections.
As I understand fascism, it is fundamentally inconsistent with a liberal social point of view.
Fascists have deep animus toward intellectuals and the Arts which are socially liberal in outlook. It’s no coincidence that Hitler ordered the public burning of books, most of which were authored by the greatest writers in Western civilization.
A more recent and frightening comparison might be to Viktor Orban in Hungary. Like Trump, he is an outsider who has cowed his party and institutions that were supposed to check him. Like Trump, he has our cronies in positions that are formally tasked with overseeing and checking his power. Like Trump, he has race baited and used police state tactics on migrants, Muslims, and refugees. Like Trump, he holds journalists in contempt and has co-opted most television networks. Like Trump, he is dangerously close to Putin and relies on his political and financial assistance.
Which is also an example of us not being even close to Nazi Germany. A quick trip to Barnes & Noble will maintain confidence that we are still publishing plenty that the powers that be aren’t going to like.
Trump has declared war on freedom of the press as “fake news” / “enemies of the people”. If that isn’t fascism. I don’t know what is.
Don’t kid yourself. My late Dad lived through the Great Depression and World War II. As a boy, I remember him warning me that just because we had defeated Hitler, the poison seeds of fascism had been permanently planted in the minds of many and would rise again like the phoenix.
I didn’t believe him then.
I do believe him now.
Your mention of Barnes & Noble in this context is ironic, given its recent sale to a hedge fund. I suspect that we are very close to the day when there won’t be a Barnes & Noble to make a quick or even long trip to.
It’s ironic because it seems to me that the path we are following is perilously close to the fascism that Henry Wallace warned us about in 1944.
There is no need to use an iron-fist of government to force the suppression of printed material when that same material can be drowned out by surrounding it with on-line hate speech. The online universe is quickly evolving into a context where it is difficult or impossible to find actual fact that is more than a few months old and to separate fact from fiction.
The American Fascism of Henry Wallace is far more nuanced, pervasive, and difficult to manage than the in-your-face hostility of Mussolini and Hitler.
Mr. Trump emulates Mr. Mussolini in his mannerisms, public appearances, and speaking cadences.
I agree with you that America has not yet reached the level of depravity that we saw in Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
A difference between us, though, is that I am convinced that Mr. Trump and his Collaborators are purposefully doing all in their power to take us down that road. The fact that we haven’t reached the destination is, to me, a matter of time rather than direction.
If B&N goes out of business it will be for the same reason Borders did – lack of market for brick and mortar booksellers. While this IMO is extremely unfortunate it is not due to banning or burning books. I used B&N as an example, but could have easily used the public library, or yes, online platforms. The point is, there are and will continue to be books written about every subject from every angle.
Hitler wasn’t directly elected either. His party got a plurality and the German President appointed him Chancellor on that basis.
Fascist Neo-Nazis worship Trump as their “God Emperor.” And that’s a fact, Jack.
The point is that thousands of white supremacists here and around the world follow Trump as their leader.
I would be really frightened by the damage he could do under another unified Republican government. The brakes holding him back during the last one are all gone. No McCain, Flake, Mattie, McMaster, or Tillerson. No Anthony Kennedy on the court. So I hope the Democratic House starts performing its check and balance and oversight role more diligently. It is no longer just protecting the big D, but the small d too.
I certainly did not laugh out loud when I learned that Mein Kampf is essentially the only regular read that he has ever had.
The White House press corps would never so impolite as to ask Trump simple questions after, say, relevant occasions like Charlottesville, like:
1. “What is your opinion of Benito Mussolini?” With a follow-ups like: “Well, do you think he did a good job managing the Italian economy before the war?”
And, most importantly, “Do you think that the loss of freedoms to minorities in Italy were worth it, to get the economy going?
2. “You say you admire Vladimir Putin as a strong leader, as well as President Duterte of the Philippines.”
Do you the loss of press freedom in those two countries are worth it in order to create greater order and safety?”
3. “Speaking of Putin and Duterte, people have been mysteriously killed without explanation in both countries, do you think it is worth giving up legal rights of people in order to be a strong leader?”
Is it really too much to ask that questions such as these be asked of him by the WHITE HOUSE PRESS CORPS, with follow-ups until they receive a real answer to the question that was actually asked?
According to the definition I got from a good politics professor in college, Trump is a definitional fascist: Pro-corporate; “populist”; anti-democratic; nationalistic; authoritarian; violent; anti-rational; racist.