Who is a fascist? Biden or Trump, and now the Republican Party/RNC, too? With Trump's takeover of the RNC, the GOP now becomes the US Fascist Party. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/08/rnc-trump-takeover-republican-strifeToo harsh? Let us start that conversation.
Update from a June posting: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascist ( from Merriam-Webster )that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.
- Racism is key to Trump's rise; Biden's is not.
- Trump wants to limit the civil rights of individuals in rewriting the Constitution; Biden adheres to civil rights for everyone.
- Trump wants to concentrate all powers in the executive branch, beginning with Project 2025; Biden honors the separation of branches and checks and balances;
- Trump wants to use active military to put down civil demonstrations; Biden does not;
- Trump has a long record of supporting political violence to achieve a goal; Biden does not
- Trump supports and applauds white Christian nationalists to regiment society; Biden does not;
Trump called Biden the Gestapo because he himself had been called a fascist https://ktvz.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2024/05/04/trump-says-democrats-are-running-a-gestapo-administration-at-republican-national-committees-annual-retreat/. Vintage Trump. When accused, he tries to turn the tables on the accuser. It is similar to the juvenile taunt: You call my mother a (bad name), so is your mother. When he is called a fascist, he calls his opponent the Gestapo. Now, he has a new twist. "You call me a bad name? That is really a good thing."When called a wannabe dictator, he calls dictatorships a good thing because they get stuff done (though only for himself and those currently loyal to him.).
So let us see whose shoes the definition of fascist dictator fits. This is my challenge to the Trump lovers on this. Tell me how Biden is proposing to do the same thing or has already done it that fits into the definition of a "wannabe fascist dictator." I know, I know, calling anyone a fascist is inflammatory. If the bird walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. Trump is quacking like a fascist, and others are walking, quacking, and acting like fascists on his behalf. What part of this do we not understand? So, who is the fascist: Biden or Trump and his GOP? And who is a wannabe dictator?
The dictatorship part is pretty clear. The pussyfoot term in use in the polite and liberal press has been "autocrat." That is way too kind for someone who now promises to imprison his opponents and is already making his enemies list that he will use for (his) Department of Justice loyalists to indict and jail, which he adds to daily. He asks the Supreme Court to give him absolute immunity (turning him loose to violate laws and commit crimes in the future). Maybe just "dictator" alone is enough.
How about the fascism part? Fascism of the 1930s differed from communist dictatorships, though the techniques to gain and keep power were similar: oppression of free press and political opponents, use of political and police violence and threats, and state control of personal lives and behavior, and demand for total loyalty to the big guy in public and private speech and thought. The major difference is that one touted a Marxist ideology and claimed to favor the dictatorship of the proletariat. In fascist dictatorships, it was powered by crony capitalism, and in modern times, in Hungary, and by Putin's Russian oligarchs. Hitler began his rise to power by first garnering the support of big business. Taxes and regulations are promised or activated to benefit wealthy businesses.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/29/trump-billionaires-gop-donors/essmen and donors. The billionaires are crawling back to support Trump. The Trump promise, as reported in the TIME interview and repeated often, is that the tax cuts to the rich would not be rolled back (even though that was the major contributor to the deficit.) It was appropriate that the May 4 Mar-a-largo had those in attendance. The problem with crony capitalists for the participants? The highest bidders for Trump's affection win, and the cost of gaining his favors and screwing their competitors rise in the jockeying around for position. https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/crony-capitalism-magas-threat-to.html It is institutionalized corruption of the highest order.
How does Trump plan to run a fascist regime? There is nothing hidden or secret. It is right out front in the TIME interview, a trail of recorded social media posts and public pronouncements, and even in such documents as Project 2025, the takeover of the executive branch by those pledging allegiance to the Boss instead of the rule of law. When he threatens to imprison any general who refused to call up the active military to put down demonstrations against him abusing the insurrection act, what does that describe? If he promises to use the FCC to shut down media news that does not support him, where have you heard that before?Right out of Trump's playbook threat. If he describes those opposing him as "vermin" and says that illegal immigrants will contaminate "our blood," he took a page from the German fascism of Goebbels and Hitler? That is how fascists get citizens to go along with their persecution by making them these targets less than human or lesser than their ruling class. Empathy has no place in that society. Even better, make the lesser than your race or class to blame for your ills and deserving your hatred and oppression. Examples of that are Jewish bankers and, now, personified by George Soros by contemporary anti-semites. Few buck fascism or use their wealth for charity or for supporting democracy. Gates is one of the outliers, as is Warren Buffet, both returning their wealth to charitable endeavors.
For Trump, the target is the "deep state" who dared during his first term to tell him "no." That includes General Milley, who refused to use the active military to put down domestic protests and who abided by the Posse Comitatus Act. Root it out, Trump says, and replace it with his loyalists. Those not loyal to the Boss are traitors. If f you tend to excuse this as just demagoguery, bloviating, and entertaining, you are a fool because the plans are already there and being funded to replace every executive decision appointee identified as "disloyal to Trump", including more of the judiciary and lists of the loyal are being gathered, he can do it within four years. Won't the Civil Rights Act or the Constitutional amendments protect minorities' access to the ballot? Not if yesterday's federal judges ruled that complaints about such violations can only be brought by the Justice Department, not citizens. That one will eventually make it to the Trump-appointed Supreme Court, which already gutted the rest of the Voting Rights Act. Violence in support of Trump is approved and justified, not just on January 6. If there is no rule of law, there is the rule of Trump, and that one raised alarm bells even among conservatives. https://www.theguardian.com/.../anti-trump-conservative...
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