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Liberal View: Actually, Trump is a fascist

JacksinPA

JacksinPA

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Liberal View: Actually, Trump is a fascist | Duluth News Tribune

Donald Trump is always telling his supporters he will tell it like it is. So let me tell how, in every dictionary definition I have come across, the president is a fascist. This label is not so much a pejorative as a fact.

Let's first define fascism. Oxford Reference puts it this way: "an authoritarian and nationalistic right wing system of government and social organization." Let's put that another way: Would you invite Trump to a junior high civics class to discuss the concept of separation of powers as embodied in the U.S. Constitution?
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Trump's pick of Kavanaugh for SCOTUS is his insurance policy protecting him against any indictments, investigations or impeachments as he sets about his apparent plan to gut the DOJ, fire his A/G & deputy A/G, and fire Robert Mueller. He knows they have the goods on him & his conspiracy with Russia to get elected president & he needs this insurance to make sure nothing interrupts his autocratic rule.

Kavanaugh's positions on lack of judicial interference with Trump reminds me of the 1933 Enabling Act in Hitler's Germany: see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling_Act_of_1933. If he can't be investigated, impeached or indicted, what restraints are there on his powers?
 
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Oh we're back to throwing around the word Fascist now are we?
657g.gif
 
I'm quoting people who have more insight into this as I was not around in 1933 Germany.
 
Spartacus FPV said:
Oh we're back to throwing around the word Fascist now are we?
657g.gif
Click to expand...

Well, Trump is following in some rather famous fascist footsteps don't ya know.

A brief history of 'Lügenpresse,' the Nazi-era predecessor to Trump's 'Fake News'


Oh, and you can use all the silly memes you want, but the facts are in. Numerous studies published in peer reviewed journals tell why Trump voters showed up at the polls:

Research Finds That Racism, Sexism, and Status Fears Drove Trump Voters

That's why the leader of the racist Birther Movement was so popular with Evangelical Christians. Feel free to refute those studies, but memes don't count LOL.
 
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https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opini...how-fascism-works-can-help-prevent-ncna905886

Is Trump a fascist? Learning about how fascism works can help prevent its spread in America

The fact that not all fascists are like Hitler doesn't change the fact that fascist tactics are recognizable, consistent and dangerous.

When I ask Jason Stanley if the current American government is fascist, he becomes very quiet.

If he thought the American government was fascist, Stanley responds, "I would never say it in an interview," he says. "It would be too dangerous." In other words, by the time the people in power have instituted fascism, it's too late to call it that.

Stanley adds that he does not think the current American government is fascist. But his new book, “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them,” identifies a range of worrying signs that we are headed in that direction.
============================================
Right-wing autocratic rule without a judicial check. Sound familiar if you've studied Hitler?
 
https://jimsnowden.com/2013/11/06/the-nazi-judiciary/

The Nazi Judiciary

The court system in Nazi Germany was an example of the meandering course of Hitler’s efforts to reshape government institutions to suit his interests. Despite the lenient treatment he had received from sympathetic Weimar-era judges during his assault and treason trials, Hitler had claimed to want to annihilate the German judiciary and replace it with pure, National Socialist courts. The exact structure of this proposed new court system was never spelled out–in keeping with many of Hitler’s proposed policies–but it sounded radical, and Hitler’s heart usually warmed to radical sounding notions, however impractical.

But, when the Nazis finally seized power in 1933, Hitler made no initial moves against the judiciary. In part, this was because of the complexity of the job. German courts were divided into Federal, state, and local courts, each with their own independent hierarchies. Because the regime still had to recognize the power of President Hindenburg, the cabinet’s more conventional conservatives (including then-Minister of Justice Guertner), and the governments of several German states that weren’t yet under Nazi control, a bold strike at the whole of the judiciary would have been beyond Hitler’s capacity. But, as it worked out, the Ministry of Justice and the courts, aware that Hitler had been thinking of obliterating both, were happy enough to please him by purging themselves of socialists, communists, Jews, and other political undesirables.
==========================================
Sound familiar?
 
https://www.independent.co.uk/voice...reminds-me-of-adolf-hitler-nazi-a8059031.html

Donald Trump's attempt to control the US Justice System is alarmingly similar to Hitler's strategy in Nazi Germany

Such open calls for criminal investigations of political opponents like Hillary Clinton are truly unprecedented in American history — and for good reason, since they would undermine the very foundation of liberal democracy. If the president could order the FBI to investigate Hillary Clinton, where would it stop?

Throughout his presidential campaign, Donald Trump described his opponent, Hillary Clinton, as a criminal and said she should be tried and put in jail (of her guilt, he had no doubt). Commentators at the time noted the extreme nature of such rhetoric and the fact that demands for the investigation and imprisonment of political opponents was alien to the American system. But, they speculated, perhaps it was just that — rhetoric — and with his inauguration as President, he would leave such dangerous talk behind.

It turns out, however, that Trump has proven unable to let go of his obsession with his defeated rival. In early November 2017 — nearly one year after his election victory — he was not only continuing to attack Clinton, but also calling on the FBI and the Justice Department to investigate her. He was “very frustrated” by the fact that he was unable to order those agencies to “go after” his former opponent — something he said he would very much love to do.
==================================================================
'Immediately after coming to power, Adolf Hitler targeted his main political opponents: the German Communist Party. With his fellow Nazi Hermann Goering heading the Interior Ministry, members of the SA were now deputised as auxiliary police and, along with the traditional police forces, tasked with the assault on Germany’s communists. Storm Troopers attacked communists in the streets, arrested them, and brought them to makeshift jails where they beat, tortured, and sometimes killed them.

After the communists, it was the Socialists’ turn to experience Hitler’s brand of justice. Those not beaten or tortured to death were driven underground, into exile, or were sent to the new concentration camps being built and operated by the SS.'

So, without judicial restraint, how far will Trump go? Prone to acting on instinct, anything is possible for Trump. And his supporters will only cheer, as they did Hitler.
 
President Trump is a fascist?

That's original! :lamo
 
JacksinPA said:
Liberal View: Actually, Trump is a fascist | Duluth News Tribune

Donald Trump is always telling his supporters he will tell it like it is. So let me tell how, in every dictionary definition I have come across, the president is a fascist. This label is not so much a pejorative as a fact.

Let's first define fascism. Oxford Reference puts it this way: "an authoritarian and nationalistic right wing system of government and social organization." Let's put that another way: Would you invite Trump to a junior high civics class to discuss the concept of separation of powers as embodied in the U.S. Constitution?
==================================================
Trump's pick of Kavanaugh for SCOTUS is his insurance policy protecting him against any indictments, investigations or impeachments as he sets about his apparent plan to gut the DOJ, fire his A/G & deputy A/G, and fire Robert Mueller. He knows they have the goods on him & his conspiracy with Russia to get elected president & he needs this insurance to make sure nothing interrupts his autocratic rule.

Kavanaugh's positions on lack of judicial interference with Trump reminds me of the 1933 Enabling Act in Hitler's Germany: see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling_Act_of_1933. If he can't be investigated, impeached or indicted, what restraints are there on his powers?
Click to expand...

Here is the problem with making such an inane statement.

Fascists aren't known for merely being authoritarian, or nationalistic, or right wing. This frankly lazy definition excludes the most important aspect of fascism that made the very term "Fascist" a pejorative word. That is, the open use of violence against any and all opponents and the belief in violence as a good in itself.

What actually makes Fascists what they are is the use of political violence whether they are in power or out of power. Gangs of paramilitary thugs breaking up and attacking gatherings of political opponents. Assassinations in which assassins are openly lauded by members of the Fascist Party structure. Kidnappings, torture, murder. These are the actions of fascists: When people like you are afraid to openly speak out against them in any way lest you or your loved ones disappear in the night and are found dead in a ditch the next day.

So is Donald Trump a Fascist? No. Being an utter uncaring a**hole who managed to obtain power does not make one a Fascist. Orchestrating the murder of political opponents is what makes one Fascist.
 
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JacksinPA said:
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opini...how-fascism-works-can-help-prevent-ncna905886

Is Trump a fascist? Learning about how fascism works can help prevent its spread in America

The fact that not all fascists are like Hitler doesn't change the fact that fascist tactics are recognizable, consistent and dangerous.

When I ask Jason Stanley if the current American government is fascist, he becomes very quiet.

If he thought the American government was fascist, Stanley responds, "I would never say it in an interview," he says. "It would be too dangerous." In other words, by the time the people in power have instituted fascism, it's too late to call it that.

Stanley adds that he does not think the current American government is fascist. But his new book, “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them,” identifies a range of worrying signs that we are headed in that direction.
============================================
Right-wing autocratic rule without a judicial check. Sound familiar if you've studied Hitler?
Click to expand...

Was FDR a fascist?
 
JacksinPA said:
https://www.independent.co.uk/voice...reminds-me-of-adolf-hitler-nazi-a8059031.html

Donald Trump's attempt to control the US Justice System is alarmingly similar to Hitler's strategy in Nazi Germany

Such open calls for criminal investigations of political opponents like Hillary Clinton are truly unprecedented in American history — and for good reason, since they would undermine the very foundation of liberal democracy. If the president could order the FBI to investigate Hillary Clinton, where would it stop?

Throughout his presidential campaign, Donald Trump described his opponent, Hillary Clinton, as a criminal and said she should be tried and put in jail (of her guilt, he had no doubt). Commentators at the time noted the extreme nature of such rhetoric and the fact that demands for the investigation and imprisonment of political opponents was alien to the American system. But, they speculated, perhaps it was just that — rhetoric — and with his inauguration as President, he would leave such dangerous talk behind.

It turns out, however, that Trump has proven unable to let go of his obsession with his defeated rival. In early November 2017 — nearly one year after his election victory — he was not only continuing to attack Clinton, but also calling on the FBI and the Justice Department to investigate her. He was “very frustrated” by the fact that he was unable to order those agencies to “go after” his former opponent — something he said he would very much love to do.
==================================================================
'Immediately after coming to power, Adolf Hitler targeted his main political opponents: the German Communist Party. With his fellow Nazi Hermann Goering heading the Interior Ministry, members of the SA were now deputised as auxiliary police and, along with the traditional police forces, tasked with the assault on Germany’s communists. Storm Troopers attacked communists in the streets, arrested them, and brought them to makeshift jails where they beat, tortured, and sometimes killed them.

After the communists, it was the Socialists’ turn to experience Hitler’s brand of justice. Those not beaten or tortured to death were driven underground, into exile, or were sent to the new concentration camps being built and operated by the SS.'

So, without judicial restraint, how far will Trump go? Prone to acting on instinct, anything is possible for Trump. And his supporters will only cheer, as they did Hitler.
Click to expand...

th.webpth.webp
 
What My Escape From Hitler’s Germany Taught Me About Trump’s America

https://www.thenation.com/article/escape-hitlers-germany-taught-trumps-america/

The shock and trauma of the first 18 months of Trump’s presidency—and the growing realization that his autocratic grandstanding isn’t an act but a true threat to democracy—has hidden from view a transformation of the State of Israel that is as radical as Trump’s transformation of America, and perhaps more lasting and irreversible.

Since its founding in 1948, Israel has presented itself to the world as an avatar of democracy and guardian of the moral truths the world needs to learn about the Holocaust. Yet its governmental leaders and a majority of its Jewish citizens—led by its prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu—have fully embraced Trump (as well, in some instances, as the authoritarian leaders embraced by Trump).

Giant posters and photographs of Trump were recently plastered on the streets and public places of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Declaring “Trump is a friend of Zion” and “Trump Make Israel Great,” they expressed adoration of the man who doubled down on his insistence on the moral equivalence of neo-Nazis in Charlottesville and the Americans who took to the streets to express their abhorrence of these racists and anti-Semites.

Referring to Trump’s encounter with Putin in Helsinki, David Duke, the former head of the Klan, tweeted “Bravo Trump!”—prompting Egan’s observation that “the ex-Klan man is just a goose step ahead of the party that has been remade in Trump’s image.” The ex-Klan man may also be just a goose step ahead of the country Netanyahu is remaking in Trump’s image.

The longer-range consequences of the changes now occurring in Trump’s America are more difficult to foresee. Despite the deep internal political and cultural cleavages that Trump’s presidency has opened in the United States, and the deep scars they will leave in this country’s political economic and cultural life, the dramatic increase in the political involvement of activists who are younger, female, and far more liberal than seen previously in Democratic circles, are reasons to avoid despair. But of this I am certain. If Trump is reelected in 2020, the United States will no longer be a democracy. Under his presidency this country has already become a force that undermines the cause of democracy. Authoritarian leaders everywhere have been emboldened by his “successes,” a gift of which Trump is entirely proud.

The only uncertainty is whether America’s democracy will survive if Americans will allow him to serve out his current term.
========================================
Trump has become the Pied Piper, leading his followers off to an unpredictable doom.
 
Felis Leo said:
Here is the problem with making such an inane statement.

Fascists aren't known for merely being authoritarian, or nationalistic, or right wing. This frankly lazy definition excludes the most important aspect of fascism that made the very term "Fascist" a pejorative word. That is, the open use of violence against any and all opponents and the belief in violence as a good in itself.

What makes actually Fascists what they are is the use of political violence whether they are in power or out of power. Gangs of paramilitary thugs breaking up and attacking gatherings of political opponents. Assassinations in which assassins are openly lauded by members of the Fascist Party structure. Kidnappings, torture, murder. These are the actions of fascists: When people like you are afraid to openly speak out against them in any way lest you or your loved ones disappear in the night and are found dead in a ditch the next day.

So is Donald Trump a Fascist? No. Being an utter uncaring a**hole who managed to obtain power does not make one a Fascist. Orchestrating the murder of political opponents is what makes one Fascist.
Click to expand...

Trump failed to condemn the violence in Charlottesville.
 
Trump and the Rise of 21st Century Fascism

When Donald Trump, enemy of the U.S. Constitution, first came to power, we were advised by the sages not to throw that “F” word around—you know the one I mean, the one that ends with an “ism.”

We’d never be taken seriously if we used it to describe him and his regime, we were told and, besides, its use in the current context was a disservice to those who suffered great horrors under Benito Mussolini and his ideological cousin and all-out monster, Adolf Hitler.

But neither Hitler nor Mussolini committed their worst atrocities at the outset of their respective tenures as dictators of their nations. In fact, as Al Gore reminded us in his 2006 film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” “At first, even the truth about Hitler was inconvenient. Many in the west hoped the danger would simply go away.”

Now, I don’t pretend to know whether Trump could evolve into a leader anywhere near as murderous as Hitler. But I do know this: Trump is a neo-fascist, and it’s time we start saying so. Wishing the danger would go away won’t make it so.
==============================================
Stay tuned, all you Trump supporters.
 
JacksinPA said:
Trump failed to condemn the violence in Charlottesville.
Click to expand...

Let us be clear: Failure to timely condemn political violence is not promotion of political violence, any more than the Democrats refusing to condemn Keith Ellison for allegedly beating up his girlfriend does not mean the Democratic Party promotes domestic violence.
 
JacksinPA said:
Trump and the Rise of 21st Century Fascism

When Donald Trump, enemy of the U.S. Constitution, first came to power, we were advised by the sages not to throw that “F” word around—you know the one I mean, the one that ends with an “ism.”

We’d never be taken seriously if we used it to describe him and his regime, we were told and, besides, its use in the current context was a disservice to those who suffered great horrors under Benito Mussolini and his ideological cousin and all-out monster, Adolf Hitler.

But neither Hitler nor Mussolini committed their worst atrocities at the outset of their respective tenures as dictators of their nations. In fact, as Al Gore reminded us in his 2006 film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” “At first, even the truth about Hitler was inconvenient. Many in the west hoped the danger would simply go away.”

Now, I don’t pretend to know whether Trump could evolve into a leader anywhere near as murderous as Hitler. But I do know this: Trump is a neo-fascist, and it’s time we start saying so. Wishing the danger would go away won’t make it so.
==============================================
Stay tuned, all you Trump supporters.
Click to expand...

Just a moment, did Adele Stand read anything beyond the top of the Wikipedia entry about Nazi Germany before writing her article? Because it would have served her to read a few more pages a little bit further. Adolf Hitler literally murdered hundreds of political opponents shortly after taking power. Does anyone remember the Night of the Long Knives? Or the activities of the Brown Shirts before 1933? The Nazis were not restrained in their activities and then became murderous as they gained more power over the country. The same goes for the Italian Fascists. These were not wolves in sheep's clothing; they were wolves along along. They were murderous from the outset, and only became more and more violent as they gained hold on more levers of power.

This appears to be, at best, a total misread and ignorance of history. At worst, it is dishonest historical revisionism which allows intellectually dishonest critics to condemn anyone they disagree with as "Fascist" under the rubric of "Well, Hitler and the Nazis were peaceful when they took power and they only slowly rolled out their nightmarish practices..." Which is not true at all. The Nazis were violent from the outset, and while they showed restraint at politically convenient moments, their party was characterized by the use the violence against those deemed the enemies of the German people.
 
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/18/mafia-style-government-trump-role-autocrats

This mafia style of government makes Trump a role model for all autocrats

Punishing critics like John Brennan is part of the US president’s ongoing abuse of power – and normalisation of autocracy

More than 18 months into his presidency, Donald Trump’s modus operandi – and the danger it represents – is clear. His working method is that of the mafia boss and gangland chieftain, daily wielding his power to settle scores, teach lessons and crush dissent. Anyone who’s seen The Sopranos will know the routine: the casual intimidation, the obsession with loyalty, the brutal ostracism meted out to those who dare defy the man at the top.

This week’s demonstration came at the expense of John Brennan, the former head of the CIA who spent a quarter-century in intelligence and counter-terrorism. He’s no dove: his record includes rendition, drone strikes and illegal spying on the US Senate. But he has become one of the most trenchant critics of Trump – he accuses him of treason – and the president exacted his punishment, stripping Brennan of the security clearance that had given him access, even in retirement, to some of his nation’s secrets.
================================================
You can catch reruns of The Sopranos on Amazon Prime Video if you need to brush up on your Mafia modus operandi.
 
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