AI
Monday, September 25, 2023 6:47:46 PM
Trump and the Republican party exemplify these five elements of fascism
"Is this fascism? No. Could it become fascism? Yes
"Is Donald Trump a Fascist? Part 2 of Interview with Robert Paxton, Father of Fascism Studies"
----------
Related:
European fascism was popular because, for those not persecuted, it was a welfare state
[...]An analogy is haunting the United States—the analogy of fascism. It is virtually impossible (outside certain parts of the Right-wing itself) to try to understand the resurgent Right without hearing it described as—or compared with—20th-century interwar fascism. Like fascism, the resurgent Right is irrational, close-minded, violent, and racist. So goes the analogy, and there’s truth to it. But fascism did not become powerful simply by appealing to citizens’ darkest instincts. Fascism also, crucially, spoke to the social and psychological needs of citizens to be protected from the ravages of capitalism at a time when other political actors were offering little help.
[...]There can be no question that violence and racism were essential traits of fascism. But for most Italians, Germans and other European fascists, the appeal was based not on racism—much less ethnic cleansing—but on the fascists’ ability to respond effectively to crises of capitalism when other political actors were not. Fascists insisted that states could and should control capitalism, that the state should and could promote social welfare, and that national communities needed to be cultivated. The fascist solution ultimately was, of course, worse than the problem. In response to the horror of fascism, in part, New Deal Democrats in the United States, and social democratic parties in Europe, also moved to re-negotiate the social contract. They promised citizens that they would control capitalism and provide social welfare policies and undertake other measures to strengthen national solidarity—but without the loss of freedom and democracy that fascism entailed.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=167097658
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=158824544
The Jan. 6 Committee Is Promising It Has the Goods. We’re About to Find Out
... down some .. Madeleine Albright: I'm warning the American public
- maligning of the press, talking about the press as the enemy of the people
- a president who believes he is above the law
- use of slogans and meetings to generate even more division in society
-a lack of sense of what democratic institutions are about
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=167012800
'Unprecedented': Trump calls media 'enemy of the people' as concerns of violence spike
- threat of political violence rolls over every aspect of American civil life
- attacks on prosecutors who have charged him
-threats to them, their families, their staff
- Democrats are spending record sums on security for themselves, their families, their staffs
- call MSM enemy of the people
- accuses US top military officials of treason
- has attacked the jurors, the grand jurors and the vast jury pool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1CNirz5aB0
----------
Robert Reich
Trump is often described as ‘authoritarian’. But that doesn’t really capture the more alarming aspects of his movement
‘Authoritarians do not stir people up against establishment elites. They use or co-opt those elites. By contrast, fascists galvanize public rage at presumed
(or imaginary) cultural elites to gain and maintain power.’ Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP
Sat 17 Jun 2023 20.05 AEST
Last modified on Sat 17 Jun 2023 20.34 AEST
The Washington Post calls .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2023/04/21/trump-agenda-policies-2024/ .. Donald Trump’s vision for a second term “authoritarian”.
That vision includes mandatory stop-and-frisk. Deploying the military to fight street crime, break up gangs and deport immigrants. Purging the federal workforce.
The modern Republican party is hurtling towards fascism
Robert Reich
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/15/the-modern-republican-party-fascism-robert-reich
“In 2016, I declared I am your voice,” Trump said at his first 2024 campaign rally in Waco, Texas. “Today, I add I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
How do we describe what Trump wants for America?
“Authoritarianism” isn’t adequate. It is fascism. Fascism stands for a coherent set of ideas different from – and more dangerous than – authoritarianism.
To fight those ideas, it’s necessary to be aware of what they are and how they fit together.
Borrowing from the cultural theorist Umberto Eco, the historians Emilio Gentile and Ian Kershaw, the political scientist Roger Griffin, and the former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, I offer five elements that distinguish fascism from authoritarianism.
Five person links in that paragraph:
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism
https://www.jstor.org/stable/260731
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/contemporary-european-history/article/abs/working-towards-the-fuhrer-reflections-on-the-nature-of-the-hitler-dictatorship/AA188C6DBB8DAF4682A7093D5895A6C4
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/fascism-9780192892492?cc=us&lang=en&;
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/fascism-a-warning-madeleine-albright?variant=32128912949282
1. The rejection of democracy, the rule of law and equal rights under the law
in favor of a strongman who interprets the popular will.
“The election was stolen.” (Trump, 2020)
“I am your justice … I am your retribution.” (Trump, 2023)
Authoritarians believe society needs strong leaders to maintain stability. They vest in a dictator the power to maintain social order through the use of force (armies, police, militia) and bureaucracy.
By contrast, fascists view strong leaders as the means of discovering what society needs. They regard the leader as the embodiment of society, the voice of the people.
2. The galvanizing of popular rage against cultural elites.
“Your enemies” are “media elites”, … “the elites who led us from one financial and foreign policy disaster to another”. (Trump, 2015, 2016)
Two links from there
https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-speech-phoenix-az-august-31-2016
https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-speech-monessen-pa-june-28-2016
Authoritarians do not stir people up against establishment elites. They use or co-opt those elites to gain and maintain power.
By contrast, fascists galvanize public rage at presumed (or imaginary) cultural elites and use mass rage to gain and maintain power. They stir up grievances against those elites for supposedly displacing average people and seek revenge. In doing so, they create mass parties. They often encourage violence.
3. Nationalism based on a dominant “superior” race and historic bloodlines.
“Tremendous infectious disease is pouring across the border.” (Trump, 2015)
“Jewish people that vote for a Democrat [show] great disloyalty.” (Trump, 2019)
“Getting critical race theory out of our schools is … a matter of national survival.” (Trump, 2022)
Authoritarians see nationalism as a means of asserting the power of the state. They glorify the state. They want it to dominate other nations.
Authoritarianism seeks to protect or expand its geographic boundaries. It worries about foreign enemies encroaching on its territory.
By contrast, fascism embodies what it considers a “superior” group – based on race, religion and historic bloodlines. Nationalism is a means of asserting that superiority.
Fascists worry about disloyalty and sabotage from groups within the nation that don’t share the same race or bloodlines. These “others” are scapegoated, excluded or expelled, sometimes even killed.
Fascists believe schools and universities must teach values that extol the dominant race, religion and bloodline. Schools should not teach inconvenient truths (such as America’s history of genocide and racism).
[ INSERT: Nearly half of Republicans polled say schools shouldn’t teach history of racism
by Brooke Migdon | Nov. 10, 2021 | Nov. 10, 2021
Story at a glance
* More than 40 percent of Republicans in a Monmouth University poll said they don’t approve of teaching the history of racism in public schools.
* Overall, 75 percent of adults surveyed across political lines said they supported teaching the history
of racism in schools, but only 43 percent said they supported teaching critical race theory.
* Critics say critical race theory teaches white children to feel guilty and Black children to feel disempowered.
https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/education/581029-nearly-half-of-republicans-polled-say-schools-shouldnt/ ]
4. Extolling brute strength and heroic warriors.
“You’ll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength and you have to be strong. (Trump, 6 January 2021)
“I am your warrior.” (Trump, 2023)
The goal of authoritarianism is to gain and maintain state power. For authoritarians, “strength” comes in the form of large armies and munitions.
Don’t be fooled – Trump’s presidential run is gaining more and more momentum
Lloyd Green
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/02/donald-trump-presidential-run-gains-momentum
By contrast, the ostensible goal of fascism is to strengthen society. Fascism’s method of accomplishing this is to reward those who win economically and physically and to denigrate or exterminate those who lose.
Fascism depends on organized bullying – a form of social Darwinism. For the fascist, war and violence are means of strengthening society by culling the weak and extolling heroic warriors.
5. Disdain of women and fear of non-standard gender identities or sexual orientation.
“When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” (Trump, 2005)
“You have to treat ’em like shit.” (Trump, 1992)
“[I will] promote positive education about the nuclear family … rather than erasing the things that make men and women different.” (Trump, 2023)
Authoritarianism imposes hierarchies. Authoritarians seek order.
By contrast, fascism is organized around the particular hierarchy of male dominance. The fascist
heroic warrior is male. Women are relegated to subservient roles.
[Trump, DeSantis vie for evangelical vote in D.C. face-off
[...]DeSantis also talked up Florida's law that bans abortion at six weeks, one of the most restrictive in the nation. "We have stood up," he said.
Trump also addressed abortion at the council event, saying he supports bans with exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother, a position that was received coolly by the crowd.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=172834532]
In fascism, anything that challenges the traditional heroic male roles of protector, provider and controller of the family is considered a threat to the social order.
Fascism seeks to eliminate homosexual, transgender and queer people because they are thought to challenge or weaken the heroic male warrior.
These five elements of fascism reinforce each other:
Rejection of democracy in favor of a strongman depends on galvanizing popular rage.
Popular rage draws on a nationalism based on a supposed superior race or ethnicity.
That superior race or ethnicity is justified by social Darwinist strength and violence, as exemplified by heroic warriors.
Strength, violence and the heroic warrior are centered on male power.
These five elements find exact expression in Donald Trump .. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump .. and the white Christian nationalist movement he is encouraging. This is also the direction that most of the Republican party is now heading.
They are not the elements of authoritarianism. They are the essential elements of fascism.
America’s mainstream media is by now comfortable talking and writing about Trump’s authoritarianism. In describing what he is seeking to impose on America, the media should be using the term fascism.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/17/trump-republican-party-fascism
"Is this fascism? No. Could it become fascism? Yes
"Is Donald Trump a Fascist? Part 2 of Interview with Robert Paxton, Father of Fascism Studies"
----------
Related:
European fascism was popular because, for those not persecuted, it was a welfare state
[...]An analogy is haunting the United States—the analogy of fascism. It is virtually impossible (outside certain parts of the Right-wing itself) to try to understand the resurgent Right without hearing it described as—or compared with—20th-century interwar fascism. Like fascism, the resurgent Right is irrational, close-minded, violent, and racist. So goes the analogy, and there’s truth to it. But fascism did not become powerful simply by appealing to citizens’ darkest instincts. Fascism also, crucially, spoke to the social and psychological needs of citizens to be protected from the ravages of capitalism at a time when other political actors were offering little help.
[...]There can be no question that violence and racism were essential traits of fascism. But for most Italians, Germans and other European fascists, the appeal was based not on racism—much less ethnic cleansing—but on the fascists’ ability to respond effectively to crises of capitalism when other political actors were not. Fascists insisted that states could and should control capitalism, that the state should and could promote social welfare, and that national communities needed to be cultivated. The fascist solution ultimately was, of course, worse than the problem. In response to the horror of fascism, in part, New Deal Democrats in the United States, and social democratic parties in Europe, also moved to re-negotiate the social contract. They promised citizens that they would control capitalism and provide social welfare policies and undertake other measures to strengthen national solidarity—but without the loss of freedom and democracy that fascism entailed.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=167097658
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=158824544
The Jan. 6 Committee Is Promising It Has the Goods. We’re About to Find Out
... down some .. Madeleine Albright: I'm warning the American public
- maligning of the press, talking about the press as the enemy of the people
- a president who believes he is above the law
- use of slogans and meetings to generate even more division in society
-a lack of sense of what democratic institutions are about
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=167012800
'Unprecedented': Trump calls media 'enemy of the people' as concerns of violence spike
- threat of political violence rolls over every aspect of American civil life
- attacks on prosecutors who have charged him
-threats to them, their families, their staff
- Democrats are spending record sums on security for themselves, their families, their staffs
- call MSM enemy of the people
- accuses US top military officials of treason
- has attacked the jurors, the grand jurors and the vast jury pool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1CNirz5aB0
----------
Robert Reich
Trump is often described as ‘authoritarian’. But that doesn’t really capture the more alarming aspects of his movement
‘Authoritarians do not stir people up against establishment elites. They use or co-opt those elites. By contrast, fascists galvanize public rage at presumed
(or imaginary) cultural elites to gain and maintain power.’ Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP
Sat 17 Jun 2023 20.05 AEST
Last modified on Sat 17 Jun 2023 20.34 AEST
The Washington Post calls .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2023/04/21/trump-agenda-policies-2024/ .. Donald Trump’s vision for a second term “authoritarian”.
That vision includes mandatory stop-and-frisk. Deploying the military to fight street crime, break up gangs and deport immigrants. Purging the federal workforce.
The modern Republican party is hurtling towards fascism
Robert Reich
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/15/the-modern-republican-party-fascism-robert-reich
“In 2016, I declared I am your voice,” Trump said at his first 2024 campaign rally in Waco, Texas. “Today, I add I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
How do we describe what Trump wants for America?
“Authoritarianism” isn’t adequate. It is fascism. Fascism stands for a coherent set of ideas different from – and more dangerous than – authoritarianism.
To fight those ideas, it’s necessary to be aware of what they are and how they fit together.
Borrowing from the cultural theorist Umberto Eco, the historians Emilio Gentile and Ian Kershaw, the political scientist Roger Griffin, and the former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, I offer five elements that distinguish fascism from authoritarianism.
Five person links in that paragraph:
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism
https://www.jstor.org/stable/260731
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/contemporary-european-history/article/abs/working-towards-the-fuhrer-reflections-on-the-nature-of-the-hitler-dictatorship/AA188C6DBB8DAF4682A7093D5895A6C4
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/fascism-9780192892492?cc=us&lang=en&;
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/fascism-a-warning-madeleine-albright?variant=32128912949282
1. The rejection of democracy, the rule of law and equal rights under the law
in favor of a strongman who interprets the popular will.
“The election was stolen.” (Trump, 2020)
“I am your justice … I am your retribution.” (Trump, 2023)
Authoritarians believe society needs strong leaders to maintain stability. They vest in a dictator the power to maintain social order through the use of force (armies, police, militia) and bureaucracy.
By contrast, fascists view strong leaders as the means of discovering what society needs. They regard the leader as the embodiment of society, the voice of the people.
2. The galvanizing of popular rage against cultural elites.
“Your enemies” are “media elites”, … “the elites who led us from one financial and foreign policy disaster to another”. (Trump, 2015, 2016)
Two links from there
https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-speech-phoenix-az-august-31-2016
https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-speech-monessen-pa-june-28-2016
Authoritarians do not stir people up against establishment elites. They use or co-opt those elites to gain and maintain power.
By contrast, fascists galvanize public rage at presumed (or imaginary) cultural elites and use mass rage to gain and maintain power. They stir up grievances against those elites for supposedly displacing average people and seek revenge. In doing so, they create mass parties. They often encourage violence.
3. Nationalism based on a dominant “superior” race and historic bloodlines.
“Tremendous infectious disease is pouring across the border.” (Trump, 2015)
“Jewish people that vote for a Democrat [show] great disloyalty.” (Trump, 2019)
“Getting critical race theory out of our schools is … a matter of national survival.” (Trump, 2022)
Authoritarians see nationalism as a means of asserting the power of the state. They glorify the state. They want it to dominate other nations.
Authoritarianism seeks to protect or expand its geographic boundaries. It worries about foreign enemies encroaching on its territory.
By contrast, fascism embodies what it considers a “superior” group – based on race, religion and historic bloodlines. Nationalism is a means of asserting that superiority.
Fascists worry about disloyalty and sabotage from groups within the nation that don’t share the same race or bloodlines. These “others” are scapegoated, excluded or expelled, sometimes even killed.
Fascists believe schools and universities must teach values that extol the dominant race, religion and bloodline. Schools should not teach inconvenient truths (such as America’s history of genocide and racism).
[ INSERT: Nearly half of Republicans polled say schools shouldn’t teach history of racism
by Brooke Migdon | Nov. 10, 2021 | Nov. 10, 2021
Story at a glance
* More than 40 percent of Republicans in a Monmouth University poll said they don’t approve of teaching the history of racism in public schools.
* Overall, 75 percent of adults surveyed across political lines said they supported teaching the history
of racism in schools, but only 43 percent said they supported teaching critical race theory.
* Critics say critical race theory teaches white children to feel guilty and Black children to feel disempowered.
https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/education/581029-nearly-half-of-republicans-polled-say-schools-shouldnt/ ]
4. Extolling brute strength and heroic warriors.
“You’ll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength and you have to be strong. (Trump, 6 January 2021)
“I am your warrior.” (Trump, 2023)
The goal of authoritarianism is to gain and maintain state power. For authoritarians, “strength” comes in the form of large armies and munitions.
Don’t be fooled – Trump’s presidential run is gaining more and more momentum
Lloyd Green
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/02/donald-trump-presidential-run-gains-momentum
By contrast, the ostensible goal of fascism is to strengthen society. Fascism’s method of accomplishing this is to reward those who win economically and physically and to denigrate or exterminate those who lose.
Fascism depends on organized bullying – a form of social Darwinism. For the fascist, war and violence are means of strengthening society by culling the weak and extolling heroic warriors.
5. Disdain of women and fear of non-standard gender identities or sexual orientation.
“When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” (Trump, 2005)
“You have to treat ’em like shit.” (Trump, 1992)
“[I will] promote positive education about the nuclear family … rather than erasing the things that make men and women different.” (Trump, 2023)
Authoritarianism imposes hierarchies. Authoritarians seek order.
By contrast, fascism is organized around the particular hierarchy of male dominance. The fascist
heroic warrior is male. Women are relegated to subservient roles.
[Trump, DeSantis vie for evangelical vote in D.C. face-off
[...]DeSantis also talked up Florida's law that bans abortion at six weeks, one of the most restrictive in the nation. "We have stood up," he said.
Trump also addressed abortion at the council event, saying he supports bans with exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother, a position that was received coolly by the crowd.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=172834532]
In fascism, anything that challenges the traditional heroic male roles of protector, provider and controller of the family is considered a threat to the social order.
Fascism seeks to eliminate homosexual, transgender and queer people because they are thought to challenge or weaken the heroic male warrior.
These five elements of fascism reinforce each other:
Rejection of democracy in favor of a strongman depends on galvanizing popular rage.
Popular rage draws on a nationalism based on a supposed superior race or ethnicity.
That superior race or ethnicity is justified by social Darwinist strength and violence, as exemplified by heroic warriors.
Strength, violence and the heroic warrior are centered on male power.
These five elements find exact expression in Donald Trump .. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump .. and the white Christian nationalist movement he is encouraging. This is also the direction that most of the Republican party is now heading.
They are not the elements of authoritarianism. They are the essential elements of fascism.
America’s mainstream media is by now comfortable talking and writing about Trump’s authoritarianism. In describing what he is seeking to impose on America, the media should be using the term fascism.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/17/trump-republican-party-fascism
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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