Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

rooster, Paxton knows and Gawthorpe gets it right - 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
[...]
Professor Paxton, thanks for staying with us for Part 2 of this conversation. Have you been surprised by the rise and the popularity of Donald Trump?
ROBERT PAXTON: Totally surprised. Not so very long ago, Trump was a guaranteed laugh line. He was considered a buffoon. All you had to do was to show the hair and call him “The Donald,” and everyone kind of snickered. And suddenly he’s this—he’s this immense power. He’s touched the nerve with his style, which has fascist overtones, encouraging violence, attacking the internal enemy and so forth, saying that the system is rotten and it needs an outsider to fix it, which is a fascist kind of appeal—make Germany great, make America great. Suddenly he’s touched a nerve, and for millions of people he is suddenly seen taken more than seriously. And that’s a strange flip. That’s a strange transformation."

Andrew Gawthorpe

Trump’s persistent hold on his base shows the power to be had in reinventing anti-American values as patriotic

[...]

What these groups share is a belief that their very existence is threatened. Evangelical Christian support for Trump .. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/11/trump-administration-evangelical-influence-support .. is often motivated by the fear that secular liberals are seeking to crush Christianity and banish it from the land. Such a fear lends itself to support for an authoritarian who will crush the opposition before it gets a chance to strike first. Trump has shown that evangelicals will support anyone who even pretends to care about their motivating issues – abortion, Jerusalem, religious freedom – regardless of his obvious repugnance by any normal understanding of Christian values.

[...]

An American fascism would not only marry Christianity and ultranationalism through a shared belief in conspiracies aiming to destroy America, but it would also seek to retain the support of capital. Trump has demonstrated how to combine regressive economic policies with a populist image by attacking minorities and elites. Anyone promoting progressive economic reform is dismissed as a communist and hence as un-American – another one of the conspirators, and another reason to line up behind a strongman who will keep them out of power. This is why “the Squad”, who in the worldview of the right are both communists and America-hating brown people, are the perfect foil.

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