Is Today's Trumpist GOP Fascist?

[Pio1980]

Originally Posted by Chicks

Speaking of fascism - we’re watching Hotel Portofino on PBS, a drama set in its beautiful namesake in post-WWI Italy. Mussolini’s nasty fascists are everywhere, just as Whell’s friends are today. Bastards.

I can recommend "In the Garden of Beasts" by Erik Larson for an inside narrative of the Nazi infiltration and takeover of Germany by the first U.S. ambassador to the 3rd Reich.
https://books.google.com/books/about...page&q&f=false

[RickeyM]

I see the Christian fundamentalists and Reich-Wing extremists both using the other to gain control over the rest of us. If they gain that control and since there can be only one at the top I expect at some point they will turn on each other.

[finnbow]

#8 in the 14 Characteristic of Fascism from the OP:

Religion and Government are Intertwined:

Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

[Oerets]

Religion will be the controlling force morphing the Fascists of the beginning into the fold.


Much like the Inquisition in Spain took control of the Monarchy. They will rule with fear and intimidation.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by Pio1980

I can recommend "In the Garden of Beasts" by Erik Larson for n inside narrative of the Nazi infiltration and takeover of Germany by the first U.S. ambassador to the 3rd Reich.
https://books.google.com/books/about...page&q&f=false

Indeed a very good book. If you want some granular detail on the rise of Nazism in Germany, this recently published book (2016) is excellent. It uses newly discovered archive material (largely from the GDR) to fill in the picture that William Shirer painted in his classic The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Ullrich also has a second volume called "Hitler: Downfall: 1939-1945"

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by RickeyM

I see the Christian fundamentalists and Reich-Wing extremists both using the other to gain control over the rest of us. If they gain that control and since there can be only one at the top I expect at some point they will turn on each other.

That is the typical course of Fascism.

[RickeyM]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

That is the typical course of Fascism.

I never knew that. I just know the power hungry are never satisfied to share that power for very long. Like a game of musical chairs, it gets ugly when there's just one chair left.

[finnbow]

No one should be shocked by the president calling the movement — one that tried to overthrow a democratic election, continues to threaten violence, spews the racist Great Replacement theory, operates in a universe of delusion and disinformation and seeks to redefine America as a White Christian nation — semi-fascist. (Pro-fascist or just fascist would have worked as well.)

A party that celebrates Hungary’s illiberal Viktor Orban, embraces Russian propaganda and grovels before Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan cannot complain when it is held accountable for its right-wing nationalism and authoritarian hero-worship.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...d-up-campaign/

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by RickeyM

I never knew that. I just know the power hungry are never satisfied to share that power for very long. Like a game of musical chairs, it gets ugly when there's just one chair left.

Germany had the 'Night of the Long Knives,' Stalin and Mao* had their purges. Fascism always wants enemies to smash, and will find them among its own ranks if necessary.

*I make no distinction between left strongmen and right strongmen when they go that far. The ideology is just 'enabling myth' for these guys. The story they are telling is just a matter of historical happenstance.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

Germany had the 'Night of the Long Knives,' Stalin and Mao* had their purges. Fascism always wants enemies to smash, and will find them among its own ranks if necessary.

*I make no distinction between left strongmen and right strongmen when they go that far. The ideology is just 'enabling myth' for these guys. The story they are telling is just a matter of historical happenstance.

From Dr. Paxton (see OP): Fascism is a:

...cult of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing...