{"id":22967,"date":"2024-10-17T20:02:57","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T03:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=22967"},"modified":"2024-10-17T20:03:41","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T03:03:41","slug":"what-it-means-to-be-fascist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2024\/10\/17\/what-it-means-to-be-fascist\/","title":{"rendered":"What It Means to be Fascist"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Robert Reich&#8217;s take in five points;<\/li>\n<li>AlterNet&#8217;s John Stoer&#8217;s take;<\/li>\n<li>How Trump can claim anything &#8212; now he&#8217;s the &#8220;father of IVF&#8221; &#8212; and his fans will believe him.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F68609214-a023-4487-b26d-e9a6320fbf3b_3432x3499.jpeg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Robert Reich, 17 Oct 2024<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/robertreich.substack.com\/p\/trumps-fascism-is-now-in-the-open\">Trump\u2019s closing argument: full-throated fascism<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Recalling Trump&#8217;s recent remarks about illegal aliens and the &#8220;enemy within&#8221; and how his political opponents are &#8220;evil,&#8221; Reich states:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>These are echoes of the Nazism that flourished in Europe 90 years ago. Trump\u2019s closing argument of the 2024 election is full-throated fascism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This piece is useful because it summarizes five principles of what fascism actually is, as opposed the casual use of the word along with other political terms to mean anything conservatives don&#8217;t like. I&#8217;ll copy Reich&#8217;s five points. For each, he provides examples, i.e. quotes from Trump.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The rejection of democracy, the rule of law, and equal rights under the law, in favor of a strongman.<\/li>\n<li>The galvanizing of popular rage against political opponents.<\/li>\n<li>Nationalism based on a dominant \u201csuperior\u201d race and historic bloodlines.<\/li>\n<li>Extolling brute strength and heroic warriors.<\/li>\n<li>Disdain of women and fear of non-standard gender identities or sexual orientation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Reich concludes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>All of these five core elements find expression in Trumpian fascism. All can also be found in the current Trump Republican Party.<\/p>\n<p>America\u2019s mainstream media is by now comfortable talking and writing about Trump\u2019s authoritarianism. But in describing what Trump is seeking to impose on America, the media should be using the term \u201cfascism.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>And here&#8217;s another take.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/media-library\/image.webp?id=53827693&amp;width=1245&amp;height=700&amp;quality=85&amp;coordinates=0%2C50%2C0%2C50\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>AlterNet, John Stoehr, 17 Oct 2024<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/alternet-exclusives\/h\/\">Opinion | Here\u2019s what makes Trump a demented fascist<\/a> (you can click through or around the requests to subscribe).<\/p>\n<p>The article addresses both Trump being fascist, and his deteriorating mental health. On the first point:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Yes, Trump is a fascist.<\/p>\n<p>He is a <i>demented<\/i> fascist.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He relates recent comments from Mark Milley, once chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Bob Woodward. Key points, as the article highlights them: &#8220;He cannot repeat consistently his position on key issues.&#8221; &#8220;Unplanned verbal escalation.&#8221; &#8220;What this man is.&#8221; Sample:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>MSNBC\u2019s Joe Scarborough <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/morning-joe\/watch\/bob-woodward-on-trump-s-violent-rhetoric-he-wants-to-show-he-s-tough-221866565894\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><u>asked<\/u><\/a> Bob Woodward this morning to explain why Trump does not stick to normal GOP talking points. \u201cWhy does he always go to this violent rhetoric?\u201d he asked, referring to Trump\u2019s wish to be a dictator, to jail his enemies and terminate the Constitution. \u201cWhy does he make these violent claims when he knows that if he just talked about the economy, he would likely do better?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Woodward\u2019s answer is familiar to the conversation about Trump being too fascist to be president. \u201cI think he wants to show he\u2019s tough. Being tough is central to Trump\u2019s self-persona. He thinks that\u2019s powerful.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>He can say anything, and his fans will believe it.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/74475918-eea5-4912-b5f7-9906bafbe6f5.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=1280\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Slate, Molly Olmstead, 16 Oct 2024<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2024\/10\/trump-ivf-father-fox-news-town-hall-womens-issues.html\">Guess Who Says He\u2019s \u201cthe Father of IVF\u201d<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;He also says he didn\u2019t know what it was before February.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It\u2019s obvious to anyone who can remember anything before this election cycle that his claim is absurd: Overturning <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em>\u2014something Trump long campaigned on and has frequently taken credit for\u2014is what put IVF in danger in the first place. His whole party is implicated in the threat to IVF. Twice this year, Senate Republicans blocked Democrats\u2019 efforts to enshrine a right to IVF, criticizing the bills as unnecessary grandstanding.<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s another reason to question his new self-given title: He seems, by his own admission, not to have known what IVF was before the Alabama Supreme Court ruling. This is how he began his answer to the IVF question: &#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Which was all about a phone call with a &#8220;fantastically attractive&#8221; senator from Alabama, Katie Britt, who explained it to him. Next, perhaps, he&#8217;ll claim to have invented electricity.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>More tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Reich&#8217;s take in five points; AlterNet&#8217;s John Stoer&#8217;s take; How Trump can claim anything &#8212; now he&#8217;s the &#8220;father of IVF&#8221; &#8212; and his fans will believe him. Robert Reich, 17 Oct 2024: Trump\u2019s closing argument: full-throated fascism Recalling &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2024\/10\/17\/what-it-means-to-be-fascist\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,18,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservatives","category-lunacy","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22967"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22969,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22967\/revisions\/22969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}