The Fight Against Fascists (I Can't Believe This Exists)

[Dill]

(06-08-2021, 12:48 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: Not sure I follow.  Are you asking for proof that Stacy Abramas engangd similar behavior? (I'll find it if you really want but I don't know how anyone could be unware of it)

It's been said or implied that Trump's questioning of the election results, and his behavior that followed, is/was an example of fascist types of behavior.

All I'm asking if these things are true for Trump, by this example alone, can we not also apply that same thinking to Stacy Abrams?  Can we say her actions were a "threat to democracy"?

If not, why not?

Just found your response, Wes.

Remember, I am not one of the people calling Trump "fascist." And I've made clear how far below the definitional threshold Trump is, at least as far as the scholarship on fascism is concerned.

But I understand you are responding to the charge that his questioning the election results indicates fascism. Questioning election results is not in itself "fascist behavior," since such questioning is sometimes justified. Refusing to concede an election without judicable proof it was rigged, and attempting to disrupt the democratic transition of power, IS certainly authoritarian behavior, and if we call it that rather than "fascism" we don't get into the side debates. 

Now we get to Abrams. I am aware she questioned the results of her gubernatorial race in Georgia--which was run/administrated by her opponent. And that she complained of his strategic purging of voter roles before the election. All that makes a reasonable ground, at least, for questioning an election. Which she did. 

But when judicable evidence was not forthcoming, she conceded the election to her opponent.
https://www.npr.org/2018/11/16/668737597/georgia-facing-final-deadline-for-ballot-certification-in-governors-race

Rather than continuing to sell a "big lie" that her election was stolen and coercing state officials to "fix" the vote, she set about changing voter landscape in her state, working with other political activists to register 800,000 new voters. This is a DEMOCRATIC RESPONSE to an election loss, not evidence of authoritarianism and certainly not fascism. In consequence, the Senate shifted to Dem control and Georgia was a key to Dems winning the exec.

So my point--neither Trump and Abrams are fascist.  The former is an authoritarian leader, though, who cannot be trusted to respect rule of law.