Recommended Reading

[Dill]

(01-31-2017, 04:24 PM)xxlt Wrote: Thanks for making the point. I'm reminded of the old saying, "Sometimes it is hard to hear what you are saying because who you are speaks so loudly." :andy:

Hey Philhos and XXLT, I think you are both making good points, not necessarily contradictory.

It seems to me quite possible that an American-style fascist-tending party could be emerging in the US. The authoritarian personality and style of Trump seem more important to his followers than specific policies--except those involving ethnic exclusions. It would not likely follow previous patterns though. For one, it's members would deny any comparison to Hitler and racism. They might spend a lot of energy trying to flip those charges back on their opponents. But like Hitler and Goebbels, they would be "gaslighting" the public wherever possible, challenging objective reporting and intel which did not further their purposes, and seeking to deligitimate the press and sources of public information they cannot control.

On the other hand, the US has so many checks within government, and so many anti-fascists, that I don't see anything like a Nazi-style seizure of power by one party on the horizon. Trump can't shut down CNN and the NYT the way Hitler could. Trump is far more like impulsive and unruly SA leader Ernst Roehm than than the very focused and disciplined Hitler. This randomness and incompetence at governing will put off a lot of Americans, even sympathetic ones. Further, Americans for the most part have a distaste for masses of people marching together in uniform--unless they are returning home from a war. 

That doesn't mean that the New Republican Party under Trump could not do serious damage to government and US interests domestic and foreign, and produce a depth of division we have not seen since the Civil War. All those tea partiers who were angry at the "establishment" for always fooling them are going to be very very angry when they realize they have been fooled yet again, but it's not clear they learn from repeated mistakes. We should be concerned.