06-04-2019, 08:17 PM
(06-04-2019, 10:39 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: I have typically seen it defined as a combination of nationalism and authoritarianism. He rose to the presidency relying on nationalism, and he certainly has authoritarian tendencies. He hasn't been able to completely fulfill those tendencies because of the guardrails of democracy holding him from it, but those guardrails have a lot of dents in them right now.
People hear fascism and all they think of is the end result. The fascist dictators that have made the history books. But those are the "success" stories. For every one of those, there are budding fascists that have tested democracies all over the world, and I truly believe Trump is one of those. There are a lot of people in the field of political science that see it this way, as well. Well respected scholars see proto-fascist tendencies within our country right now, scholars that have researched the rise and fall of democracies at the hands of fascists around the globe.
So people that dismiss the claims of fascism with Trump as easily as you are the ones that don't truly know fascism. The history, the trends, the rise of it around the world. It's more of a concern in this country than you realize.
Outstanding post. I do think the definition omits a critical element, which is a union between the authoritarian government and the largest corporations. Many political scientists write compellingly about how dangerous that element is.
Of course, such an alignment is something that could NEVER, EVER, happen in our country. (
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JOHN ROBERTS: From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly so that you will come to know the value of justice... I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either.
