Politics and Religion

[Dill]

(03-02-2021, 03:50 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: This is offensive.

I'll never understand people who so casually toss around the word Nazi, or Hitler.  It's honestly sickening.  The word fascist, I roll my eyes at, as they clearly have no understanding of the word, but this comparison is next level.

Fwiw, didn't vote for Trump either time  Think he's a clownshow.  But engaging in rhetotic like this is so beyond unproductive to rational discourse.

I agree with you that the word "fascist," when thrown at Trump or Trumpism, is largely distortive. I have argued this on other threads. It's like when the right calls people like Biden, Obama, and Hillary "the Left."

But I also think that many--too many--Americans miss the authoritarian aspect of Trump's behavior. He is not simply "clownish."

He is autocratic and antidemocratic. Wherever convenient, and with help from others, he has trashed democratic norms of governance. Think here of his obstructing the Russia investigation, replacing Sessions with Barr, who then actively intervened on behalf of Trumps friends. Think of how he punished whistleblowers and pardoned convicted criminals who protected him. Think of his appt. of the postmaster general who promptly degraded the Post Office's ability to handle mail in volume in the face of mass mail-in balloting. He actively sought to "steal" the election from Biden by lying and using his office to coerce and pressure others. Neither the phone call to the leader of the Ukraine nor to the Secretary of State of Georgia were "clownish."  Nor was his tweet targeting of Pence during the Capitol riots.

This leads me to another point. Are the mass of Democratic and Republican voters really just mirror images of one another if, after Jan. 6, 83% of Republicans believe the election was stolen from Trump? If, after all he has done, they want him to run again?