The GOP and the Markers of Fascism

[Toro]

No, the GOP is not a fascist party. But it is demonstrating nascent fascist markers.

Robert O. Paxton, in his 2004 book The Anatomy of Fascism, provides these hallmarks: “obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity”; involving “a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites”; which “abandons democratic liberties”; and “pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing. . . .”​

​

These phrases more readily evoke brownshirts on Kristallnacht than fervent Republicans; writing in Vox, Dylan Matthews draws some useful distinctions.​

​

But consider the predicates of nascent fascism.​

​

Trump relentlessly exploited a sense of decline, humiliation, and victimization among marginalized whites, even as he evoked America’s loss of strength and purity. His supporters’ “redemptive violence” at our capital was preceded in Michigan, as one example, by armed incursion the state legislature and an abortive effort to kidnap and execute the governor. While claiming to protect democracy, the GOP persistently undermines the right of disfavored groups to vote.​

​

Though nothing in America equals the predictive virulence of German anti-Semitism, anger at the racial, societal, and religious other animates a goodly portion of the Republican base. Its loathing of supposedly degenerate liberalism provides another link—as does the desire for authoritarian leadership to restore their chosen hierarchy.​

​

Perhaps most salient is the attack on reality itself. “Post-truth,” writes Timothy Snyder, “is pre-fascism.” Hitler castigated the media as “enemies of the people”; so does Trump and, often, his party. Like the avatars of fascism, Republicans increasingly trumpet mendacious propaganda—including about voter fraud.​

​

Classical fascism conditions its followers to accept “the big lie” which unifies their discontents and justifies their leaders’ actions. So, in 2020, did the GOP.​

​

Granted that the big Republican lie did not equal Hitler’s poisonous assertion that perfidious Jews stabbed Germany in the back. But the GOP’s lie to its base was, nonetheless, breathtakingly ambitious: that an unfathomable conspiracy involving thousands of state and local officials and judges, many Republicans, had stolen the presidency from Donald Trump—from them.​

​

To believe this, one must not only distrust an electoral system dispersed across 50 states and countless localities—and everyone in it—but reject an overwhelming amount of easily available evidence and the dictates of common sense. Yet most Republicans did just that. In their collective mind, the GOP was cheated by perfidious forces, and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. The dangerous myth of political dispossession is now embedded in the Republican narrative. ...​

The GOP’s ‘Pre-Fascist’ DNA

The term “fascist” is too often thrown around carelessly—but it can be helpful in explaining the direction of the Republican party.

thebulwark.com

 

[Uncensored2008]

ROFL

The democrats are a full blown Nazi Reich, and you post this moronic shit?

 

[jbrownson0831]

No, the GOP is not a fascist party. But it is demonstrating nascent fascist markers.

Robert O. Paxton, in his 2004 book The Anatomy of Fascism, provides these hallmarks: “obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity”; involving “a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites”; which “abandons democratic liberties”; and “pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing. . . .”​

​

These phrases more readily evoke brownshirts on Kristallnacht than fervent Republicans; writing in Vox, Dylan Matthews draws some useful distinctions.​

​

But consider the predicates of nascent fascism.​

​

Trump relentlessly exploited a sense of decline, humiliation, and victimization among marginalized whites, even as he evoked America’s loss of strength and purity. His supporters’ “redemptive violence” at our capital was preceded in Michigan, as one example, by armed incursion the state legislature and an abortive effort to kidnap and execute the governor. While claiming to protect democracy, the GOP persistently undermines the right of disfavored groups to vote.​

​

Though nothing in America equals the predictive virulence of German anti-Semitism, anger at the racial, societal, and religious other animates a goodly portion of the Republican base. Its loathing of supposedly degenerate liberalism provides another link—as does the desire for authoritarian leadership to restore their chosen hierarchy.​

​

Perhaps most salient is the attack on reality itself. “Post-truth,” writes Timothy Snyder, “is pre-fascism.” Hitler castigated the media as “enemies of the people”; so does Trump and, often, his party. Like the avatars of fascism, Republicans increasingly trumpet mendacious propaganda—including about voter fraud.​

​

Classical fascism conditions its followers to accept “the big lie” which unifies their discontents and justifies their leaders’ actions. So, in 2020, did the GOP.​

​

Granted that the big Republican lie did not equal Hitler’s poisonous assertion that perfidious Jews stabbed Germany in the back. But the GOP’s lie to its base was, nonetheless, breathtakingly ambitious: that an unfathomable conspiracy involving thousands of state and local officials and judges, many Republicans, had stolen the presidency from Donald Trump—from them.​

​

To believe this, one must not only distrust an electoral system dispersed across 50 states and countless localities—and everyone in it—but reject an overwhelming amount of easily available evidence and the dictates of common sense. Yet most Republicans did just that. In their collective mind, the GOP was cheated by perfidious forces, and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. The dangerous myth of political dispossession is now embedded in the Republican narrative. ...​

The GOP’s ‘Pre-Fascist’ DNA

The term “fascist” is too often thrown around carelessly—but it can be helpful in explaining the direction of the Republican party.

thebulwark.com

Fascists are leftists there Heinreich.

 

[jillian]

No, the GOP is not a fascist party. But it is demonstrating nascent fascist markers.

Robert O. Paxton, in his 2004 book The Anatomy of Fascism, provides these hallmarks: “obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity”; involving “a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites”; which “abandons democratic liberties”; and “pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing. . . .”​

​

These phrases more readily evoke brownshirts on Kristallnacht than fervent Republicans; writing in Vox, Dylan Matthews draws some useful distinctions.​

​

But consider the predicates of nascent fascism.​

​

Trump relentlessly exploited a sense of decline, humiliation, and victimization among marginalized whites, even as he evoked America’s loss of strength and purity. His supporters’ “redemptive violence” at our capital was preceded in Michigan, as one example, by armed incursion the state legislature and an abortive effort to kidnap and execute the governor. While claiming to protect democracy, the GOP persistently undermines the right of disfavored groups to vote.​

​

Though nothing in America equals the predictive virulence of German anti-Semitism, anger at the racial, societal, and religious other animates a goodly portion of the Republican base. Its loathing of supposedly degenerate liberalism provides another link—as does the desire for authoritarian leadership to restore their chosen hierarchy.​

​

Perhaps most salient is the attack on reality itself. “Post-truth,” writes Timothy Snyder, “is pre-fascism.” Hitler castigated the media as “enemies of the people”; so does Trump and, often, his party. Like the avatars of fascism, Republicans increasingly trumpet mendacious propaganda—including about voter fraud.​

​

Classical fascism conditions its followers to accept “the big lie” which unifies their discontents and justifies their leaders’ actions. So, in 2020, did the GOP.​

​

Granted that the big Republican lie did not equal Hitler’s poisonous assertion that perfidious Jews stabbed Germany in the back. But the GOP’s lie to its base was, nonetheless, breathtakingly ambitious: that an unfathomable conspiracy involving thousands of state and local officials and judges, many Republicans, had stolen the presidency from Donald Trump—from them.​

​

To believe this, one must not only distrust an electoral system dispersed across 50 states and countless localities—and everyone in it—but reject an overwhelming amount of easily available evidence and the dictates of common sense. Yet most Republicans did just that. In their collective mind, the GOP was cheated by perfidious forces, and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. The dangerous myth of political dispossession is now embedded in the Republican narrative. ...​

The GOP’s ‘Pre-Fascist’ DNA

The term “fascist” is too often thrown around carelessly—but it can be helpful in explaining the direction of the Republican party.

thebulwark.com

They aren’t fascists?nah. They’re just ok with them

 

[jillian]

No, the GOP is not a fascist party. But it is demonstrating nascent fascist markers.

Robert O. Paxton, in his 2004 book The Anatomy of Fascism, provides these hallmarks: “obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity”; involving “a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites”; which “abandons democratic liberties”; and “pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing. . . .”​

​

These phrases more readily evoke brownshirts on Kristallnacht than fervent Republicans; writing in Vox, Dylan Matthews draws some useful distinctions.​

​

But consider the predicates of nascent fascism.​

​

Trump relentlessly exploited a sense of decline, humiliation, and victimization among marginalized whites, even as he evoked America’s loss of strength and purity. His supporters’ “redemptive violence” at our capital was preceded in Michigan, as one example, by armed incursion the state legislature and an abortive effort to kidnap and execute the governor. While claiming to protect democracy, the GOP persistently undermines the right of disfavored groups to vote.​

​

Though nothing in America equals the predictive virulence of German anti-Semitism, anger at the racial, societal, and religious other animates a goodly portion of the Republican base. Its loathing of supposedly degenerate liberalism provides another link—as does the desire for authoritarian leadership to restore their chosen hierarchy.​

​

Perhaps most salient is the attack on reality itself. “Post-truth,” writes Timothy Snyder, “is pre-fascism.” Hitler castigated the media as “enemies of the people”; so does Trump and, often, his party. Like the avatars of fascism, Republicans increasingly trumpet mendacious propaganda—including about voter fraud.​

​

Classical fascism conditions its followers to accept “the big lie” which unifies their discontents and justifies their leaders’ actions. So, in 2020, did the GOP.​

​

Granted that the big Republican lie did not equal Hitler’s poisonous assertion that perfidious Jews stabbed Germany in the back. But the GOP’s lie to its base was, nonetheless, breathtakingly ambitious: that an unfathomable conspiracy involving thousands of state and local officials and judges, many Republicans, had stolen the presidency from Donald Trump—from them.​

​

To believe this, one must not only distrust an electoral system dispersed across 50 states and countless localities—and everyone in it—but reject an overwhelming amount of easily available evidence and the dictates of common sense. Yet most Republicans did just that. In their collective mind, the GOP was cheated by perfidious forces, and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. The dangerous myth of political dispossession is now embedded in the Republican narrative. ...​

The GOP’s ‘Pre-Fascist’ DNA

The term “fascist” is too often thrown around carelessly—but it can be helpful in explaining the direction of the Republican party.

thebulwark.com

Fascists are leftists there Heinreich.

No student of history believes that Bs. But nice try maga

 

[jbrownson0831]

No, the GOP is not a fascist party. But it is demonstrating nascent fascist markers.

Robert O. Paxton, in his 2004 book The Anatomy of Fascism, provides these hallmarks: “obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity”; involving “a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites”; which “abandons democratic liberties”; and “pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing. . . .”​

​

These phrases more readily evoke brownshirts on Kristallnacht than fervent Republicans; writing in Vox, Dylan Matthews draws some useful distinctions.​

​

But consider the predicates of nascent fascism.​

​

Trump relentlessly exploited a sense of decline, humiliation, and victimization among marginalized whites, even as he evoked America’s loss of strength and purity. His supporters’ “redemptive violence” at our capital was preceded in Michigan, as one example, by armed incursion the state legislature and an abortive effort to kidnap and execute the governor. While claiming to protect democracy, the GOP persistently undermines the right of disfavored groups to vote.​

​

Though nothing in America equals the predictive virulence of German anti-Semitism, anger at the racial, societal, and religious other animates a goodly portion of the Republican base. Its loathing of supposedly degenerate liberalism provides another link—as does the desire for authoritarian leadership to restore their chosen hierarchy.​

​

Perhaps most salient is the attack on reality itself. “Post-truth,” writes Timothy Snyder, “is pre-fascism.” Hitler castigated the media as “enemies of the people”; so does Trump and, often, his party. Like the avatars of fascism, Republicans increasingly trumpet mendacious propaganda—including about voter fraud.​

​

Classical fascism conditions its followers to accept “the big lie” which unifies their discontents and justifies their leaders’ actions. So, in 2020, did the GOP.​

​

Granted that the big Republican lie did not equal Hitler’s poisonous assertion that perfidious Jews stabbed Germany in the back. But the GOP’s lie to its base was, nonetheless, breathtakingly ambitious: that an unfathomable conspiracy involving thousands of state and local officials and judges, many Republicans, had stolen the presidency from Donald Trump—from them.​

​

To believe this, one must not only distrust an electoral system dispersed across 50 states and countless localities—and everyone in it—but reject an overwhelming amount of easily available evidence and the dictates of common sense. Yet most Republicans did just that. In their collective mind, the GOP was cheated by perfidious forces, and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. The dangerous myth of political dispossession is now embedded in the Republican narrative. ...​

The GOP’s ‘Pre-Fascist’ DNA

The term “fascist” is too often thrown around carelessly—but it can be helpful in explaining the direction of the Republican party.

thebulwark.com

They aren’t fascists?nah. They’re just ok with them

We hate you Gestapo goons there goosestepper.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

Dorsey of Twitwaffle is a republican? Ya don't say

 

[jbrownson0831]

No, the GOP is not a fascist party. But it is demonstrating nascent fascist markers.

Robert O. Paxton, in his 2004 book The Anatomy of Fascism, provides these hallmarks: “obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity”; involving “a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites”; which “abandons democratic liberties”; and “pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing. . . .”​

​

These phrases more readily evoke brownshirts on Kristallnacht than fervent Republicans; writing in Vox, Dylan Matthews draws some useful distinctions.​

​

But consider the predicates of nascent fascism.​

​

Trump relentlessly exploited a sense of decline, humiliation, and victimization among marginalized whites, even as he evoked America’s loss of strength and purity. His supporters’ “redemptive violence” at our capital was preceded in Michigan, as one example, by armed incursion the state legislature and an abortive effort to kidnap and execute the governor. While claiming to protect democracy, the GOP persistently undermines the right of disfavored groups to vote.​

​

Though nothing in America equals the predictive virulence of German anti-Semitism, anger at the racial, societal, and religious other animates a goodly portion of the Republican base. Its loathing of supposedly degenerate liberalism provides another link—as does the desire for authoritarian leadership to restore their chosen hierarchy.​

​

Perhaps most salient is the attack on reality itself. “Post-truth,” writes Timothy Snyder, “is pre-fascism.” Hitler castigated the media as “enemies of the people”; so does Trump and, often, his party. Like the avatars of fascism, Republicans increasingly trumpet mendacious propaganda—including about voter fraud.​

​

Classical fascism conditions its followers to accept “the big lie” which unifies their discontents and justifies their leaders’ actions. So, in 2020, did the GOP.​

​

Granted that the big Republican lie did not equal Hitler’s poisonous assertion that perfidious Jews stabbed Germany in the back. But the GOP’s lie to its base was, nonetheless, breathtakingly ambitious: that an unfathomable conspiracy involving thousands of state and local officials and judges, many Republicans, had stolen the presidency from Donald Trump—from them.​

​

To believe this, one must not only distrust an electoral system dispersed across 50 states and countless localities—and everyone in it—but reject an overwhelming amount of easily available evidence and the dictates of common sense. Yet most Republicans did just that. In their collective mind, the GOP was cheated by perfidious forces, and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. The dangerous myth of political dispossession is now embedded in the Republican narrative. ...​

The GOP’s ‘Pre-Fascist’ DNA

The term “fascist” is too often thrown around carelessly—but it can be helpful in explaining the direction of the Republican party.

thebulwark.com

Fascists are leftists there Heinreich.

No student of history believes that Bs. But by CVS try maga

Which history? Actual, or the one you have allowed to remain after all your fascist actions??

 

[Uncensored2008]

They aren’t fascists?nah. They’re just ok with them

We're not okay with you, Nazi Jill.

We're not at all okay with you.

One word demonstrates who the fascists are;

Parler.

 

[Vel]

The DNC leadership has gone full authoritarian and their followers have become "good Germans".

 

[AMart]

"The Bulwark" is the losers from the Weekly Standard that went out of business.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

ROFL

The democrats are a full blown Nazi Reich, and you post this moronic shit?

He paid the real Toro good money for that account

 

[Vel]

ROFL

The democrats are a full blown Nazi Reich, and you post this moronic shit?

He paid the real Toro good money for that account

Seriously? What happened to that dude? Wasn't there a time when he wasn't a bitter, batshit crazy democrat?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

ROFL

The democrats are a full blown Nazi Reich, and you post this moronic shit?

He paid the real Toro good money for that account

Seriously? What happened to that dude? Wasn't there a time when he wasn't a bitter, batshit crazy democrat?

He sold the account to a Progressive, I think Daryl Hunt who simply abuses the fuck out of the account.

It's a shame. The real Toro had some good points. This sock - oy vey!

 

[Pogo]

No, the GOP is not a fascist party. But it is demonstrating nascent fascist markers.

Robert O. Paxton, in his 2004 book The Anatomy of Fascism, provides these hallmarks: “obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity”; involving “a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites”; which “abandons democratic liberties”; and “pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing. . . .”​

​

These phrases more readily evoke brownshirts on Kristallnacht than fervent Republicans; writing in Vox, Dylan Matthews draws some useful distinctions.​

​

But consider the predicates of nascent fascism.​

​

Trump relentlessly exploited a sense of decline, humiliation, and victimization among marginalized whites, even as he evoked America’s loss of strength and purity. His supporters’ “redemptive violence” at our capital was preceded in Michigan, as one example, by armed incursion the state legislature and an abortive effort to kidnap and execute the governor. While claiming to protect democracy, the GOP persistently undermines the right of disfavored groups to vote.​

​

Though nothing in America equals the predictive virulence of German anti-Semitism, anger at the racial, societal, and religious other animates a goodly portion of the Republican base. Its loathing of supposedly degenerate liberalism provides another link—as does the desire for authoritarian leadership to restore their chosen hierarchy.​

​

Perhaps most salient is the attack on reality itself. “Post-truth,” writes Timothy Snyder, “is pre-fascism.” Hitler castigated the media as “enemies of the people”; so does Trump and, often, his party. Like the avatars of fascism, Republicans increasingly trumpet mendacious propaganda—including about voter fraud.​

​

Classical fascism conditions its followers to accept “the big lie” which unifies their discontents and justifies their leaders’ actions. So, in 2020, did the GOP.​

​

Granted that the big Republican lie did not equal Hitler’s poisonous assertion that perfidious Jews stabbed Germany in the back. But the GOP’s lie to its base was, nonetheless, breathtakingly ambitious: that an unfathomable conspiracy involving thousands of state and local officials and judges, many Republicans, had stolen the presidency from Donald Trump—from them.​

​

To believe this, one must not only distrust an electoral system dispersed across 50 states and countless localities—and everyone in it—but reject an overwhelming amount of easily available evidence and the dictates of common sense. Yet most Republicans did just that. In their collective mind, the GOP was cheated by perfidious forces, and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. The dangerous myth of political dispossession is now embedded in the Republican narrative. ...​

The GOP’s ‘Pre-Fascist’ DNA

The term “fascist” is too often thrown around carelessly—but it can be helpful in explaining the direction of the Republican party.

thebulwark.com

Burningly salient points particularly about outright denial of Reality, from which all else flows.

I submit however that these analyses refer to Trumpism rather than the Republican Party. Maybe I'm optimistic but I still distinguish markedly between the two. A political party and a personality cult are two different things, even if they overlap to some degree. Now if the entire party had taken on these self-delusional stances the term could apply but I don't see that that's the case.

Outright denial of Reality (I've taken to capitalizing it to denote how vitally important it is though it shouldn't be necessary) is where it ALL starts. "Alternate facts". The little mythologies of "how many people were at my inauguration where it wasn't raining" and "thousands of people on rooftops" are the appetizers to see how far the mythologist can take the crazy train.

To this day I ask Rumpbots the question "Where is the Bronx" because they can't answer it. To anyone in the real world the answer is readily obvious but if they say it's a very wonderful place in Germany they're self-identifying with the same self-delusion, and if they say "New York" they're calling their cult leader a liar (which he obviously is).

So I see this as corruptive mass psychology rather than a political movement. Although the term "movement" certainly fits for another reason....

 

[MarcATL]

OP, if a party has fascist tendencies and supports fascist policies and likes politicians w/fascist leanings, doesn't that mean they're fascist?

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

No, the GOP is not a fascist party. But it is demonstrating nascent fascist markers.

Robert O. Paxton, in his 2004 book The Anatomy of Fascism, provides these hallmarks: “obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity”; involving “a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites”; which “abandons democratic liberties”; and “pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing. . . .”​

​

These phrases more readily evoke brownshirts on Kristallnacht than fervent Republicans; writing in Vox, Dylan Matthews draws some useful distinctions.​

​

But consider the predicates of nascent fascism.​

​

Trump relentlessly exploited a sense of decline, humiliation, and victimization among marginalized whites, even as he evoked America’s loss of strength and purity. His supporters’ “redemptive violence” at our capital was preceded in Michigan, as one example, by armed incursion the state legislature and an abortive effort to kidnap and execute the governor. While claiming to protect democracy, the GOP persistently undermines the right of disfavored groups to vote.​

​

Though nothing in America equals the predictive virulence of German anti-Semitism, anger at the racial, societal, and religious other animates a goodly portion of the Republican base. Its loathing of supposedly degenerate liberalism provides another link—as does the desire for authoritarian leadership to restore their chosen hierarchy.​

​

Perhaps most salient is the attack on reality itself. “Post-truth,” writes Timothy Snyder, “is pre-fascism.” Hitler castigated the media as “enemies of the people”; so does Trump and, often, his party. Like the avatars of fascism, Republicans increasingly trumpet mendacious propaganda—including about voter fraud.​

​

Classical fascism conditions its followers to accept “the big lie” which unifies their discontents and justifies their leaders’ actions. So, in 2020, did the GOP.​

​

Granted that the big Republican lie did not equal Hitler’s poisonous assertion that perfidious Jews stabbed Germany in the back. But the GOP’s lie to its base was, nonetheless, breathtakingly ambitious: that an unfathomable conspiracy involving thousands of state and local officials and judges, many Republicans, had stolen the presidency from Donald Trump—from them.​

​

To believe this, one must not only distrust an electoral system dispersed across 50 states and countless localities—and everyone in it—but reject an overwhelming amount of easily available evidence and the dictates of common sense. Yet most Republicans did just that. In their collective mind, the GOP was cheated by perfidious forces, and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. The dangerous myth of political dispossession is now embedded in the Republican narrative. ...​

The GOP’s ‘Pre-Fascist’ DNA

The term “fascist” is too often thrown around carelessly—but it can be helpful in explaining the direction of the Republican party.

thebulwark.com

Spot on.

 

[impuretrash]

No, the GOP is not a fascist party. But it is demonstrating nascent fascist markers.

Robert O. Paxton, in his 2004 book The Anatomy of Fascism, provides these hallmarks: “obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity”; involving “a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites”; which “abandons democratic liberties”; and “pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing. . . .”​

​

These phrases more readily evoke brownshirts on Kristallnacht than fervent Republicans; writing in Vox, Dylan Matthews draws some useful distinctions.​

​

But consider the predicates of nascent fascism.​

​

Trump relentlessly exploited a sense of decline, humiliation, and victimization among marginalized whites, even as he evoked America’s loss of strength and purity. His supporters’ “redemptive violence” at our capital was preceded in Michigan, as one example, by armed incursion the state legislature and an abortive effort to kidnap and execute the governor. While claiming to protect democracy, the GOP persistently undermines the right of disfavored groups to vote.​

​

Though nothing in America equals the predictive virulence of German anti-Semitism, anger at the racial, societal, and religious other animates a goodly portion of the Republican base. Its loathing of supposedly degenerate liberalism provides another link—as does the desire for authoritarian leadership to restore their chosen hierarchy.​

​

Perhaps most salient is the attack on reality itself. “Post-truth,” writes Timothy Snyder, “is pre-fascism.” Hitler castigated the media as “enemies of the people”; so does Trump and, often, his party. Like the avatars of fascism, Republicans increasingly trumpet mendacious propaganda—including about voter fraud.​

​

Classical fascism conditions its followers to accept “the big lie” which unifies their discontents and justifies their leaders’ actions. So, in 2020, did the GOP.​

​

Granted that the big Republican lie did not equal Hitler’s poisonous assertion that perfidious Jews stabbed Germany in the back. But the GOP’s lie to its base was, nonetheless, breathtakingly ambitious: that an unfathomable conspiracy involving thousands of state and local officials and judges, many Republicans, had stolen the presidency from Donald Trump—from them.​

​

To believe this, one must not only distrust an electoral system dispersed across 50 states and countless localities—and everyone in it—but reject an overwhelming amount of easily available evidence and the dictates of common sense. Yet most Republicans did just that. In their collective mind, the GOP was cheated by perfidious forces, and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. The dangerous myth of political dispossession is now embedded in the Republican narrative. ...​

The GOP’s ‘Pre-Fascist’ DNA

The term “fascist” is too often thrown around carelessly—but it can be helpful in explaining the direction of the Republican party.

thebulwark.com

They aren’t fascists?nah. They’re just ok with them

"Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." —Giovanni Gentile* “Encyclopedia Italiana”

Name me one big corporation that hasn't sided with BLM and other social justice movements. Big tech censors all the opinions you don't like and banking cuts off people's access for having right of center views. Who's the fascist?

 

[Pogo]

No, the GOP is not a fascist party. But it is demonstrating nascent fascist markers.

Robert O. Paxton, in his 2004 book The Anatomy of Fascism, provides these hallmarks: “obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity”; involving “a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites”; which “abandons democratic liberties”; and “pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing. . . .”​

​

These phrases more readily evoke brownshirts on Kristallnacht than fervent Republicans; writing in Vox, Dylan Matthews draws some useful distinctions.​

​

But consider the predicates of nascent fascism.​

​

Trump relentlessly exploited a sense of decline, humiliation, and victimization among marginalized whites, even as he evoked America’s loss of strength and purity. His supporters’ “redemptive violence” at our capital was preceded in Michigan, as one example, by armed incursion the state legislature and an abortive effort to kidnap and execute the governor. While claiming to protect democracy, the GOP persistently undermines the right of disfavored groups to vote.​

​

Though nothing in America equals the predictive virulence of German anti-Semitism, anger at the racial, societal, and religious other animates a goodly portion of the Republican base. Its loathing of supposedly degenerate liberalism provides another link—as does the desire for authoritarian leadership to restore their chosen hierarchy.​

​

Perhaps most salient is the attack on reality itself. “Post-truth,” writes Timothy Snyder, “is pre-fascism.” Hitler castigated the media as “enemies of the people”; so does Trump and, often, his party. Like the avatars of fascism, Republicans increasingly trumpet mendacious propaganda—including about voter fraud.​

​

Classical fascism conditions its followers to accept “the big lie” which unifies their discontents and justifies their leaders’ actions. So, in 2020, did the GOP.​

​

Granted that the big Republican lie did not equal Hitler’s poisonous assertion that perfidious Jews stabbed Germany in the back. But the GOP’s lie to its base was, nonetheless, breathtakingly ambitious: that an unfathomable conspiracy involving thousands of state and local officials and judges, many Republicans, had stolen the presidency from Donald Trump—from them.​

​

To believe this, one must not only distrust an electoral system dispersed across 50 states and countless localities—and everyone in it—but reject an overwhelming amount of easily available evidence and the dictates of common sense. Yet most Republicans did just that. In their collective mind, the GOP was cheated by perfidious forces, and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. The dangerous myth of political dispossession is now embedded in the Republican narrative. ...​

The GOP’s ‘Pre-Fascist’ DNA

The term “fascist” is too often thrown around carelessly—but it can be helpful in explaining the direction of the Republican party.

thebulwark.com

Fascists are leftists there Heinreich.

Fascism has never been on the left there, Diply. Not that it's relevant here; there is no "right and left" in Personality Cult.

 

[LordBrownTrout]

ROFL

The democrats are a full blown Nazi Reich, and you post this moronic shit?

The left is in full blown totalitarian mode and tyrannical. Its comical how they always project their own nefarious corrupt activities.