The GOP and the Markers of Fascism

[Oddball]

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 Bulwark

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

thebulwark.com

The real Toro is at least 50 IQ points smarter than this knuckle dragging shit.

When are you going to give up your hapless autistic imposter routine and give the real Toro his account back?

 

[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 Bulwark

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....

You’re being optimistic.

Consider the GOP prior to Trump; the disturbing fact is that Trump is merely a symptom of the neo-fascist disease that currently infests the Party.

The fear, the ignorance, the hate, the bigotry, the racism, the aggressive nativism, the authoritarianism, the contempt for democracy, and the penchant for minority rule all predate Trump.

The lies seeking to vilify and demonize the political opposition – referring to Democrats as ‘socialists,’ ‘communists,’ and even ‘Bolsheviks’ likewise predate Trump.

Indeed, in the coming months and years we’ll witness a post-Trump GOP fundamentally no different than when Trump was president. or the GOP prior to Trump, for that matter.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

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

Both parties are

Wrong.

The fails as a false comparison fallacy and is both ignorant and wrong.

Fascism manifests solely on the right side of the political spectrum – Democrats cannot demonstrate ‘nascent fascism.’

The two Parties couldn’t be more dissimilar.

 

[Oddball]

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

Both parties are

Wrong.

The fails as a false comparison fallacy and is both ignorant and wrong.

Fascism manifests solely on the right side of the political spectrum – Democrats cannot demonstrate ‘nascent fascism.’

The two Parties couldn’t be more dissimilar.

Spoken like a true fascist.

 

[Oddball]

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 Bulwark

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

You'll look positively smashing in your black Kapo coat.

 

[blackhawk]

You do of course realize everyone of those so called markers could just as easily be applied to the Democrats as well this is of course rhetorical as the partisans never see the ugly side of their party.

 

[Uncensored2008]

You were saying:

Were the Nazis Socialists?

What’s the difference between National Socialists and every other kind of socialist?

www.britannica.com

Yes, I was.

You are a simpleton, a slack jawed retard vomiting out anything the Reich press programs into you.

Given your 40 IQ points, you think that since the Reich wasn't Bolshevik it was somehow capitalist. You think this because you are poorly educated and really quite stupid.


{ The Nazis didn’t call their ideology “national socialism” because they thought it sounded good. They were fervently opposed to capitalism. The Nazi Party’s chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, even once remarked that he’d sooner live under Bolshevism than capitalism. The Nazis instituted major public works projects such as the Autobahn, promised full employment, and dramatically increased government spending. }

{
The Nazi government did not own the means of production in Germany, but they certainly controlled them. They set up control boards, cartels, and state-sponsored monopolies and konzerns, which they then carefully planned and regulated.Democratic socialists don’t believe in total government ownership of the means of production, nor do they wish to technocratically manage the economy.

Industrial leaders hardly objected. In surrendering control of their enterprises to the state, they insulated themselves from market forces, ensuring they’d remain at the top of their respective industries. }

Were the Nazis Really Socialists? It’s Complicated - Foundation for Economic Education (fee.org)

FACT is something you Nazis never deal in - never.

 

[Dr Grump]

You were saying:

Were the Nazis Socialists?

What’s the difference between National Socialists and every other kind of socialist?

www.britannica.com

Yes, I was.

You are a simpleton, a slack jawed retard vomiting out anything the Reich press programs into you.

Given your 40 IQ points, you think that since the Reich wasn't Bolshevik it was somehow capitalist. You think this because you are poorly educated and really quite stupid.


{ The Nazis didn’t call their ideology “national socialism” because they thought it sounded good. They were fervently opposed to capitalism. The Nazi Party’s chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, even once remarked that he’d sooner live under Bolshevism than capitalism. The Nazis instituted major public works projects such as the Autobahn, promised full employment, and dramatically increased government spending. }

{
The Nazi government did not own the means of production in Germany, but they certainly controlled them. They set up control boards, cartels, and state-sponsored monopolies and konzerns, which they then carefully planned and regulated.Democratic socialists don’t believe in total government ownership of the means of production, nor do they wish to technocratically manage the economy.

Industrial leaders hardly objected. In surrendering control of their enterprises to the state, they insulated themselves from market forces, ensuring they’d remain at the top of their respective industries. }

Were the Nazis Really Socialists? It’s Complicated - Foundation for Economic Education (fee.org)

FACT is something you Nazis never deal in - never.

You. Don't. Have. A. Clue. Seriously.

 

[themirrorthief]

Yeah, Nazis were socialist like the Democratic Republic of North Korea and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) were democratic.

The fact that Hitler's Reich had a centrally managed economy where the state controlled the means of production, determining what would be produced by whom and in what quantity, and and what price point it would be sold does point to socialism.

A centrally planned and managed economy is not the definition of "market capitalism," sploogy.

Hitler only managed portions of the economy. The portion which built military equipment and weaponry. The industrialists were more than willing accomplices to Hitler, because he destroyed the union movement and sent its leaders to the death camps. Alfried Krupp, who headed his family's munitions company was tried as a war criminal in 1945. His father Gustav was also to be indicted but was too ill to stand trial. During the war, the Krupp family used 100,000 slave labourers from the camps, and built a factory near Auschwitz. Friedrich Flick, another German industrialist was also tried and found guilty.

Does getting rid of the unions, murdering their leaders, helping industrialists get rich, and using slave labour sound very "socialist" to you?

stalin was a socialist and one of the most evil men who ever lived

 

[Dr Grump]

Yeah, Nazis were socialist like the Democratic Republic of North Korea and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) were democratic.

The fact that Hitler's Reich had a centrally managed economy where the state controlled the means of production, determining what would be produced by whom and in what quantity, and and what price point it would be sold does point to socialism.

A centrally planned and managed economy is not the definition of "market capitalism," sploogy.

Hitler only managed portions of the economy. The portion which built military equipment and weaponry. The industrialists were more than willing accomplices to Hitler, because he destroyed the union movement and sent its leaders to the death camps. Alfried Krupp, who headed his family's munitions company was tried as a war criminal in 1945. His father Gustav was also to be indicted but was too ill to stand trial. During the war, the Krupp family used 100,000 slave labourers from the camps, and built a factory near Auschwitz. Friedrich Flick, another German industrialist was also tried and found guilty.

Does getting rid of the unions, murdering their leaders, helping industrialists get rich, and using slave labour sound very "socialist" to you?

stalin was a socialist and one of the most evil men who ever lived

No he wasn't. He was a totalitarian thug.