Thursday
Jun142018
How to Tell the POTUS* Is a Fascist
Under the daily blitz of Donald Trump's remarks & actions, it is easy to let slip the overarching theme of his presidency. You may prefer a term other than fascist -- autocrat, tyrant, authoritarian, totalitarian -- but what I mean by "fascist" is a dictatorial leader who "exalts nation and often race above the individual and [who] stands for a centralized autocratic government, severe economic and social regimentation, and ... suppression of opposition." Flag Day seems an appropriate occasion to zero in on the thrust of the day's news. Limiting myself to the links I've posted as of 7 am ET, let's see what just today's news tells us of Donald Trump's adherence to fascist principles:
Makes "truth" and "facts" subjective by repeatedly making false, rosy claims. "... there is 'no longer' a nuclear threat from" North Korea.
Makes conflicting, situational statements, rendering meaningless every utterance: "[Kim's] country does love him"/"The horror of life in North Korea is so complete that citizens pay bribes to government officials to have themselves exported abroad as slaves."
Makes false, empty promises to boost his popularity. "I think we’re going to have some of the big drug companies in two weeks, and they’re going to announce – because of what we did – they’re going to announce voluntary massive drops in prices…. That’s going to be a fantastic thing."
Lies constantly. See Glenn Kessler's report.
Excuses massive human-rights abuses by other dictators. "So have a lot of other people done some really bad things."
Engages in human-rights abuses. See reports by Pete Williams & Jason Soboroff and Dana Milbank's column.
Makes on-the-spot military decisions that favor totalitarian enemies of the U.S. over our own country & our allies. Without gaining any concessions from North Korea, Trump said he was ending joint U.S.-South Korea military defense exercises, a long-held wish of North Korea, China & Russia.
Denigrates former U.S. leaders, falsely claiming they lacked his "superior" skills. "I don’t think they honestly could have done it," "it" being the Singapore summit.
Makes his own propaganda videos.
Installs propaganda murals featuring himself, trying to indoctrinate even children he has separated from their parents. See Jacob Soboroff's reporting.*
Disowns former allies & factotums when they are no longer useful to him. Michael Cohen. ...
... But retains demonstrably corrupt allies who remain helpful. Scott Pruitt. ...
... And hires unqualified people. See Axios story about Andrew Giuliani.
Demands absolute, lock-step loyalty of organizations & of administration employees, including career civil servants. Keeps an "enemies" list of those merely suspected of not supporting him personally. See digby's report on Mari Stull.
Demands absolute, lock-step loyalty from elected officials. See reports on Rep. Mark Sanford, who in fact supported most Trump-approved legislation.
Promotes racist policies. see, for instance, Pete Williams' report on the DOJ's continuing effort to end the DACA program.
Supports racist politicians. See reports on Virginia Senate candidate & long-time racist Corey Stewart, who Trump says "has 'a major chance of winning" the general election.
Repeatedly denigrates & undermines American democratic institutions like the free press, describing true news reports as "fake," and publicly labeling the press "enemies of the people." "Our Country's biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!"
Has underlings try to silence specific reporters. Trump's 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale said the press credentials of CNN's Jim Acosta should be "immediately' suspended" because Trump and he have determined that Acosta's questions to Trump during a press conference were not "polite" enough.
We should keep in mind that there is no factual counter-narrative: the news gives us no reason to hope that Trump is just an honest, if incompetent, fellow who is doing the best he can for the American people.
Of course today's news is but a tiny slice of the picture. Today, for instance, unlike many days, I have not linked stories about any of Trump's infamous efforts to subvert the rule of law vis-a-vis the Russia investigation. And there is nothing about his corrupt practices -- like the way he & his close family members are using their government positions to rake in millions. Yet even within the confines of today's news, like many a single day's news reports, one theme is apparent: the current President* of the United States is a fascist.
* It turns out the facility, Casa Padre in Brownsville, Texas, also features murals of other presidents, including Barack Obama, so this was not a fair criticism of Trump.
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Reader Comments (6)
Wow! A great detailed outline that really tells it like he is. My morning mad is boiling up!
Congratulations! you have displayed a comprehensive listing that reveals that yes, indeed, the president* of the U.S. is a fascist. If, however, your listing would have been put on, oh, let's say, the comment section of the NYT's––it would be flagged and never see the light of day. But boy, oh, boy, I'd like you to try.
By himself, the Pretender would be no more than a figure of fun, a self-important fool deserving of and inviting nothing but ridicule. He alone does not frighten me. What does shake me to my core are the millions of eager followers in and out of government that have emerged over the last decade or so and are now swearing public fealty to both the Pretender and his fascist policies and actions.
It is the normalization of sheer nastiness and belligerent inhumanity that seems to be sweeping the country that the Pretender both encourages and represents that has me very worried about our future.
Hitler didn't create and run Dachau all by himself. He had plenty of help. So does the Pretender: All the mindless Trumpbots, of course, whom I deplore, but at the top of my personal list of the irredeemably despicable is a compliant Republican Congress, goose-stepping in his wake, rushing to open the door and welcome in the truly bleak future the Pretender's presiduncy portends.
Publius (the James Madison version) in Federalist 47 puts it like this:
"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."
Madison, in 47, is advocating for a separation of powers. After making his core argument, he goes on to acknowledge that a complete and total separation is not pragmatically possible since there are often overlapping areas of control. Good enough. But I'd settle for ANY separation at this point.
As it stands now, there is just Trump. Trump and his running-dog, boot licking lackeys, that is. The Supreme Court is one less independent soul away from being a complete rubber stamp for fascism. The congress, as now composed under Confederate control, has meekly surrendered its constitutional role in an act of craven abdication in abject terror of the jackbooted hordes who voted for Trump. They should know. They're the ones who sold them those jackboots and told them to march, march, march.
As we speak, gerrymandered districts fairly reek of corruption. The recent spanking of anti-Trump candidates is an object lesson to others out in the field that Der Fuhrer and his minions will brook no opposition.
And all of this is being done with the willful connivance of a right-wing media that has also abdicated its role in a democratic society.
As Ken indicates, Hitler didn't get where he was all by himself and Trump is no Hitler. He's a cut-rate demagogue, but a dangerously narcissistic demagogue and racist who has been handed immense power. At this point I have little hope that whatever Mueller and his bloodhounds come back with will put a stop to any of this. Short of a picture of Trump in bed with peeing hookers and Putin standing over the whole sordid mess wielding a whip, I am more and more inclined to believe that whatever he finds will be met with a collective shrug from the brownshirt voters and Fox enablers.
If Democrats are not able to wrest control of at least one chamber from the fascists, it will be up to the Supremes and I have zero faith in that body as it is currently composed.
I did read that herr mikey pence's recent harangue on the wonders of the Trump Monster to southern Baptists didn't go over well. Maybe that's a dim light at the end of a looooong tunnel, but we can't wait for that group to act. Democrats MUST be ready for the midterms. If not, we must be ready for what follows.
I'm reminded of a quote from the "Manchurian Candidate" wherein Angela Lansbury tells us the kind of powers that may devolve to the Trump monster and his fascists.
Hannah Arendt's description of the damage caused by liars in the political realm is especially prescient, except in one area. Arendt suggests that the person most vulnerable to a barrage of lies is the president (of the United States). Because the president is reliant on so many opinions, he or she must naturally become a target for liars. But what if the president IS the liar?
Arendt's outcome is a society in which nothing, no serious action, is any longer possible. The lies make it impossible to distinguish truth from invention. And Trump lies at a rate that would make world historical deceivers seem like fonts of veritas.
It's really now all up to the voters. It's not like we're talking about a true majority supporting fascism. The jackboots are in the minority. But they vote.
The other day it was suggested that Trump may cancel the 2020 election. That may have seemed an outrageous opinion not long ago. Not anymore. This is about as serious as things get. And Republicans are happy to stand by and let it happen.
Tyranny is not on the way, it's here.
Agree. I am almost too sad to work for local candidates, but I will rally a bit later. We would like to kick Lloyd Smucker (the F***er) to the curb; he brags that he is so close to "the people" but he has not had a single town hall/open house since elected to be the new creepy Joe Pitts. But the trumpbots will, as directed, vote in lockstep, so it is doubtful that Jess can prevail. Disgusting times. And made more disgusting by this report coming out, with all focus on those two FBI emails that should have been private. Gaaacccchhhh. Going to the pool away from it all.
"First and foremost, Hitler saw the State as the ideal form of social organization; managed by people dedicated to making it finer and stronger. Wrong! He failed totally to get his premise right, i.e., that individual humans each own themselves, and should interact only when and how each wishes to do so – in what we call the “market.” This fundamental error he shares with all who favor the continuing existence of government. Thus, at root, every politician is a Nazi." From: http://strike-the-root.com/monster-in-making