Given the comparisons to Hitler and Mussolini, experts say it’s important to remember that fascism is a process

While Democratic strategists debate whether or not their attack ads labeling Donald Trump a fascist have been effective, experts and academics told the Guardian his campaign and the Republican party he now heads have clear autocratic sympathies and political qualities that are firmly in line with fascism movements historically.

Put together, that makes any Trump victory this week and his return to the White House for a second presidential term a clear threat to US democracy, they added.

“There couldn’t be a more obvious example of a fascist social and political movement about to take power,” said Jason Stanley, a Yale philosophy professor whose new book, Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future, looks at the global playbook of fascists through the lens of America and beyond.

  • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
    102·
    17 days ago

    I’m a life long New Yorker, and I’ve watched with horror as Donald went from being a local joke to a national menace.

    Beyond any political ideology, you have to realize that Trump is a thug and a bully.

    He’s hated in Atlantic City because he refused to pay so many small businesses. He’d come in like a white knight, sign a great contract, then let his lawyers screw over people who couldn’t afford to keep fighting a decades long trial.

    https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/columnists/mike-kelly/2020/01/24/donald-trump-still-owes-money-to-contractors-who-built-taj-mahal-atlantic-city/4547037002/

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
        15·
        17 days ago

        And this is not just a NYC thing, it was certainly well known in upstate NY and parts of New England. Given the stature of ridiculousness (gold plated toilets, bankrupting casinos, claiming to be good with deals while somehow getting away with outright fraud, one of the largest tax frauds ever) I always assumed this was nationally known, perhaps even globally.

        This is why I never took 2016 seriously. Now we have the proof, we have so many of his own words,attempted overthrowing an election, four years of such destructive attempts at running the country, how can anyone be blind?

        • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
          182·
          17 days ago

          how can anyone be blind?

          Conservatives aren’t blind. They’re fascist. They see these traits as positives, which is why they’ve chosen him as their most accurate representative for the last 10 years.

          • Bakkoda@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2·
            15 days ago

            Conservatism requires a winner and a loser. No one wins without someone else losing. You can’t get a right to something without someone losing a right to something. And for some reason a lot of poor people seem to think they are going to be on the receiving end of getting something from Trump. And those people, along with everyone else most likely, will get exactly fuck all. We’re gonna get stuck with the bill just like every one of those people he fucked over. And we won’t be able to afford it.

        • FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
          5·
          17 days ago

          Dutch guy here. I definitely knew he was a terrible clown when it came to business, well before he ever ran for office.

          I mean… he’s so bad at running a business, he had several casinos go bankrupt. And those are pretty much a license to print money if you run them halfway decent. He also failed at stuff like running his own airline and a host of other ventures. I also knew he was at one time involved with the WWE, I knew about The Apprentice, Home Alone…

          Basically, if you were alive in the 90’s, you had plenty of opportunity to know about this clown of a ‘businessman’. When he ran, I figured it was a joke - a publicity stunt. Imagine my surprise when Americans actually voted for him!