[ExI] Trump suggests letting Iran 'take out' Los Angeles and San Diego

[Ben Zaiboc]

I've been reading 'The Five Stages of Fascism' by Robert Paxton, and it seems to me that John Clarks' labelling of the Republican party as the 'Fascist party ' isn't quite accurate. Whie Trump is a republican, not all republicans are trumpicans. It's Trump and his fervent supporters that are the clear fascists, but you can't tar all republicans with the same brush. Some of them are beginning to push back against his more obviously insane and anti-democratic decisions.

Paxton identifies a number of 'mobilising passions' that are present in fascisms:

1. The primacy of the group, toward which one has duties superior to every right, whether universal or individual.

2. The belief that one's group is a victim, a sentiment which justifies any action against the group's enemies, internal as well as external.

3. Dread of the group's decadence under the corrosive effect of individualistic and cosmopolitan liberalism.

4. Closer integration of the community within a brotherhood (fascio) whose unity and purity are forged by common conviction, if possible, or by exclusionary violence if necessary.

5. An enhanced sense of identity and belonging, in which the grandeur of the group reinforces individual self-esteem.

6. Authority of natural leaders (always male) throughout society, culminating in a national chieftain who alone is capable of incarnating the group's destiny.

7. The beauty of violence and of will, when they are devoted to the group's success in a Darwinian struggle.

He says:
"Programs are so easily sacrificed to expediency in fascist practice that, at one point, I was tempted to reduce the role of ideology in fascism to a simple functionalism: fascists propose anything that serves to attract a crowd, solidify a mass following, or reassure their elite accomplices. That would be a gross oversimplification. Ideas count in fascism, but we must be precise about exactly when and how they count. They count more at some stages than at others. At the beginning, their promise of radical spiritual-cultural renewal and restored national community helps fascists recruit a broad and varied public, including some respectable intellectuals. Early fascist ideas helped amplify the disrepute of the liberal values to which the broad middle classes had largely adhered before World War I. But it is only by distancing themselves from those elements of the early radical programs that were threatening to conservatives that certain fascist movements have been able to gain and exercise power."

Every single one of these points are clearly apparent in Trump's reign to date. We can add, although it's hardly necessary, the blatant narcissism and megalomania, the deliberate distortion of factual events and the clear disdain for the rule of law.

Nothing to do with fascism directly, but the fact that he is now directly contributing to the murder of Ukrainians, in pursuit of a very slim chance of boosting his popularity in the upcoming November elections, illustrates what a despicable individual he is. Hopefully, this will turn more of his supporters against him, but I won't hold my breath.

--
Ben
"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything." - Pablo Casals, via Albert Einstein
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