It is a sad situation that, for the most part,
Americans are completely ignorant of two terms used pejoratively to
describe the opposing sides of the American political spectrum. It is
true that most Americans understand that Republicans are
wingnuts
and inherently terrified of, and violently resistant to change to
maintain the power structure favoring the privileged few, and that
Democrats are liberals and promote progress to advance the general
welfare of all Americans.
Political pundits often go a bit farther and use
“big confusing” words like “fascists” and “socialists” to describe each
political extreme, but very few Americans comprehend those words’
meanings. In their most basic sense, socialism is when government owns
and operates all businesses, financial institutions and property with no
input of private individuals, and fascism is when corporations own,
operate, and control all facets of a nation’s government without any
input from the people.
Wingnuts are infatuated with criticizing
everything unrelated to corporatism and extremism as “socialism” because
it resonates with their base’s inherent stupidity and horror due to
having no idea what socialism entails. If wingnuts understood what
socialism is, they would understand that the United States military is
the only socialistic entity in America. Conversely, the left often
criticizes wingnuts and the policies championed by Republicans as
being fascist. Unlike the ‘socialist’ label, fascist is an apt
description of Republican tactics and policies and an ideology that
their clueless base ardently supports and falls victim to.
Regardless of what any American thinks of Trump, he has performed a valuable service to America if for no other
reason than highlighting, in grand fashion, his own fascist inclination
that drives the Republican cabal’s policies, practices, and allegiance
to the rich and corporations. More than just his policies, Trump is
unafraid to publicly practice fascist tactics and is having a great
measure of success due to the past six years of Republicans’
conditioning their base.
It is no coincidence that the fascist zeal of
today’s Republican cabal and its racist, religious extremist base, is
precisely the same as the fervent fascism of the early and mid-20th
century; and Trump has exposed the Republican cabal as a fascist movement. In a
recent
article
worth reading, Jeffrey Tucker argued brilliantly that Trump is
as much a fascist as Mussolini and Hitler for inciting wingnuts
“with race baiting, traditionalism, and ‘ugly American’ strongman tough
talk; typically Republican.
It is true that Trump is not saying anything
Republicans and their base do not ardently believe and support; he is
just unafraid to say it loudly and it informs his growing popularity
among conservative. As Tucker explains, Trump’s success is founded on
saying exactly what wingnuts believe and desperately want a wingnut 'hero' to say. Tucker argues that “Trump has tapped into it,
absorbing unto his own political ambitions every conceivable wingnut resentment; race, class, sex, religion, and economics. And
he promises a new order of things under his mighty hand.” It is what
every Republican candidate for pretender promises, except Trump is
unafraid to say it in any venue.
Everything about Trump’s style, the blatant race
baiting, xenophobia, and confrontational nationalism is not unique to
Trump by any means; he is simply the most blatant and vocal about it.
Republicans, on the other hand, reserve their fascist tactics for
private fundraisers, town hall speeches, and special interests’
conference meetings. The only reason Trump is leading in some Republican cabal polls
is because he says what the base believes. For example, the wingnut base is furious that immigrants are in “their country,” are
violently angry that homosexuals are destroying 'christian’s tradition'
of marriage, and that America not at war is a sign of weakness. In fact,
in the same way that fascism reacted to modernity in the early 20th
century, wingnuts are reacting angrily to social progress of the
new century.
Today’s Republican cabal, like its base of support,
is twisted sick with dangerously unwavering and dogmatic traditionalism,
religious extremism, and blatant intolerance of anything they define as
“other.” In fact, except for the people twice electing an African
American man as President, Republicans and their wingnut base are
reacting violently to the “social progress” the nation has experienced
over the past twenty years. Like the early 20th Century fascists’
violently reacted to modernity and people’s flirtation with democratic
values, Republicans have tapped into the religious and wingnut
negative reaction to America’s 21st Century modernity, or as it is
called “social progress” and tolerance.
As any American who has been conscious over the past
six years can attest, Republicans preach, promote, and practice
intolerance, xenophobia, passion over reason, racial and religious
purity, and nationalism, and they openly crusade against democratic
values. An example is Republicans’ dangerous and successful denial of
climate change and science that originates with “the corrupt alliance of
anti-intellectual traditionalism, religious fundamentalism, and
corporate influence; the ultimate expression of fascism pushed and paid
for by the Koch brothers.
For a prescient comparison between today’s Republican cabal and
20th Century fascism, it is worth considering Benito Mussolini’s
ghostwriter and “philosopher of fascism,” Giovanni Gentile’s definition of fascism. Gentile writes that, “Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”
If that one statement does not accurately describe the Republican cabal, and all its iterations, then the Sun rises in the West. It is
nearing the point that although large corporations do not yet have
ultimate control and power over government, Republicans have brought
the nation precariously close to government by corporation and achieved
their fascist goals by closely following 20th Century fascist tactics of
spewing hateful and religious intolerant ideology based on “traditional values;” values they claim the left have destroyed.
Those traditional values of guns, dog, and racial
purity predominate the official Republican cabal platform that corporate interests
fund to 'elect' wingnuts to serve those corporate interests; not the
people. There is a reason the Republican establishment, or the Koch
brothers, have not yet brought their considerable power to bear on
Trump to end to his campaign; he is conditioning the base for a
“kinder gentler” Republican fascist to appeal to more mainstream voters.
It is why fascists like Walker, Paul, and Jeb are being
labeled “moderate” when they are just as vicious, just as fascist, and
just as much a Koch-Republican as Trump.
Trump is a predatory businessman who, like Koch Republicans, wants to
run America like his personal corporation. He, like Koch Republicans,
fully understands that the voters, including the Republican base, would
not be amenable to living under a government run by a corporation, so he
appeals to the base’s intolerance, xenophobia, passion over reason,
racial and religious purity, nationalism and the idea that America’s 236
year-old liberal democracy is why wingnuts are losing their
precious traditions. Most Americans likely have no real idea what
fascism is, but if they listen to Trump and peruse wingnuts’
agenda, they will realize that officially, Koch Republicans are
fascists.
!['Real Time' host Bill Maher delivers special commentary for 'Real Sports' on Feb. 26, 2015. [YouTube]](http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Real-Time-host-Bill-Maher-delivers-special-commentary-for-Real-Sports-on-Feb.-26-2015.-YouTube-410x220.jpg)
