The democrats cried “fascist” like the boy who cried “wolf” and it sucked all the power out of the word. I thought it was stupid at the time, and I still do.

Now is a good time to revisit the definition.

A quick reminder — fascist is just a 20th century term for an ancient greek tyrant or a feudal lord. It’s almost any dark ages European king with a little less religion and a lot more racism/nationalism thrown in.

Blend in a little pseudo science on biology, secret police, state economics and judicial control, and any serf-holding lord could be confused for Mussolini.

Let’s go to the dictionary

Merriam-Webster says:

a political philosophy, movement, or regime… that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

MAGA clearly pushes the nationalist buttons (no-kneeling during the anthem — Love It or Leave It). It is deeply grounded in racism (build that wall — they are murderers, rapists…).

Follow any of Trump’s Twitter rants, and you can see he has no regard for the constitution. He constantly claims powers he does not have.  He doesn’t believe in checks and balances and fires any Inspector General or other federal government official he can at his own whim.

He has used the bully pulpit and tariffs to pick winners or losers in the economy. He tries to punish companies who don’t tow the Tump line. It’s a wish to wield economic power. He would do more if he could.  Ask Jeff Bezos.

All of that could be argued.  Even liberals have previously said, Trump is a populist but not a fascist.

• What he says, he doesn’t really mean
• He believes in democracy — not overthrow
• He has not used violence (outside his own rally)

Trump is a Fascist

But after this last round of protest, throw that shit out the window.  The second Trump turned the rubber bullets and tear gas on Americans just for his own photo op with the bible, he can only be defined as a Fascist.

He absolutely ordered the “forcible suppression of the opposition.”

Image taken from the Reuter’s story.

He absolutely used state-violence to suppress Americans.  If this had been a popular move, we could have expected to see tanks rolling down the streets of every major city in the name of Making America Great Again.

He has staged secret police on the steps of the Capitol.  It was literally a collection of black shirts that still refuse to list names and agencies.  Presidents have called in the national guard to put down riots in the past, but at least the rioters knew who was shooting at them.

His next step… deny the next election.  If he can’t delay it, he will refuse to accept the results.  He already told us that if he lost in 2016, it had to be voter fraud.  There’s little evidence, no real arrests, but he pushes the message.

He is criticizing mail-in voting and absentee ballots.  He’s screaming fraud where no fraud exists.  He is lining up the story for his followers so he can stay in office.

Only the willfully ignorant think that even if he loses the election, Trump won’t step down without a fight.  We can only hope it’s a verbal/political fight, and he doesn’t surround the government offices with his black-shirted secret police.

Because this orange Putin puppet clearly meets every definition of a fascist.

Update July 20, 2020

Just one more example… sending in the camouflaged troops to Portland… https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-race-protests-agents-idUSKCN24M2RL

“Protecting” federal building and statues with “Special Operations” forces sure feels a lot like Kristallnacht and the SS (which literally means “protection squad”).   If you don’t know what the fuck Kristallnacht was, click the link and check the history channel.

There’s a reason everybody over 60 should watch WWII documentaries like they are studying for a test — it’s call being a good fucking citizen. We would all do well to remember the history of democracies.  It’s not pretty.  The wanna-be-fat-orange-fascist we have in the White House is counting on our memories being as short as his intelligence.