For my entire life I’ve been told that the next presidential election is “the most important in history”, but this time I think it might actually be true.
The word fascism is being thrown around with abandon these days.
One of our two presidential candidates referred to the opposing party as “communists, Marxists, fascists, and … radical-left thugs...”
I’m still trying to get my mind around the concept of a communist, Marxist, fascist, but I digress.
In another corner of the political map, a liberal economist has published a video and several columns referring to this same candidate as a fascist.
Our incumbent president doesn’t go quite that far, referring to his most likely rival’s statements as “semi-fascist”.
Back in my Vietnam Protest days it used to drive me nuts that many of my friends labeled anyone not fully on board with the anti-war agenda as a fascist.
I knew a lot of folks, Dad for instance, who were from the “Greatest Generation”. They had lived through World War II, a war against actual fascist forces.
What they didn’t understand at the time was that the Vietnam war was different. From where I was sitting, powerful people found it convenient to interfere in a far off civil war in order to boost their re-election chances and/or distract from major policy failures at home.
As far as most Greatest Generation folks were concerned, if your country called you to go to war, you went. I saw no reason to allow myself to be kidnapped and sent about 10,000 miles to shoot at people I had no beef with, especially since they tended to shoot back.
BTW, my referring to the draft as legalized kidnapping led to about five years when Dad and I didn’t speak to each other, but that’s exactly what conscription is.
Many years later, after reading some books on the Vietnam war Dad told me I’d been right. I don’t think he every got to approving my (completely legal) draft avoidance, but he agreed that it was a stupid war.
Then again, in my humble opinion all wars are stupid. But nobody listens to my sage advice.
In the last few days there’s been a big brouhaha over a video that was posted, then quickly taken down by the Trump campaign on his personal social media platform. It one point in the video a blurred background news headline references a “unified Reich”.
I learned from one of my favorite podcasts that the video had been developed using an editable template with a WW II theme. Here’s Justin Robert Young comparing the posted video to the original template on his Px3 podcast.
It’s easily possible that the video was slapped together relatively quickly and the reference to the “Second Reich” (the German Empire from 1871 to 1918) was missed in the background headlines.
Hitler’s Nazis considered the “First Reich”, to be the Holy Roman Empire from 1430 to 1806. The Second Reich was the above mentioned German Empire that was put down by The Great War to End War, WW I.
The Nazis planned to establish the “Third Reich” for at least a thousand years. I hear that didn’t work out so well.
Now there’s a lot of concern that Donald Trump and his followers want to establish a “Fourth Reich” in our country.
My personal opinion is that Trump just cares about Trump. He feels that he’s special, the rules don’t apply to him, and, as long as he’s in charge he’ll support whatever totalitarian dictatorship allows him to continue his joyless pursuit of gold toilets, Big Macs, women and the respect of the super rich (which he will never get).
IMHO he’s not too bright, one of his early cabinet members called him “a f**king moron”, and is being used as a useful idiot by enemies of freedom and democracy both in this country and in fascist totalitarian governments abroad.
Many of his followers definitely have fascistic views. He’s a darling of White Christian Conservatives, who often complain that their first amendment rights are being violated because they’re not allowed to deny the first amendment rights of folks who don’t happen to agree with their religious views.
Freedom of Religion includes freedom to worship, or not worship, as you wish.
If you are convinced that the best way to live is by White Christian values, you’re welcome to do that. Just don’t create a theocracy that forces all Americans to bow to your very restrictive rules.
In conclusion, I don’t think Trump is a fascist. He’ll try to use fascists to get his way, but he’s only out for number one. Once the fascist take over he may get an unpleasant surprise.
I’ve dipped into the text of “Project 2025” and it’s scary as hell. To me it reads like a roadmap to the Fourth Reich, right here in the good old USA.
And now Nikki Haley, of all people, has endorsed Trump for president, after months of telling the folks who voted for her in the primaries that Trump is not qualified to be president.
I. Can’t. Even.
Please keep this in mind when you vote in November.
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