There is something about Donald Trump that deeply frightens me! Of course! That is how bullies manage to thrive. They use fear tactics – much in the manner of terrorists! My even greater fear, however, is that Donald Trump is insane in addition to being a bully!
by Charlie Leck
Donald Trump is
being defined these days, by a number of national columnists, as a fascist! It’s
a term that has always baffled me and I went looking for answers. In an essay
about defining Fascism, George Orwell
concluded in this manner…
“…even the people who recklessly fling the word ‘Fascist’ in every
direction attach at any rate an emotional significance to it. By ‘Fascism’ they
mean, roughly speaking, something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist,
anti-liberal and anti-working-class. Except for the relatively small number of
Fascist sympathizers, almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a
synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this
much-abused word has come.
“But Fascism is also a political and economic system. Why, then,
cannot we have a clear and generally accepted definition of it? Alas! we shall
not get one — not yet, anyway. To say why would take too long, but basically it
is because it is impossible to define Fascism satisfactorily without making
admissions which neither the Fascists themselves, nor the Conservatives, nor
Socialists of any colour, are willing to make. All one can do for the moment is
to use the word with a certain amount of circumspection and not, as is usually
done, degrade it to the level of a swearword.”
In a 1944 speech
by then Vice President Henry Wallace, he defined the American fascists this way…
“The American
fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and
fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of
disunity… They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty
guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the
spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which
all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the
power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep
the common man in eternal subjection.”
That (the above)
is something all reasonable voters should think about when November comes
around.
And, the
thoroughly liberal columnist Robert Reich, has said the following…
“As did the early 20th-century fascists, Trump is focusing his campaign
on the angers of white working people who have been losing economic ground for
years, and who are easy prey for demagogues seeking to build their own power by
scapegoating others.”
Democracy Now carried the following headline on March
15th of this year: “Father of Fascism Studies [Robert Paxton*]:
Donald Trump Shows Alarming Willingness to Use Fascist Terms and Styles!”
*Paxton
is the professor emeritus of social science at Columbia University. He is the
author of the book: The Anatomy of
Fascisim.
Dana Milbank, in
the Washington Post, says this about
Donald Trump…
“I
wish I could enjoy Trump, who at last week’s debate defended the size of his
penis. But this isn’t a conventional debate between Democrats and Republicans
or insiders and outsiders. Trump is on the wrong side of a struggle between
decency and bigotry, between democracy and something else.”
Glenn Beck, the
enormously conservative talk-show host, is quoted in the article referred to
above…
“We should
look at Adolf Hitler in 1929. Donald Trump is a dangerous man with the things
he has been saying.” [on ABC’s This Week
show]
And, in an
opinion column nearly a year ago in Newsweek,
Dominick Reuter wrote:
“This is how strongmen take over countries. They say some
true things, boldly, and conjure up visions of national greatness under their
leadership. They’ve got the flags, the music, the hype, the hysteria, the
resources, and they work to extract that thing in many people that seeks heroes
and momentous struggles in which they can prove their greatness.
Is
Donald Trump a fascist? I don’t think so. I don’t think he’s bright enough to
understand what the term means and what it would be as a political or social
system. BUT, he is, nevertheless, a very, very dangerous man!
____________________
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