02-05-2017, 09:37 PM
(02-05-2017, 02:06 PM)TeacherinExile Wrote: I'm going to play provocateur for a moment, if only because the placards are popping up already in the street demonstrations: "Trump Is a Fascist." So, too, evidently were Nixon, Bush 43 and Obama, judging by the protest signs in mass demonstrations past. For those of us who have been around for a while, broad-brushing U.S. presidents with that epithet has long since lost its punch. Calling someone a fascist has become a tired--almost laughable--cliché. If throwing that f-word in someone's face is meant to shut down--much less, win--the debate...well, that just doesn't fly with me. Nor, do I suspect, with others on this forum.
Fascism has become a proxy for 'pathological, undemocratic right-wing, non-monarchical, government or political action'. Donald Trump is certainly pathological and right-wing, and he shows no desire to be a Crowned Head. Does he hold democracy in contempt? So far I see little cause to trust him.
Quote:So, let me say right up front that I am neither an anti-Trump rabble-rouser, nor am I his apologist. I did not--could not--vote for him for any number of reasons that I will not elucidate. Trump poses a certain danger that I have discussed at length on the old 4T forum. I will now concede, however, that he may spark a regeneration of some kind, and that's a big concession for me. Just where that regeneration leads our country is an open question. And I don't think it's going too far out on a limb to say that a Trump presidency is high-risk, high-reward, as conservative columnist Ross Douthat recently pointed out:
"Trump Will Remake U.S. Conservatism, Or It Will Break His Presidency"
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/ross-douthat-trump-will-remake-u-s-conservatism-or-it-will-break-his-presidency
The impetus for this new thread stems from a recent article in the left-leaning The Guardian, written by a senior correspondent of the Federalist, typically a champion of conservative causes. (How's that for Left, Right?) I generally agree with his assessment, and take exception only with one of his assumptions that I have not seen support for in any poll that I'm aware of.
Because he is a demagogue, I dread him.
Quote:"Trump Is No Fascist. He Is a Champion for the Forgotten Millions"[url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/05/trump-not-fascist-champion-for-forgotten-millions][/url]
He begins by writing--
Amid the ongoing protests against President Trump, calls for “resistance” among Democratic politicians and activists, and the overheated rhetoric casting Trump and his supporters as fascists and xenophobes, an outsider might be forgiven for thinking that America has been taken over by a small faction of rightwing nationalists.
America is deeply divided, but it’s not divided between fascists and Democrats. It’s more accurate to say that America is divided between the elites and everybody else, and Trump’s election was a rejection of the elites...
Read further at this link: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/05/trump-not-fascist-champion-for-forgotten-millions
Every fascist has claimed to be the champion of the Forgotten Man...
Quote:Whether Trump emerges as a "champion," it's premature to say. He has been dealt a pretty good hand--a reasonably healthy economy and a bullish stock market. Trump has not yet been "fire-tested." (Only in a political sense with his improbable victory.) Should another crisis present itself--financial, geopolitical, whatever--the question is, will he meet the moment?
The eight-year bull market depends upon the sort of economic stewardship that Barack Obama offers, and that Donald Trump can easily end. He has thrown away the Reagan-to-Obama foreign policy for something risky.
He does not have experience in elected political office or high military rank. The successful politicians have found ways to cut deals with people who might offer some trouble. "My way or the Highway" is the norm in business, but the President cannot fire a federal judge or an elected member of either House of Congress.... and nobody not a government employee. He might want to put Rachel Maddow in ADX Florence (the Supermax prison), but he can't. Eisenhower, the only really-good President since 1900 to have no experience in public office, at least recognized the difference between civilian and military life.
He may think that he can apply his experience in his businessman a s a real estate magnate to the government... but he has done little more than to bark out executive orders and ridicule anyone who does not give him what he wants.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.