The Partisan Divide on Issues

[pbrower2a]

(09-01-2021, 07:20 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(09-01-2021, 05:18 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Fascism does not need the personality of Donald Trump. It does need deviousness and demagoguery. It needs the Big Lie, the effort to harmonize logical contradictions between class interests, between tradition and progress, between superstition and science, and the pompous self-image of the demagogue against his moral emptiness. There will be another after Trump is gone. Maybe someone more sophisticated. On the other hand, if we get genuine human solidarity, fascism will become a sick joke much like BUF figures from the 1930's in Monty Python sketches.

I would estimate that you are correct. Many fascist dictatorships around the world past and present are not led by a talented story-teller and bullshit artist like Trump. Originally, it depended on demagogues with real talent: Mussolini and Hitler. And Trump is a talented one too. But Pinochet was not,

Pinochet was brute force, pure and simple, in achieving power in a coup and in suppressing all dissent with fear, torture, and murder. He needed no political talent because he murdered political life in Chile. He could never be elected in any somewhat-free election and he knew it... so he tolerated no electins and ruled by decree. Unlike Trump he was not an effective liar.  

Quote:or Franco or Salazar, or countless other thugs the USA has supported or opposed, like Putin, Assad, Lukashenko, Orban, etc.

...or supported and opposed! Like Satan Hussein!
 

Quote:George W Bush had a certain charismatic talent, hardly visible to those of us on the blue side, but almost magically-appealing to those on the red side. He was also leading us down the road to fascism, although we tend to forget about this in the shadow of their Party's next even-more overt attempt to lead us there.

George W. Bush was able to tell people on the Right what they wanted to hear, such as he is an ordinary guy not born to privilege (that is a huge lie, of course!) and that he shared their religious beliefs (ahem!) I first saw the "Fourteen Warning Signs of Fascism" connected to Dubya, but if they came in on little cat feet under Dubya they are on the not-so-little, but still-quiet feet of perhaps a caracal. Next stop: leopard, cougar, or jaguar.

Quote:Girls like Guilfoyle or Taylor Greene could work some magic too, or guys like Tom Cotton. Not to mention Ivanka Trump.

We still have a double-standard on female pols. They can be extremists and win in Congressional elections and even statewide elections (if the state is "safe" for one Party). If we can elect Barack Obama we can elect anyone similarly rational, honest, learned, conventional, and eloquent. This country has a marked bias over time for chilly rationalists. Crazy ladies like Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin? Absolutely not. We're not going to elect any "Uncle Toms", either.  

Feminism and fascism are completely incompatible even if the late "Rash Libel" could coin the word "feminazi". It is worth remembering that no fascist cause has ever had a female leader. Note well that no high-ranking figure of the German or Japanese government executed as a war criminal (with German women it was only brutal guards who never made rank). On the card deck of 52 wanted Iraqi officials handed out to American soldiers, only one person in the deck was a woman, and she was allegedly an expert of germ warfare. How many female Grand Lizards or Infernal Dragons have you heard of? Fascism is typically a Bad Boys' club. To be sure, fascist causes may have their female auxiliaries, but in general women are expected to know their palace in a fascist order -- doing the housework and giving birth to plentiful babies.

Unlike liberalism and Marxism-Leninism, fascism is blatantly male-chauvinist. Some time in the early 1980's, a political figure in the unaligned world was shocked to find that the USA and the Soviet Union voted alike on women's rights. Mao Zedong, hardly an exemplar of human rights, was cited as saying "Women hold up half the sky".

Maybe under some circumstances we might elect someone like Margaret Thatcher as President... Thatcher is decidedly on the conservative and even reactionary side, but definitely not a fascist. Angela Merkel? Of course. But know well: she is about as chilly a rationalist as there is. 

Quote:Not nearly on the level of the founders of fascism that launched history's greatest war, but good enough for Mother America. I suspect another right-wing demagogue, someone more sophisticated, would have to have a high horoscope score. Cotton fills that bill, as do MTG and some others available today. You can always survey the list: https://philosopherswheel.com/presidenti...ScoredWhat

Tom Cotton is scary. If he can be something other than a regional candidate, then I could see him exploiting economic or international distress to get the needed edge. He is not objectionable so far except for ideology... but he might be the perfect vehicle for American fascism. He reminds me of characters leading the vile Norsefire regime in V for Vendetta , which has a fascistic Britain in which the regime offers faith as a substitute for happiness and rationality. That sounds much like the American Religious Right. If America has not graduated away from the near 50-50 split between authoritarians and liberals, then some rough times could cause many independent voters to think that he is onto something --- much like the case in 2016 on behalf of Trump.