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Nonsense. Trump is not a fascist of any sort and even the European populist right covers a broad spectrum which includes some real fascists (ie Golden Dawn, Jobbik), some with links to fascism (Front National in France), and some that are basically rabid neocons more then anything else (UKIP, PVV). It’s true is policy views clash with that of the current Republican Party but go back 60 years ago or so. His views on protectionism, immigration, and foreign policy aren’t all that different from the pre-Cold War GOP. Certainly, the Donald has far more of William McKinley and Robert Taft in him then Benito Mussolini or Adolf Hitler.
In fact, if anything calling Trump a fascist is whitewashing American history, implying that his nativist, and quasi-authoritarian tendencies are somehow foreign to American tradition when it’s been with us the very beginning. Trump’s denunciations of foreigners and corrupt elites, his attacks on Big Government, Big Business, and Big PC, his intimations of insidious threats from foreign shores can be found in practically every chapter of the American Pageant. Consider how what Walter Russell Mead identified as the Jacksonian tradition in America matches Trump’s views and constituency almost word for word. Consider we had an entire political movement devoted primarily to attacking immigrants and which not only mounted a serious Presidential campaign but elected several governors, Congressmen, and mayors. Consider that many of Trump’s favourite slogans like “America First” and “silent majority” are from previous mass American political movements. Consider the extraordinary similarity of George Wallace’s 1968 Presidential campaign to that of Trump’s in terms of his anti-elitist right-wing populism, white working-class base, and even stances on particular issues.
What makes you think he doesn’t have his own political views? Trump is certainly an opportunist on a good number of issues, but his stances on a core group of issues (trade, foreign policy, immigration) have as I’ve said multiple times been consistent over the past 30 years. Nor would I discount the abilities of a man who managed to single-handedly win the Republican nomination for President despite being a complete outsider who was discounted by all the “experts” and “serious people” even on this very forum.
And Hillary Clinton is only a year younger then Trump while Bernie Sanders is a full four years older then him.
The Establishment doesn’t like him, the party base does-for them he’s a far better avatar of their interests then either the Bush-Romney plutocratic clique or the supposed “Tea Partiers” who preach patriotism with one mouth but then are equally fervent supporters of the Market as the rest of the GOP.
Correction: It reveals the broad appeal of nationalistic populism in a period when a significant segment of the American population has been alienated and feel they have been socioeconomically and culturally marginalized. Even hyper-partisanship is more of a return to pre-1945 politics then anything necessarily unprecedented in American history.
That’s absolutely true. But I’d say the greatest threat to American democracy right now is not some distant spectre of fascism or even the real menace of authoritarian nativist demagougery but rather the apathy of much of the American electorate to politics. Only a democracy in which the common man has a genuine interest and active stake in the commonwealth can hope to be healthy and strong.
Incidentally, I’m continually amazed by the intellectual poverty of this thread. Despite the unprecedented developments of a Republican candidate abandoning free trade for protectionism and denouncing the Iraq War for dethroning Saddam Hussein, most of the posters here seem to think the only appropriate response is “ZOMG LOL Drump is so stupid!” It wasn’t as if liberals and lefties on this forum and elsewhere didn’t say either of the things Trump said even if in a more palatable manner.