Well, today is election day, and as the last argument to make here for why not to vote for Donald Trump, we do have to talk about his fascist tendencies.
Is Trump a Fascist?
Aside from his fawning over other authoritarians like Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban and Kim Jong Un, Trump has openly declared that he would be a “dictator on day one.”
A dictator only on day one?
And he’s going to stop being a dictator on the second day of his administration when he quickly realizes that you cannot close the border in one day, or deport 11 million “illegals,” or drill for more oil (even though there has been more drilling under the Biden administration than there was under Trump).
WTF is this guy talking about?
His own former Chief of Staff, John Kelly, says openly that Trump is a fascist. This guy is an effing Marine Corp General and a rock-ribbed conservative. His own Chief of Staff. You also have people like Jim Mattis (his former Secretary of Defense), Mark Milley (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), and H.R. McMaster (his National Security Adviser), who have also said that he is a “moron” and that he expects our military leaders to swear loyalty to him rather than to the Constitution.
Initially, let’s remind ourselves what fascism is: Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/ FASH-iz-əm) is a “far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race.”
At the far right of the political spectrum, fascism basically began in Italy under “Il Duce” Benito Mussolini, but was perfected by my own people, the Germans. No one was fascist as efficiently as my Germans.
As some commentators have noted, fascism has been largely disgraced since the end of World War II. A number of veterans have remarked that they didn’t fight against fascism in order to have it imposed here at home.
No shit.
Can Trump Impose Fascism Here?
Now, even if Donald Trump is a fascist, does that mean that he can impose fascism here? Not necessarily. The military and a lot of political institutions would have to lie down and let him have his way before that can happen. But Trump can surely impose a shitload of chaos over here, left to his own devices.
He has already made clear that he will hire only loyalists, not people with experience or restraint, the kind of people that used to put up “guardrails” to keep Trump from doing completely insane things.
And just because Trump may not be competent enough to impose fascism, that doesn’t mean he won’t try. With Trump in office, we would have another four years of unrelenting chaos.
What Kind of Chaos can Trump Produce?
A lot! Trump can produce a lot of chaos. If he does the things that he says he will do — and there’s really no reason to believe that he won’t — then we can expect that Trump will:
- Impose a “universal baseline tariff” of 10% on most imported goods;
- Deport many of the estimated 11 to 12 million “illegal” (undocumented) immigrants;
- Withdraw the United States from the NATO alliance;
- Use federal troops against protestors in Democratic cities;
- Abandon Ukraine and let Russia take as much of it as it can.
One consequence could be that it changes the world order by giving more influence and authority to Russia and China.
Economically this could also cause an international trade war and a major recession (if not another depression).
If major numbers of undocumented immigrants get deported, that could also wreck our economy.
- Good luck finding farm workers to pick your lettuce in the fields;
- Good luck finding dishwashers at our many restaurants;
- Good luck finding anyone to come and clean your house;
- And especially, good luck finding people to do elder care and take care of your elderly parents.
If That’s Not Enough
Finally, if all of the above is not enough, let’s not forget a couple of other things.
- Trump’s defenders claim that his term as President was a perfectly normal term, but they forget that there are literally hundreds of thousands of Covid victims who did not have to die except that Trump completely mishandled the pandemic.
- When it became apparent that Joe Biden’s brain was slowing down, we switched to Kamala. When it became apparent that Trump’s brain was slowing down, they nominated him for President.
