Could it be that Trump is saving us from Fascism?

[rogerashton]

I'm serious. Stick with me here.

A large part of the Trump vote shares the ideas of fascism -- "die Fuhrerprizip" and white gentile supremacism and economic nationalism -- and would probably go for an openly Fascist movement if they thought it could win. And Trump has certainly expressed those views if, to be fair, not in a consistent or fanatical way. Could it be that his incompetent, directionless, weak leadership will so discredit these ideas that Fascism will have to retreat?

Worried second thought: or does this mean that we will face a competent and conscious Fascist the next time around?

Be prepared -- it's the Boy Scout marching song --

[Vinca]

1. I think it's more like the dumb leading the dumb.

[GreenEyedLefty]

2. I think Trump is lazy and doesn't care about being a dictator.

The only thing that matters to him is: $

[MountCleaners]

3. Trump would be nothing without the GOP

I really think that the evangelicals and other right-wingers who at first criticized Trump have gone along with it because it's the only way to win the Presidency. These people can't win a Presidential election on their own. They know that they can't win anything without the support of racists and patriot nutters, so they need someone who will act like a "tough guy" and a "badass" to appeal to the rednecks.

The entire right has collapsed and capitulated to bully politics. Just look at Free Republic and other formerly "conservative" forums. It is taboo to criticize Trump. Anyone who deviates from this is called a "cuck", and "cuck" is a term that originated on the far right. The far right bullies are running the show. They're getting everything they want.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. Mussolini had Hitler to bail him out.

Will Vlad pay the Hitler role ?

[Demsrule86]

5. No, if he does what he wants in terms of firing Mueller and pardoning everyone... also

remains president...his in fact the de facto fascios dictator.

[Gabi Hayes]

6. Read Democracy in Chains

By a Duke historian

We're a lot closer than you think

Thank god it's trump and not somebody sane

________________

It seems inevitable the phrase “vast right-wing conspiracy” will pop into your head while reading Duke University historian Nancy MacLean’s disquieting Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America. After all, the phrase made famous by Hillary Clinton in the 1990s popped into MacLean’s head a few times while she researched and wrote her book.

It would seem an apt description, given the covert undermining of American democratic foundations and institutions by the extreme libertarian movement MacLean documents in Democracy in Chains. But as pernicious as the movement is, it “is not a conspiracy,” she said in an interview. “A conspiracy involves illegality, and this movement, while it operates by stealth, is generally careful to stay within the rules that exist.”

She uses “fifth column assault” instead. She acknowledged “fifth column” also is “a phrase with a fraught history.” But the academics, operatives, ideologues, and billionaires of the radical right “have a fundamental hostility to our form of government as it existed over the 20th century,” and seek to vanquish it from within.

Democracy in Chains expands on Jane Mayer’s reporting in Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. Where Mayer follows the radical right’s money trail, MacLean examines its intellectual origins—“the master plan behind it,” as she writes in her book’s introduction. Her findings will leave you deeply concerned for our democracy and civic life.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/nancy-maclean/

Bet you've never heard of James Buchanan

Not that one; this is the intellectual father of these maniacs.....a true monster, probably the strongest influence on Fred Koch

[rogerashton]

7. You lose!

James Buchanan was a Nobel laureate in economics, founded the "public choice" school of thought in economics, still has many followers on my floor in the Business School building.

Well -- maybe not a monster. The "public choice" hypothesis is essentially that government is a parasite, although they don't go so far as anarchism -- enough government to enforce property rights is OK. This is a broad and vague enough set of ideas that it is hard to test empirically, but not impossible, and the tests I have seen are negative, even for the US. In terms of casual experience, the seeming fact that public services are usually underfunded is inconsistent with public choice thinking, which deduces that they would be wastefully overfunded.

The intellectual advocates of limited government are wrong -- and may well have motives other than the search for truth (though I'm pretty sure that Buchanan wasn't bought) -- but that doesn't make them monsters or beasts. Save that for the billionaires and political profiteers who use them.

[Gabi Hayes]

8. What planet did you drift in from?

Perhaps you'd be happier in a more advanced libertarian paradise like, oh say, Somalia

That's some funny stuff you gobbed out

Tell us more

We love lunatic fairy tales

What floor is your janitor closet on?

Well aware of his novel booby prize, as well
as how he destroyed. that school district in VA

Big fan of that, are ya? He and Friedman and his ilk are, indeed monsters

Maybe when you outgrow your randian
diapers you'll wise up

JFC

[rogerashton]

9. That's just nasty

I'm not a fan of Buchanan, just the opposite. But if you feel you have to throw infantile insults at someone who suggests that reasoned criticism is better than infantile insults, there is something wrong with one of us, and it ain't me.

[Gabi Hayes]

12. Lighten up Francis

Back to your broom closet at Trump U

[rogerashton]

13. And who would Francis be?

[Gabi Hayes]

14. If you recognize the Bernaysian joke played on

Frankian rubes to get them to vote against their interests under the profoundly fallacious guise of "public choice" I'll tell you

Didn't that fascist prick pal of JB also get the Nobel booby prize, too?

That said, Sorry for being dickish

I have issues

But "you lose" (that's what set me off)

Public choice is a bigger crock than supply side or the bell curve

Can we be pals now?

[rogerashton]

15. We agree on that.

But you did make it a bet.

[JI7]

10. no

and i didn't even read the rest of your post. just the subject line.

[rogerashton]

11. so read it. There might be some irony there.