General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why I choose to be a counterproductive left wingnut. [View all]DFW
(54,291 posts)What today's Republicans want is the Franco that took over in 1939. Even Franco evolved, forced to do so by events beyond his control. When it became clear that his benefactors (Hitler and Mussolini) were going to lose the war, Spain left the Axis and became "neutral."
By the time I got there, Spain had become a laissez-faire sort of Fascism, where the ideology had weakened to the point where you could do whatever you wanted as long as you didn't rock the boat severely. Toward the end of his life, Franco told his successor, Juan Carlos, "you will be able to do things I never could." Franco may have never believed he was on the wrong side of history, but he realized that it would pass him by.
Today's Republicans, on the other hand, are where Franco was in 1941, still beholden to their financial benefactors, and rigidly unbending in their ideology, convinced that God is on their side and will help them crush any opposition, the opposition being made up of godless commies anyway.