As a history major at Columbia University, The TMI Show’s own Ted Rall’s thesis advisor was Professor Robert O. Paxton. Paxton wrote THE book on French fascism, “Vichy France.” He went on to write THE book on fascism writ large, “The Anatomy of Fascism.” Now age 92, Paxton recently gave an interview in which he cautiously agreed with the description of the MAGA movement led by former President Donald Trump as fascist in the traditional 20th century sense of the word. Kamala Harris has also weighed in, calling Trump himself a fascist.
What is fascism? Does Trump fit the bill? What about Trumpism?
Ted and TMI Show Guest Co-host Scott Stantis explain fascism’s historical origins in Italy after World War I through its radical manifestation in Nazi Germany and work to answer the question: is Donald Trump, with a 50% chance of winning the 2024 presidential election, a fascist?
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Old-fashioned fascism depended on the people. The Gestapo, despite their presentation in “Indiana Jones” movies and episodes of “Hogan’s Heroes,” were mostly just career police officers.
I’m not defending them. I’m just saying that without the ordinary citizenry rat-finking on their fellow countrymen (half of the surviving Gestapo files consist of cases started by “tips” from citizens about other citizens) the Gestapo would have had far less impact. (All this is from Frank McDonough’s book “The Gestapo.”)
So Trump’s a fascist. Talk a walk through Reddit. The Harris people have more than their share of shrill fanatics who vote anyone who posts things they disagree with off the discussion. Even neutral comments are loaded with down votes. The journalism thread on reddit? About the same. Comments are “auto-moderated” off for “approval” which never comes. If fascism depends on controlling the expression of thought at the macro level, we’ve got it coming in from both sides.
Which is a greatest threat?
1. When a comment such as “So what happens if Trump’s second term ISN’T the end of democracy? Will the media admit it, literally, has no idea what it’s doing and self-repair by putting competent people in charge” is deleted/blocked/scrubbed?
2. When things like the Harris/Biden administration shutting down Sputnik goes by without a blip?
3. When Harris won’t answer questions (“When did you realize Biden wasn’t competent mentally anymore?”) just like Trump won’t answer questions, but only Trump gets raked over the coals for it?
Frankly, the last line of “Animal Farm” is sounding more and more like the final line of any truthful commentary about whatever the results of the 2024 presidential election will be: “The creatures outside looked from [candidate to candidate] but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
I prefer Trump winning only because once Vance is in charge, he’ll run the whole thing off the rails in six months. Harris? She’ll be out on her ass in a single term when the Republicans run an Inanimate Carbon Rod against her, but she’ll ruin any democrat’s chances for 2028. And 2032 will be too late to get anything accomplished, even life-raft provisioning to save some critical mass of the Republic.