Trump’s Big win in Iowa confirms that today’s GOP is a dangerous FASCIST movement.

MAGA is greatest threat to our freedoms since WW II

The big takeaway from Donald Trump's 30 point victory in the Iowa caucus is that the GOP base wants a man who attempted a coup, incited the Jan 6 attack and has since pledged to pardon the MAGA terrorists who waged Jan 6. In other words, today's GOP is a dangerous, anti-democracy FASCIST movement.

That comes, of course, as no surprise to people who have been paying attention. But Trump’s Iowa GOP caucus victory makes it official. Trump essentially dominated every demographic of voter in Iowa and far eclipsed the previous Iowa GOP caucus record of a 13 point victory despite not engaging in Iowa’s traditional retail politicking or even participating in debates.  

The entrance polls to the Iowa GOP caucus raise even more red flags about how dangerous MAGA is to our Republic. Nearly 70 percent of Iowa caucus attendees believe President Biden did not “legitimately” win the 2020 election. It doesn’t matter to them that Trump lost every court battle and his own top people including his Attorney General Bill Barr informed him—and the public—there was no evidence of fraud that could change the election. 

All that matters is that Trump told them there was voter fraud and they are required to believe it since blind loyalty to the leader is one of the defining traits of fascist movement. That is a point experts on fascism like Yale Professor Jason Stanley explained in his book “How Fascism Works.”  In fascist movements, reality is whatever the “infallible” leader tells his followers it is—and as Stanley detailed—any follower who does not accept that is “immediately a traitor” to the movement.

Equally alarming is that the Iowa caucus entrance poll found that nearly 65% of GOP voters said they would still consider Trump “fit” to be President even if he was convicted by a jury of numerous felonies. That is even higher than the 51 percent of people who voted for Trump, meaning two thirds of the GOP base is fine with a convicted felon as President—as long as it’s their guy and his crimes were in furtherance of their pursuit of power.

Again, the support of a corrupt, criminal leader is another trait of fascist movements. As Stanley noted, “The fascists are the most corrupt people, like the Nazi party was incredibly corrupt, incredibly lawless.” But instead of being troubled by that, they accuse their opponents of crimes instead.

And then there’s violence waged to retain or acquire political power —as we saw on Jan 6—that is argubaly the most defining characteristic of fascist movements. As the late Madeline Albright explained in her book, “Fascism: A Warning,” “What differentiates fascism from other ideological movements is the use of violence and anger to achieve political ends.”  She added, “Fascism involves the endorsement and use of violence to achieve political goals and stay in power.”

The GOP saw the Jan 6 attack play out on television like the rest of us. They know it was a Donald J. Trump production waged by his supporters to keep him in power.  That is why a CBS poll released Sunday of Republicans nationwide found that nearly 70 percent of them would be more likely to support a candidate who vowed to pardon the Jan 6 attackers.  These Republicans fully understand that the people in prison are there because they are the worst of the worst—as I recently wrote about--from those who brutally beat police officers to the leaders of The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.  If the GOP voters truly believed the attackers were not MAGA, why would they want them released from prison?!

What is fueling the GOP’s embrace of fascism? Simple, their fear of people of color taking power. Or more simply, the preservation of white supremacy.

Sunday’s CBS poll again confirmed that, finding 81 percent of GOP voters agree with Trump’s statement that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of America. They fully understand Trump was channeling Hitler with this phrase given the backlash over Trump’s use of those words was even covered on Fox News.

That same CBS poll noted that 70 percent of Republican voters “think efforts to promote racial diversity and racial equality” have gone “too far.” (That is compared to 12 percent of Democrats.) Again, the preservation of white supremacy is what fuels MAGA.

Just look at photo below of Trump delivering his speech after he won Iowa—there are ZERO people of color. Trump no longer needs to pretend he supports diversity, he only supports the white right since that is his base.

The one upside to the Iowa GOP caucus when looking at the 2024 race versus Biden was that the turnout was the lowest since 2000. Only about 109,000 voted on Monday (approx. 14% of all GOP voters) despite it being the MLK holiday, meaning many had the day off. In comparison, in the last competitive Iowa GOP caucus in 2016, 187,000 voted. Even in 2012 and 2008 when there were far less registered Republicans in Iowa than today, almost 122,000 participated in the caucus. It’s true that Monday was very cold, then again this is Iowa where average temperatures in January are about 14 degrees.  

But despite this year’s low turnout, Trump’s massive Iowa victory—coupled with the CBS poll Sunday finding that 70 percent of Republicans now want Trump as their presidential nominee—is sending us a clear message. The GOP overwhelmingly supports Trump who is charged with numerous federal and state crimes for attempting a coup, who incited the Jan 6 attack to remain in power and has pledged to pardon his MAGA terrorists, who is quoting Hitler and who is pledging to use a second term as a dictator to exact revenge. That is who and what excites the GOP.

Please do not ever dismiss those in MAGA as being dumb. They are not. They are dangerous. In fact, the MAGA movement is the greatest threat to our freedoms and democracy since World War II when Americans had to fight the same fascist leader that Trump is now quoting.

This is where we are in 2024 America.

---