"it is so important to first understand that trumpism was never really about trump. Republicans have been grooming followers, conservatives, Christians & the ignorant for decades via right-wing politics & media."
Totally agree that these people don’t care about trump being demented in fact I think they know it & see it but will not admit it because they want the power he will bring to them if he is president. Later they will get rid of him (25th Amendment) and install the VP who is young & understands it all. So it is up to us to elect Harris/Walz in big numbers even though I am afraid that this “fascism” era will stay around for awhile at least. I am very afraid. We have to be vigilant.
Yes, Trump is a fascist and so is MAGA. Let’s not forget that this moment in time is not something created by Trump. The extreme right has been on a decades long march to imposing fascism, beginning with their open embrace of Hitler and Mussolini in the late 20’s and early 30’s. As late is 1938, American fascists held rallies across America! WWII and the revelation of Nazi atrocities forced them slightly underground, but they remained present, and worked behind the seems to drive wedges into the fault lines of American society, undermined trust in government, purchased the governance of rural states, gradually contaminated the judicial system with sympathetic judges and built financial alliances with authoritarians abroad.
If trump prevails in 13 days, it will be the culmination of this decades long effort. If he prevails, the extreme right will not relinquish control. It will cling to power until the regime inevitably collapses under the weight of its inherent corruption, incompetence and adherence to social and economic fallacies and fantasies.
Putin hates America because he thinks we ended the Soviet Union. In truth, the Soviet system destroyed itself. Unfortunately, the same fate awaits a fascist America. But unlike the demise of the Soviet Union or other fascist regimes, the collapse of American fascism will be exacerbated and accelerated by a catastrophic climate crisis that they will refuse to acknowledge.
I agree, this has been brewing in the U.S. for a long time. Rachel Maddow does an excellent job of bringing this to light in her two season podcast Ultra, and in her book Prequel. For years I have been wondering how this guy is still standing - defying the laws of political physics, while knowing there are powerful greedy forces behind the scenes keeping him alive. Russian mafia? Seems likely - when have we ever seen so many politicians cower to such a stupid candidate, returning over and over to kiss the ring? Seeing a gang of 8 Republican Senators inexplicably in Moscow - shown only on Russian state TV, then the story disappearing made me suspect many within OUR congress are on Russian payroll. The whole purpose of Fascism is to confuse the suckers with never-ending blather, then take their money and wealth - a con man from Queens understands this perfectly. Add the attributes of Psychopathic Narcissism, and you have the perfect demigod to lead the unwitting lemmings into darkness and destruction of our national treasures. Now, we are finally seeing the U.S. Media for what they are; wannabe oligarchs who care about profit only, too stupid to see the shortsightedness of their greed.
Keep in mind that with Trump's obvious mental decline, it is unlikely he would make it through any large part of a term, meaning dictator Vance.. an even worse prospect to me..
Absolutely Brilliant piece this morning ☕ Dean. The really scary part of All of this, is trump calling the Democrats the Fascist, but he confesses he'd be a Dictator on day one. The Main Stream Media has Normalize trump to the point where No one is Shocked by any of this anymore.VP Kamala Harris has been a "Constant" speaking out against trump's agenda and I believe she getting her message through to the voters. I mailed in my ballot, here in Oregon, but before I dropped it into the box I sprayed a shot of Channel®5 for Luck🤞 Blessings to You, and will reStack ASAP 💯👋🇺🇸💙🌊🌊
It never ceases to amaze me that it has taken this long for Americans to say the obvious out loud. He is indeed a fascist and has always been one, from his trip down the golden escalator to today’s explicit threats.
Outstanding commentary Dean. Your research is impeccable. You're history of the Nazi fascist movement is as clear as the rising sun. The MAGAmovement is so fucking depressing. "Make Germany great again" Was a hitler nazi slogan.
TBF Germany’s Stern Magazine in August of 2017 had on its cover an Illustration of Orange Menace wrapped in a huge U.S. Flag with a forced perspective arm doing the Hitler salute. in Bold Print it said „Sein Kampf-Neo Nazis, Ku Klux Klan: Wie Donald Trump Die Rassismus in Amerika schürt“
“His Struggle: Neo Nazis, KKK: How DT Stokes Racism in America”
I’m not surprised by the outrage but the German media saw it coming after he was elected. I lived and thrived in Germany as an artist who is Black and Gay.
It’s illegal in Germany to display the Swastika or perform the Hitler Salute. The confederate flag should have been made illegal. And the southern leadership executed for treason. Anyway-Americas ignorance will destroy itself if its more human impulses can’t save it. 💙
I've seen it since at least then. First time I was ever exposed to Trump back in the 1980s, I spotted him for a con man & he has repelled me every time I saw him since.
I could see the Republican Party evolving into a fascist party back in the 1990s with the likes of Gingrich, Norquist & Rove, & that all they needed was a strong charismatic leader like Hitler to become like the Nazis. I certainly didn't have in mind Trump, with whom I would never have associated the quality of charisma, but then Hitler never really struck me as charismatic or attractive in any way, either, yet both drew hordes of gullible people & mesmerized them.
I've been using terms like Twitler, the Orange Caligula, Mango Mussolini & the Orange Antichrist for Trump since at least 2017.
I once saw a skin head in Germany with an swastika armband, the people around her were all horrified, and avoided her. This was at the entrance to a train station. I do now know what became of her but my host told us that display was against the law. Here in the US, the parallel is the confederate flag but thanks to the 1st amendment, it can be displayed openly. Also a symbol of hate.
Trump *is* a fascist, going by the definitions laid out above. The last thing this country needs is another Hitler wanna-be. Note that Ivana (his first wife) said that T kept a copy of Mein Kampf at his bedside. And as his cognitive abilities are waning, he is getting more and more "out there" with his fascistic comments and threats. The magats have joined that cult, just like Germans did in the 1930s. Heather Cox Richardson, a very knowlegeable historian, has also written on this.
Like Hitler, Trump is bent on vengeance and retribution towards his perceived enemies and any and all opposition, the free press, and of course, he is bound to ignore the constitution completely.
There was a time in the 1930’s when many Americans thought Hitler was a tremendous leader. They supported him with donations and rallies in the US. The fact this is happening now is the result of a few oligarchs who see Trump as their pathway to control by the elite. They are as sick as he is.
Here’s my statement regarding these plastic, heartless sociopaths. My music video. Pass it on if you like it.
Just a reminder that there is a straight line from slavery through the civil war, Jim Crow laws, American Nazis and now MAGA. It’s our core cancer of racism and general otherism. It’s the Lost Cause that keeps on giving in the current age.
When we harbor prejudices in our hearts it’s no trick at all to turn otherwise normal people into a raging mob screaming for blood out of devotion to their Fascist Savior.
Thank God at least half of us see through it but it’s got to be addressed in order for us to survive.
Note that fascistic movements take hold during times of great wealth inequality & economic turmoil. We have let disparity in wealth & power get to record levels & giant corporations rule the government, media, economy & society. We are essentially a plutocracy/corporatocracy at risk of becoming an autocracy, aristocracy, theocracy, mafiocracy, idiocracy, kleptocracy, kakistocracy or some combination thereof with Trump, Vance or the MAGA Republicans in charge.
You are right, Dean. Trump wants to be the unchallenged, unaccountable "leader" of the USA. I put the word leader in quotes because trump is not and never has been a real leader. Or at least not according to my dictionary. I hope a lot of people get your warning and understand it. (I've already voted blue all the way down the ticket). I was also upset to learn that after that CNN town hall, CNN people started picking apart everything Kamala Harris did, even though they never challenge anything trump does. IMO, Harris has been amazing at what she's accomplished since she was suddenly thrust into the race, and she deserves to be treated better.
Thank you. It is about time. I've been waiting for someone in the national media to say this out loud since the summer of 1964. We were worried about Goldwater then and family was divided. That's when my grandmother told me about the American fascists, the ones who opposed defending Europe against Hitler, the same ones who went quiet when Hitler declared war on the United States, and emerged again and just like Hitler, took hold of power by democratic means. They have always been among us embedded deeply within the Republican Party. Before Mussolini coined the term the American version of fascism was called the Confederacy. I hope we are not too late. Say it. The only reason Trump has any power is because so many Americans see themselves in him, and it is NOT the economy. They were here before him and will still be here long after we are all gone.
I’m so glad to hear you mention Madeline Albright’s book “Fascism: A Warning”. I read that book when it came out, imploring everyone to read it, but most didn’t. If we had listened to Madam Secretary then, we wouldn’t be here now.
People keep saying that what you’re doing right now (knocking on doors, etc.) is what you will do to save our country, but the truth is, it’s what we did in the last 1-4 decades. We are the canaries in the coal mine that fellow citizens buried while building a neighboring mine.
Another book I highly recommend is Rachel Maddow's book "Prequel" which highlights the fascist movement in America in the 1930s (and still ongoing.) Quite chilling.
"it is so important to first understand that trumpism was never really about trump. Republicans have been grooming followers, conservatives, Christians & the ignorant for decades via right-wing politics & media."
https://samray.substack.com/p/trumpism-is-narcissism
Completely agree. At this point, Heritage(for example) knows&doesn’t care that Trump is batshit.
Their goal is not to preserve the Union.
Jenny Cohn on Twitter has a well thought out supposition about a link between very wealthy American Christian Nationalists&Russian Oligarchs.
Sarah Kendzior is more academic, but her ideas are scary&accurate. She thinks it’s not just GOP.
Totally agree that these people don’t care about trump being demented in fact I think they know it & see it but will not admit it because they want the power he will bring to them if he is president. Later they will get rid of him (25th Amendment) and install the VP who is young & understands it all. So it is up to us to elect Harris/Walz in big numbers even though I am afraid that this “fascism” era will stay around for awhile at least. I am very afraid. We have to be vigilant.
Narcissists of a feather flock together.
Spot on, Sam. It’s the long game in spades. Been happening for decades. 😎
Yes, Trump is a fascist and so is MAGA. Let’s not forget that this moment in time is not something created by Trump. The extreme right has been on a decades long march to imposing fascism, beginning with their open embrace of Hitler and Mussolini in the late 20’s and early 30’s. As late is 1938, American fascists held rallies across America! WWII and the revelation of Nazi atrocities forced them slightly underground, but they remained present, and worked behind the seems to drive wedges into the fault lines of American society, undermined trust in government, purchased the governance of rural states, gradually contaminated the judicial system with sympathetic judges and built financial alliances with authoritarians abroad.
If trump prevails in 13 days, it will be the culmination of this decades long effort. If he prevails, the extreme right will not relinquish control. It will cling to power until the regime inevitably collapses under the weight of its inherent corruption, incompetence and adherence to social and economic fallacies and fantasies.
Putin hates America because he thinks we ended the Soviet Union. In truth, the Soviet system destroyed itself. Unfortunately, the same fate awaits a fascist America. But unlike the demise of the Soviet Union or other fascist regimes, the collapse of American fascism will be exacerbated and accelerated by a catastrophic climate crisis that they will refuse to acknowledge.
I agree, this has been brewing in the U.S. for a long time. Rachel Maddow does an excellent job of bringing this to light in her two season podcast Ultra, and in her book Prequel. For years I have been wondering how this guy is still standing - defying the laws of political physics, while knowing there are powerful greedy forces behind the scenes keeping him alive. Russian mafia? Seems likely - when have we ever seen so many politicians cower to such a stupid candidate, returning over and over to kiss the ring? Seeing a gang of 8 Republican Senators inexplicably in Moscow - shown only on Russian state TV, then the story disappearing made me suspect many within OUR congress are on Russian payroll. The whole purpose of Fascism is to confuse the suckers with never-ending blather, then take their money and wealth - a con man from Queens understands this perfectly. Add the attributes of Psychopathic Narcissism, and you have the perfect demigod to lead the unwitting lemmings into darkness and destruction of our national treasures. Now, we are finally seeing the U.S. Media for what they are; wannabe oligarchs who care about profit only, too stupid to see the shortsightedness of their greed.
As always, Dean, spot on. It’s terrifying.
Keep in mind that with Trump's obvious mental decline, it is unlikely he would make it through any large part of a term, meaning dictator Vance.. an even worse prospect to me..
Yes, the soulless sellout, Vance.
Absolutely Brilliant piece this morning ☕ Dean. The really scary part of All of this, is trump calling the Democrats the Fascist, but he confesses he'd be a Dictator on day one. The Main Stream Media has Normalize trump to the point where No one is Shocked by any of this anymore.VP Kamala Harris has been a "Constant" speaking out against trump's agenda and I believe she getting her message through to the voters. I mailed in my ballot, here in Oregon, but before I dropped it into the box I sprayed a shot of Channel®5 for Luck🤞 Blessings to You, and will reStack ASAP 💯👋🇺🇸💙🌊🌊
It never ceases to amaze me that it has taken this long for Americans to say the obvious out loud. He is indeed a fascist and has always been one, from his trip down the golden escalator to today’s explicit threats.
Outstanding commentary Dean. Your research is impeccable. You're history of the Nazi fascist movement is as clear as the rising sun. The MAGAmovement is so fucking depressing. "Make Germany great again" Was a hitler nazi slogan.
TBF Germany’s Stern Magazine in August of 2017 had on its cover an Illustration of Orange Menace wrapped in a huge U.S. Flag with a forced perspective arm doing the Hitler salute. in Bold Print it said „Sein Kampf-Neo Nazis, Ku Klux Klan: Wie Donald Trump Die Rassismus in Amerika schürt“
“His Struggle: Neo Nazis, KKK: How DT Stokes Racism in America”
I’m not surprised by the outrage but the German media saw it coming after he was elected. I lived and thrived in Germany as an artist who is Black and Gay.
It’s illegal in Germany to display the Swastika or perform the Hitler Salute. The confederate flag should have been made illegal. And the southern leadership executed for treason. Anyway-Americas ignorance will destroy itself if its more human impulses can’t save it. 💙
I've seen it since at least then. First time I was ever exposed to Trump back in the 1980s, I spotted him for a con man & he has repelled me every time I saw him since.
I could see the Republican Party evolving into a fascist party back in the 1990s with the likes of Gingrich, Norquist & Rove, & that all they needed was a strong charismatic leader like Hitler to become like the Nazis. I certainly didn't have in mind Trump, with whom I would never have associated the quality of charisma, but then Hitler never really struck me as charismatic or attractive in any way, either, yet both drew hordes of gullible people & mesmerized them.
I've been using terms like Twitler, the Orange Caligula, Mango Mussolini & the Orange Antichrist for Trump since at least 2017.
I appreciate you. I agree. Since the Central Park Five Ive thought he was a menace.
I once saw a skin head in Germany with an swastika armband, the people around her were all horrified, and avoided her. This was at the entrance to a train station. I do now know what became of her but my host told us that display was against the law. Here in the US, the parallel is the confederate flag but thanks to the 1st amendment, it can be displayed openly. Also a symbol of hate.
Trump *is* a fascist, going by the definitions laid out above. The last thing this country needs is another Hitler wanna-be. Note that Ivana (his first wife) said that T kept a copy of Mein Kampf at his bedside. And as his cognitive abilities are waning, he is getting more and more "out there" with his fascistic comments and threats. The magats have joined that cult, just like Germans did in the 1930s. Heather Cox Richardson, a very knowlegeable historian, has also written on this.
I believe it was actually Hitler's speeches, which is even scarier as we all know how much he loves to do his rallies.
Like Hitler, Trump is bent on vengeance and retribution towards his perceived enemies and any and all opposition, the free press, and of course, he is bound to ignore the constitution completely.
MAGA is a full blown fascist movement.”
That is why you cast a vote for the opponent of anyone and everyone you see and can identify as supporting Trump MAGA/Project 2025 on your ballot.
There was a time in the 1930’s when many Americans thought Hitler was a tremendous leader. They supported him with donations and rallies in the US. The fact this is happening now is the result of a few oligarchs who see Trump as their pathway to control by the elite. They are as sick as he is.
Here’s my statement regarding these plastic, heartless sociopaths. My music video. Pass it on if you like it.
https://youtu.be/jKN1bOgjnZQ
Just a reminder that there is a straight line from slavery through the civil war, Jim Crow laws, American Nazis and now MAGA. It’s our core cancer of racism and general otherism. It’s the Lost Cause that keeps on giving in the current age.
When we harbor prejudices in our hearts it’s no trick at all to turn otherwise normal people into a raging mob screaming for blood out of devotion to their Fascist Savior.
Thank God at least half of us see through it but it’s got to be addressed in order for us to survive.
The American Nazi party slogan in 1936 was "Make America Great"; the KKK in the 20s was "America First"....
And the KKK had a lot of political power in the 1920s all over the US, not just in the south. Another untold part of American history.
Note that fascistic movements take hold during times of great wealth inequality & economic turmoil. We have let disparity in wealth & power get to record levels & giant corporations rule the government, media, economy & society. We are essentially a plutocracy/corporatocracy at risk of becoming an autocracy, aristocracy, theocracy, mafiocracy, idiocracy, kleptocracy, kakistocracy or some combination thereof with Trump, Vance or the MAGA Republicans in charge.
You are right, Dean. Trump wants to be the unchallenged, unaccountable "leader" of the USA. I put the word leader in quotes because trump is not and never has been a real leader. Or at least not according to my dictionary. I hope a lot of people get your warning and understand it. (I've already voted blue all the way down the ticket). I was also upset to learn that after that CNN town hall, CNN people started picking apart everything Kamala Harris did, even though they never challenge anything trump does. IMO, Harris has been amazing at what she's accomplished since she was suddenly thrust into the race, and she deserves to be treated better.
Thank you. It is about time. I've been waiting for someone in the national media to say this out loud since the summer of 1964. We were worried about Goldwater then and family was divided. That's when my grandmother told me about the American fascists, the ones who opposed defending Europe against Hitler, the same ones who went quiet when Hitler declared war on the United States, and emerged again and just like Hitler, took hold of power by democratic means. They have always been among us embedded deeply within the Republican Party. Before Mussolini coined the term the American version of fascism was called the Confederacy. I hope we are not too late. Say it. The only reason Trump has any power is because so many Americans see themselves in him, and it is NOT the economy. They were here before him and will still be here long after we are all gone.
I’m so glad to hear you mention Madeline Albright’s book “Fascism: A Warning”. I read that book when it came out, imploring everyone to read it, but most didn’t. If we had listened to Madam Secretary then, we wouldn’t be here now.
People keep saying that what you’re doing right now (knocking on doors, etc.) is what you will do to save our country, but the truth is, it’s what we did in the last 1-4 decades. We are the canaries in the coal mine that fellow citizens buried while building a neighboring mine.
Another book I highly recommend is Rachel Maddow's book "Prequel" which highlights the fascist movement in America in the 1930s (and still ongoing.) Quite chilling.
Yes, I wholeheartedly agree, Prequel is brilliant.
I've been saying that he's a traitor and trying to destroy America from the inside out 🤬✌🏻💙