“Fascism.” The image springs to mind, Adolph Hitler, a scowling dictator, World War II, six million murdered in the holocaust. Yet today we hear the word often. People warn that a fascist is scheming to seize the White House in the November election. Is Trump a fascist? Would he be a scowling dictator? You be the judge:

Last December, Trump told an interviewer he will be a “dictator for one day.” He has attempted to turn it into a joke, that he actually said he will be a dictator “for one day.” One day too many!

Racism or “White Nationalism,” is the essence of fascism. Trump’s tirades are filled with open and coded appeals to white supremacy. “Make America Great Again” means stripping people of color of their voting rights, equal job rights. MAGA would bring back segregation.

Misogyny, hatred of women, was a hallmark of Hitler’s reich. It also befouls the MAGA-Trump banners. The Trumpite U.S. Supreme Court majority overturned Roe v. Wade, that for 51 years guaranteed a woman’s right to control her body. Trump hails this ruling. His opponent, Kamala Harris, vows if elected President to restore the rights guaranteed by Roe.

On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump goaded a mob on the Capitol Mall to march up the hill and “stop the steal” of the 2020 election. One thousand neo-Nazis, KKKers, Q-Anon zealots, stormed the Capitol shrieking “Hang Mike Pence.” Their aim was to terrorize lawmakers to halt certification of the elections for President, declare Trump the winner. It was an act of open terrorism ordered by Trump, an attempted coup d’etat. The coup failed although several Capitol police officers died. The election was certified: Biden won the popular vote by 7 million votes, and the Electoral College by 74 votes.

Yet Trump pours out lies that the election was “rigged”, that it was “stolen.” The aim is to whip up fear, intimidation, to instigate outright violence. He is setting the stage for another coup d’etat. This is fascism in the raw!

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to immunize Trump from prosecution in this attempted coup d’etat. The six justices – three of them Trump nominees – ruled that Trump cannot be prosecuted for acts he committed as part of his “official duties” including instigation of violence. Justice Sotomayor dissented, charging that Chief Justice Roberts and his rightwing cohorts were in effect crowning Trump as “king.”

“Project 2025,” a 900-page blueprint by the Heritage Foundation, lays out in detail what Trump will do if reelected. He has warmly endorsed “Project 2025” funded by the fascist Coors Foundation. Here are a few selected quotes:

• Abortion rights: “Conservatives should gratefully celebrate….overturning Roe v. Wade, a decision that for five decades made a mockery of our Constitution…”
• Gender equality: “The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender orientation and gender identity….diversity, equity, and inclusion….”
• Foreign Aid: “The Biden Administration has deformed the (USAID) agency….to pursue overseas a divisive political and cultural agenda that promotes abortion, climate extremism, gender radicalism, and interventions against perceived systemic racism.”
• Union rights: Trump should reintroduce “Executive Order 13836 encouraging agencies to renegotiate all union collective bargaining agreements to ensure… management rights….consider whether public-sector unions are appropriate in the first place.”
• Federal meals for kids: “Today, however, federal school meals increasingly resemble entitlement programs that have strayed far from their original objective…”

Trump demonizes undocumented immigrants, falsely accusing them of “rape” “murder” etc. Trump vows to round up and deport 11 million immigrants or incarcerate them in concentration camps if reelected. It brings back memories of all those box cars filled with Jewish men, women, and children, on their way to Auschwitz.

Trump even blames immigrants for Social Security and Medicare “insolvency” one of an endless stream of lies. In fact, immigrants pay $10 billion in taxes a year and enjoy not a penny in any federal benefits including Medicare and Social Security. The solution to keep Social Security and Medicare solvent is “Tax the wealthy.”

In his one term in the White House, Trump gave the billionaires a TRILLION DOLLAR TAX CUT. The huge tax giveaway sunsets in 2025. Trump vows if elected to extend it. The grassroots fight to tax the rich needs Democrat control of the Presidency and a majority in the House and Senate.

Fascism can be described as “the open, terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, and most imperialist elements of finance capital.” The reality is that we face the gravest fascist danger ever in the 2024 elections. French voters showed the way, youth in the lead, forming the Nouveau Front Populaire and defeating the fascist “National Rally Party.” If we defeat Trump and the MAGA Republicans, it will open the way for our broad coalition – labor unions, all races and nationalities, all genders, unite – to push ahead and win our progressive agenda.

To paraphrase: If he rants & raves like a fascist, waddles like a fascist, most likely he is a fascist.

Image: Protest against Donald Trump by Fibonacci Blue (CC BY 2.0)

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