re: #120 freetoken

Trump is definitely doing the strongman/authoritarian thing.

But I disagree with you about the fascism. If you look at Italy or Brazil in the 1930’s and 1940’s, a great deal of the fascism was about nationalism, about creating an idealistic nation based on the past glories (Italy) or some mythical better man (Brazil).

The directing of private companies (in Trump’s case, Ford, Nabisco, etc.) to serve what a strongman considers best for a Nation does indeed strike as fascism.

Necessary for fascism was the rejection of democracy (Putin’s Russia with its falsified elections fulfills this criterion), whereas Trump is acting within the democratic system as of yet. So I think unless we are using “fascist” as an insult (and I’m not against that), he doesn’t qualify as of yet. Proto-fascist/fascistoid fits better, IMHO.