re: #124 Nyet

I agree that fascism led to the loss of democracy. But Mussolini entered the national stage as a politician in elections. Even the Nazis entered through elections. In Brazil, Vargas was installed in a coup, but before that there were elections (though from my brief reading of Brazilian history the elections were more like cronyism.)

Dictatorship - the end of elections - came after democratic elections changed the landscape and ushered in hyper-nationalism .

Now I don’t think the US is about to give up elections any time soon. But here I will note that even this week we have former US Rep. Michelle Bachmann asking why non-taxpayers get to vote.

But I find it frustrating that too many people are giving Trump the out that he’s not really fascist because he’s running in an election.

Even an hour ago, Trump said he wanted the Iowa GOP to throw out Ted Cruz’s victory in the caucus.

As weird as the Iowa caucus is, it is still a type of an election.

And Trump says he believes that Ted’s victory should be thrown out.

Which means that Trump is now campaigning to overturn an election (of sorts.)

An hour ago, Trump repeated that he wants to change the libel laws so he can go after the NYT.

So, yes, call Trump proto-fascist if that makes a difference.