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| Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2KyM8j3nR0 |
Getting to the FASCIST characterization: Strib, Oct. 24, 2024, carrying an AP feed:
https://www.startribune.com/what-is-fascism-and-why-does-harris-say-trump-is-a-fascist/601168368
WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris was asked this week if she thought Donald Trump was a fascist, and she replied, ''Yes, I do.'' She subsequently called him the same thing herself, saying voters don't want ''a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.''
But what exactly is a fascist? And does the meaning of the word shift when viewed through a historical or political prism — especially so close to the end of a fraught presidential race?
Here's a closer look:
What is fascism?
An authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is often associated with the far right and characterized by a dictatorial leader who uses military forces to help suppress political and civil opposition.
History's two most famous fascists were Nazi chief Adolf Hitler in Germany and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Known as Il Duce, or ''the duke,'' Mussolini headed the National Fascist Party, which was symbolized by an eagle clutching a fasces — a bundle of rods with an axe among them.
At Mussolini's urging, in October 1922, thousands of ''Blackshirts,'' or ''squadristi,'' made up an armed fascist militia that marched on Rome, vowing to seize power. Hitler's Nazis similarly relied on a militia, known as the ''Brownshirts.'' Both men eventually imposed single-party rule and encouraged violence in the streets. They used soldiers, but also fomented civilian unrest that pit loyalists against political opponents and larger swaths of everyday society.
Hitler and Mussolini censored the press and issued sophisticated propaganda. They played up racist fears and manipulated not just their active supporters but everyday citizens.
Today, the term fascism has taken on a looser political definition and is often evoked as a catch-all for efforts to spread oppression and racism — as well as to decry dictators or leaders who embrace totalitarian tactics.
[...] Does military dictator Augusto Pinochet's 17-year, ironfisted rule in Chile qualify? What about Indonesian strongman Suharto or Spain's Francisco Franco? Were the regimes of Ferenc Szálasi in Hungary and Brazil's Plínio Salgado fascist? Where does American neo-Nazi leader David Duke fit?
Break here to editorialize, Trump wants generals like Pinochet, however else you read that last paragraph. Like him, but with Trump still atop, calling shots. Opinions may differ. Back to Strib:
Harris has been building toward the characterization.Why is Harris calling Trump a fascist?
The vice president has long criticized Trump as being mentally unstable and not a true believer in, or defender of, the nation's founding democratic principles.
She notes that Trump suggested he'd deploy the military to target political opponents, including people he has decried as the ''enemy from within.'' The former president has long talked about attacking his enemies and declared to his supporters that he would be their ''retribution.''
''He's talking about the American people. He's talking about journalists, judges, nonpartisan election officials,'' Harris said Wednesday night at a CNN town hall.
Trump has threatened to take action against television networks and news organizations for coverage he deems unfavorable. And, when now-President Joe Biden challenged him during a 2020 debate to denounce the Proud Boys, Trump replied: ''Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.''
A mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, seeking to overturn Trump's loss to Biden after Trump gave a speech propagating falsehoods about the election and exhorting the crowd to ''fight like hell.'' Among the people imprisoned in connection with Jan. 6 was the leader of the Proud Boys, accused of orchestrating a failed plot to keep Trump in power.
AP tries not to choose sides. Crabgrass has already voted: HARRIS
Blogs can focus on news, but opinions are open game. Sites such as EmptyWheel are not blogs, but focused single topic posts, where commentators then editorialize and link. This site here - it is a blog. Opinion: Trump/Vance poses a danger.
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That thought will not be fleshed out here. Stateside Readers can think it over, and if not having voted already, be certain to have votes counted - while foreign readers can and should use the Internet as best source to trust if using it with diversity, and with globalization marching on the US of A is a big global power people everyone should monitor and study. Crabgrass is but one source, hopefully helpful.
UPDATE: Double negatives in a headline. You can do that in your own blog.