Fascism is a form of government which is run from the top down by one man or one party that has complete control. Fascists control the population with strict laws and punishments. They control the economy and the media. Fascism uses propaganda to keep people believing what the leaders want. Fascists push nationalism, discourage immigration, dislike foreigners, are racist, and approve of violence if needed. The ideals of Democracy are a stumbling block to the dictator's plans and goals. Fascists despise any form of government not run by a strongman or a small party which restricts freedom and rules with an iron fist.
NAZI Germany got Fascism in electing Adolf HItler - a bigoted, racist, strongman. In the top-down NAZI Germany society, German Christians were placed at the top of their hierarchy, while German Jews were at the bottom. NAZIs also placed heterosexuals at the top of their hierarchy, while homosexuals were at the bottom.
Recent SCOTUS decisions favoring the Christian point of view over other religions and secularists, and with Clarance Thomas suggesting that Gay Marriage might be on the reversal list as the recent
Dobbs SCOTUS decision eroded and reversed the 1973
Roe SCOTUS decision, further legitimizes America's concern of the Republican march to Fascism.
The most recent Republican president, Donald Trump, a "strongman' who routinely assails political foes and critics as “losers,” whose misogynistic history of denigrating women is unparalleled in American public life, whose rise to the top of the GOP pile by disparaging the physical appearances of his opponents (and, in one case, the wife of an opponent), who railed against Muslims and “sh*thole countries,” who called for locking up his political rival, who worships revenge and lives on spite, who denounced journalists as “the enemy of the people,” who relishes conjuring up ugly and dismissive nicknames for his political adversaries, whose entire political project is built upon denigration and vilification is a prime example of the Republican march to Fascism.
Polls show that a large proportion of the Republican base are willing to give up democracy if it means that white people must share power with nonwhites. In practice their vision of new America will entrench white conservative minority rule over an increasingly diverse and pluralistic majority.
Echoing Trump, These Republicans Won’t Promise to Accept 2022 ResultsNo matter how often Republicans claim to believe in democracy or claim to respect the Constitution and the rule of law, that is obviously untrue. What they really want is a fake or "managed" democracy in which white conservatives (along with their Black and brown sycophants and collaborators) are guaranteed to hold power for all time and where dissent and resistance is suppressed as much as possible.
Republicans use disinformation as one tactic being deployed in tandem with another propaganda tool tactic: gaslighting
Gaslighting is when authoritarians deny their own efforts to impose an authoritarian regime. The GOP has been engaged in gaslight fascism since the January 6 riot, refusing to fully acknowledge the assault for what it was: a rampage of domestic terrorists who had been directed by Trump toward the Capitol and who tried to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power. Over two-thirds of Republican voters believe the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, and almost three-quarters believe that “left wing protestors” are responsible for January 6th and Trump bears no responsibility.
America is running out of time to treat this crisis with the urgency that it demands. While Republican march to Fascism is not new, their march to Fascism is being sped-up exponentially. There has long been an asymmetry in American politics. The GOP, going back to McCarthyism, has wielded falsehoods and paranoia to cast its political enemies as malevolent and nefarious threats to the nation - as literal enemies of the state.
Recent news articles show that Americans are (finally!) waking up to the danger of the Republican Fascists and their movement. It is now a moral, patriotic and personal imperative for the entire nation to wake-up and face its historical responsibility and to vote accordingly in November 2022's midterms.
