Trump is a fascist.

[Syt]

I'm a layman, but isn't, though the system may function similarly, Fascism rooted in national exceptionalism, whereas Communism pays at least lip service to the equality of races and nations?

[Josquius]

Depends what you mean by communism.
Stalinism certainly is just fascism with a bit of red paint. Many other forms of communism (real and especially theoretical)...rather different.

[alfred russel]

I'm a layman, but isn't, though the system may function similarly, Fascism rooted in national exceptionalism, whereas Communism pays at least lip service to the equality of races and nations?

Nationalist struggle in fascist countries can be substituted with class warfare in communist ones.

[Eddie Teach]

Okay, then why don't you come up with a synonym for "authoritarian" that rolls off the tongue quite as easily as "fascist"?

I wonder how much of this stuff he feels strongly about himself and how much he is just saying to appeal to the worst of people (the Republican right) and try and trick his way into government so he can pull some dodgy libertarian bollocks.

This sounds a bit like projecting. Guller and Tim are civil libertarians so they see Trump as a Nazi, Tyr is old school Labour, so he sees Trump as a vestige of the Gilded Age.

[Eddie Teach]

Stalinism certainly is just fascism with a bit of red paint.

Stalin was a Georgian, I hardly think his guiding philosophy was one of Russian exceptionalism.

[alfred russel]

Above all, what does Trump believe in? Draconian immigration stances get the headlines, but what Trump's career has really been about, and what he continues to lobby for today, is capitalism. He strongly advocates capitalism and is proposing slashing taxes to an even more massive extent than most of the "starve the beast" advocates in the republican party.

[Malthus]

My take on Trump is that he lacks any sort of coherent ideology, aside from consistent self-aggrandizement as a business promoter and belittling of opponents. The problem is that he will say (and, presumably, do) whatever he feels at the time, regardless of how stupid, offensive, or lacking in factual or rational basis it may be.  Thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated 9/11? Trump remembers seeing that, and if you claim it did not in fact happen, he'll mock you. That's about as deep as his political philosophy goes.

[DGuller]

I'm a layman, but isn't, though the system may function similarly, Fascism rooted in national exceptionalism, whereas Communism pays at least lip service to the equality of races and nations?

Nationalist struggle in fascist countries can be substituted with class warfare in communist ones.

That is a major difference, and that's the only one.  The reason Russians at home and abroad are so fascist in their politics is that it isn't a great leap from where they started.

[DGuller]

My take on Trump is that he lacks any sort of coherent ideology, aside from consistent self-aggrandizement as a business promoter and belittling of opponents. The problem is that he will say (and, presumably, do) whatever he feels at the time, regardless of how stupid, offensive, or lacking in factual or rational basis it may be.  Thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated 9/11? Trump remembers seeing that, and if you claim it did not in fact happen, he'll mock you. That's about as deep as his political philosophy goes.

I would again say that what Trump believes may not matter that much.  What matters is the people he appeals to, and how he appeals to them.  You can't stir up the ugliness in people on demand.  Once you go there, you touch off processes that will continue going on their own.

[Grinning_Colossus]

Trump isn't himself a fascist, but he's running on a fascist-ish platform because it works and he likes the attention.

[Malthus]

My take on Trump is that he lacks any sort of coherent ideology, aside from consistent self-aggrandizement as a business promoter and belittling of opponents. The problem is that he will say (and, presumably, do) whatever he feels at the time, regardless of how stupid, offensive, or lacking in factual or rational basis it may be.  Thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated 9/11? Trump remembers seeing that, and if you claim it did not in fact happen, he'll mock you. That's about as deep as his political philosophy goes.

I would again say that what Trump believes may not matter that much.  What matters is the people he appeals to, and how he appeals to them.  You can't stir up the ugliness in people on demand.  Once you go there, you touch off processes that will continue going on their own.

It's a good point. The popularity of Trump is very concerning.

[Barrister]

Trump is not a fascist.

Fascism did have an identifiable political ideology, and was not merely synonymous with "bad right-wing politician".  Fascism believed in nationalism, but also believed in the national struggle.  That warfare did not weaken a country, but in fact would make it stronger, both socially and militarily.  Fascism believed in might makes right, and that the strong should dominate the weak. 

(obviously a definition in three lines is incomplete at best, but it's a good starting point)

What Trump is is a demagogue.  He has no identifiable political philosophy at all.  He gains attention by appealing to voters emotions, fears and prejudices.

[crazy canuck]

Can't cut and paste where I'm at right now, but he checks off 5 out of 9 of Paxton's passions (he wrote The Anatomy of Fascism).

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/11/donald-trump-a-fascist.html

The test is so vague a Soviet Communist could end up with a perfect score under that system.

Which is not at all absurd.  I have no idea where the concept of communism being an antithesis of fascism came from, but that is the absurd notion.  There are far more similarities than differences between the two systems.

It is absurd. There may be lots of similarities between the systems in practice and they may not be the antithesis of each other, but communism is not a synonym for fascism.

But what occurred in Soviet Russia was at times much closer to fascism then communism if you insist on a characterizing is as one or the other rather than accepting that Soviet Russia had significant fascist elements to it.

[crazy canuck]

Trump is not a fascist.

Fascism did have an identifiable political ideology, and was not merely synonymous with "bad right-wing politician".  Fascism believed in nationalism, but also believed in the national struggle.  That warfare did not weaken a country, but in fact would make it stronger, both socially and militarily.  Fascism believed in might makes right, and that the strong should dominate the weak. 

(obviously a definition in three lines is incomplete at best, but it's a good starting point)

What Trump is is a demagogue.  He has no identifiable political philosophy at all.  He gains attention by appealing to voters emotions, fears and prejudices.

Dguller's observation is more to the point.  It really doesn't matter if Trump is himself a fascist.  He certainly appeals to fascist tendencies which a demagogue like Trump has apparently no hesitation to exploit.

[DGuller]

Dguller's observation is more to the point.  It really doesn't matter if Trump is himself a fascist.  He certainly appeals to fascist tendencies which a demagogue like Trump has apparently no hesitation to exploit.



But what D

It didn't sound like that "but" was going to be good for me, so I'm glad you stopped there.