CNN: Why some conservatives say Trump talk is fascist

[IDemo]

Conservative warnings about Donald Trump have grown increasingly somber. At first he was just an entertainer; then he became a worrisome distraction, and soon, there was fear that he would permanently scar the reputation of the Republican Party*.

But it was after Trump started calling for stronger surveillance of Muslim-Americans in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks that a handful of conservatives ventured to call Trump's rhetoric something much more dangerous: fascism.

Since launching his campaign this summer, the billionaire real estate magnate has regularly deployed inflammatory rhetoric about immigrants -- particularly regarding Latinos -- and repeatedly raised the alarm about foreigners entering the country. That has escalated following the series of shooting rampages and explosions in Paris this month allegedly perpetrated by ISIS and amid a national debate over accepting Syrian refugees.

Most striking has been Trump's aim at Muslims in the United States. He's been widely denounced for claiming that people in New Jersey — a state with "large Arab populations," he said — cheered after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. That, coupled with his seeming endorsement of a national registry to track Muslims in the country, has sparked a new level of condemnation from conservatives already on edge about Trump's endurance.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/24/politics/donald-trump-fascism/index.html

* - Roughly 35 years too late for that.

[KG]

1. a shitbag pandering to shitbags. what's so hard about that....

[Mendocino]

2. His autobography

will be called "Mein Trumpf".

[IDemo]

3. Or "Seig Hair"

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Well played, both of you.

[truebluegreen]

4. Because it is?

What's really surprising is if they actually have a problem with it.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Exactly. He just got a lot creepier, and both sides should be having a huge problem with it! n/t

[951-Riverside]

5. The Don is Done

He overplayed his cards.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Can anyone clear up a point about the 'dictionary definition'?

Academics who study fascism say that while Trump seems to have an authoritarian sensibility, his behavior doesn't meet the dictionary definition of fascism. The term describes an overtly anti-democratic movement that suppresses all opposition as a way to fulfill political goals, and a fascist leader is a dictator that wishes to exercise complete control, even by condoning violence.

Were Mussolini or Hitler explicitly anti-democratic before they achieved power, or was it only after that that they said elections were a bad thing? Trump has, of course, condoned violence, as the article details later.

[C_U_L8R]

9. Mein Trumpf

is merely a reflection of the Republican cesspool.