Robert Reich: Donald Trump's Attempt to Destroy Press Freedom Is Reminiscent of 1930's Fascists

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/36883-focus-donald-trumps-attempt-to-destroy-press-freedom-is-reminiscent-of-1930s-fascists

f Donald Trump’s many fascistic tendencies, his treatment of the media -- "disgusting reporters" he calls them – replicates the tactics of demagogues since the 1930s:

1. Banning not just reporters but even publications that have covered him negatively from covering at his public events, while giving campaign credentials to extremist outlets like “Political Cesspool,” a radio show that labels itself "pro-white.”

2. Inciting crowds against the media.Trump regularly whips his crowds into an anti-media frenzy and urges his fans to boo the press pen. Hostile rhetoric toward the press is a staple of his events. "I would never kill them, but I do hate them," he said of the press in December. "And some of them are such lying, disgusting people."

3. Throwing reporters out of Trump rallies. Last weekend, Michael Mayo, a columnist for Florida's Sun-Sentinel, was threatened with arrest if he didn’t leave a Trump rally in West Boca after he entered through the public line and tried to film protesters. The campaign has reportedly begun to intersperse plainclothes security officers amid the crowd to root out anyone who is not a true Trump fan.

[pampango]

1. I think Trump should be compared to 1920's Fascists (when they were campaigning for power) rather

than the 1930's version directly.

What fascists did in the 1930's was a logical extension of the nature of their 1920's parties but most people who voted for fascists in the 1920's and early 30's did not envision the totalitarian horror that fascists would later bring. They largely supported fascist ...

... promises to revive the economy (by unspecified means), to restore German greatness and overturn the Treaty of Versailles, and to save Germany from communism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Party#Rise_to_power:_1925.E2.80.931933

One can see the same themes in Trump's campaign: promises to help the middle class (by unspecified means), to "Make America Great Again", overturn NAFTA, the WTO, the Iran agreement and every other international agreement and save the US from the 'socialism' of Bernie or from corrupt-Hillary.

When people say that Trump is no 'Hitler' or 'Mussolini', they are right in the sense that he is not now what they became once they were in power. And MAYBE he never would become the 1930's version of those fascists. But neither did most Germans and Italians in the 1920's envision the fascist horrors that would come in the 1930's.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. The correct term is proto-fascism. nt

[appal_jack]

2. The Democrats will surely field a robust opposition to fascism...

...oh, wait:



-app

[FlatBaroque]

3. HAH! Beat me to it!

[appal_jack]

4. If we didn't laugh, we'd cry... nt

[Octafish]

5. First Amendment is why Freedom

One little sentence does the trick.

[davidn3600]

7. What about FOX News?

First amendment applies to all, not just those you agree with.

May progressives even have trouble with this concept.

[Octafish]

8. That's why Fairness Doctrine was so important.

Applied and worked until Reagan and his successors.