Fascism is the name

Call them what they are: fascists. Benito Mussolini and JD Vance (Photo credit for JD Vance: Jeffrey Dean / AP)

President Biden referred to the MAGA extremist movement as “semi-fascist.”

Predictably, this has triggered great lamentations and eardrum piercing cries from fascists like Jim Jordan, Lindsey Graham, Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

It’s important to understand that these people aren’t “semi-anything.” They are fascists.

English is a fantastic language. It lends itself towards a precision of description that is razor sharp because English words are precise and filled with meaning. It’s a literal language, not an interpretive one. The words, not the intonation, imbues meaning to the sentence, paragraph or statement. There is no such thing as a “semi-fascist.”

There is semi-pro ball, that we now call Minor League Baseball. There are semi- trailers and semi-trucks. There are even semi-conductors, but there are no “semi- fascists.”

Let’s talk about the word “fascist” and its inventor. It was invented by Benito Mussolini. He even gave a speech in which, in essence, he said, “It’s mine; I invented it. This is what it is.” He does make a solid point in this regard.

The racial purity bunkum was driven much more fiercely by the poisoned fruit of the fascist tree. Hitlerism fueled Nazism, which was heavily influenced by fascism. All Nazis were fascists, while not all fascists were Nazis. Nazism became the dominant fascist cancer — and most deadly — because Germany was more powerful than Italy.

Fascism is a political theory around political power. It exists as a matter of history, belief and evolving thought. Pinochet and Franco were both fascists. Viktor Orban is a fascist, and he is certainly preaching an assertive, unmasked, expanding vision of the possible. That is the point of the recent CPAC gathering that I wrote about it.

Punishment and control are the key tools of fascism, which subordinates the individual below the authority of the state and the party that become the same thing. The courts, legislative, regulatory, commercial, education and media institutions exist as appendages of the state, controlled by the state and the party which are one and the same thing. It is a philosophy of authority that is dependent on a maximum leader and a cadre. The American variant in the early 21st century is certainly fascist, though better armed than most of its global peers.

Why is it that Washington, DC, media, political and non-profit organization are allergic to the use of a precise word with a precise meaning that is precisely appropriate?

Why is it necessary to pretend that Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Blake Masters, JD Vance, Doug Mastriano, Kari Lake, Tucker Carlson, Rupert Murdoch, Nikki Haley, Kellyanne Conway and a few thousand more aren’t now opposed to all of the foundational tenets of Americanism and utterly faithless to the US Constitution? They oppose the legitimate outcomes of legitimate elections. Ron DeSantis is a daily practitioner of economic thuggery and coercion. His big government intimidation against the Special Olympics and dozens of other organizations is utterly and absolutely fascistic, which is a word unlike “semi-fascist.”

Donald Trump did something that no American in history has ever been able to do. He killed faith and belief in American democracy within one of the two major political parties. There is no resistance to the extremism, beyond the recently defeated Liz Cheney and retiring Adam Kinzinger in the Republican congressional caucus.  Eight of the 10 Republicans who impeached Trump have either retired or been defeated in low turnout primaries run by the party apparatus that is controlled lock, stock and barrel by the extremist cause.

Perhaps it is the case that the Acela corridor has become so profoundly warped by a social code built on self-interested transactions, that politeness dictates the fascist sitting next to you at a dinner party, who wants to take power by any means necessary, shouldn’t be confronted. This is almost certainly true if the occasion is a pro- democracy celebration by a group like the National Endowment for Democracy that has a mission to “strengthen democratic institutions around the world,” yet maintains Elise Stefanik on its Board of Directors.

Decorum dictates that the practitioners of a new nascent Hitlerism steeped in the same bedrock nonsense of racial purity and replacement dangers as his, be welcome to toast pluralism, freedom and the rule of law at these types of events. This is absolutely the case if the event is a Washington, DC, media dinner. That brings everyone together. All of the transactional partnerships are reaffirmed over a few ritualized events each spring.  The fascist Matt Schlapp — crying crocodile tears to a The New York Times reporter over a joke about pathological liar and fascist theocrat Sarah Huckabee, while being ferried in a limousine to the NBC after party is the all- time greatest example of the astounding hypocrisy of it all.

We live in an era of lies and danger that is growing worse. We are in an hour of national crisis and have been for some time. That crisis is caused by a simple reality.

Fascism. The Republican Party controlled by Donald Trump is a fascist party. Some people delude themselves into believing that the fascists represent them because they disagree with policies from people who believe in democracy.

Historically, the difference is crystal clear. The people who disagree with people who believe in democracy go to Thanksgiving dinners with them.

The people who disagree with the fascists wind up dead. Tens of millions wound up dead, but who’s counting? We’ll just leave it at the “semi-number.”