The embrace of fascism in the 21st century

PLUS: How Donald Trump will make the crisis at the US-Mexico border even worse

There is another simple and direct question that must be asked of Ambassador Nikki Haley. The answer she gives will be of astounding importance. It determines her elemental fitness for the American presidency at a time of escalating global crisis and political instability in the United States. 

In August 2023, during the first GOP presidential candidate debate, she raised her hand — along with all other Republican candidates with the exception of Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson — when asked the following question:

If former President Trump is convicted in a court of law, would you still support him as your party's choice? Please raise your hand if you would.

Based on Donald Trump’s comments at a rally in Durham, New Hampshire, on Saturday, I would like to know her answer to the following question:

Heinrich Himmler, Martin Bormann and Hermann Göring all cut Hitler loose at the very, very end and ran away. Do you identify more with them, or with Joseph Goebbels, who stuck it out to the bitter end and helped his wife poison their six children before committing suicide with her so that they wouldn’t have to live in a world without national socialism? I am asking for 340 million people who have a vested interest in your answer — regardless of party — because, increasingly, it seems you may be the only person who can defeat Donald Trump, but what’s the point if you’re him in a dress?

Here is why this matters. Absorb these paragraphs from a story by Isaac Arnsdorf of The Washington Post. They are trying to communicate the overt and direct embrace of 20th century fascism 23 years into the 21st century, and 78 years after Adolf Hitler blew his brains out in a dank Berlin bunker. 

DURHAM, N.H. — Republican polling leader Donald Trump approvingly quoted autocrats Vladimir Putin of Russia and Viktor Orban of Hungary, part of an ongoing effort to deflect from his criminal prosecutions and spin alarms about eroding democracy against President Biden.

His speech at a presidential campaign rally here on Saturday also reprised dehumanizing language targeting immigrants that historians have likened to past authoritarians, including a reference that some civil rights advocates and experts in extremism have compared to Adolf Hitler’s fixation on blood purity.

And he used the term “hostages” to describe people charged with violent crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol.

The comments came as experts, historians and political opponents have voiced growing alarm about Trump’s rhetoric, ideas and emerging plans for a second term, pointing to parallels to past and present authoritarian leaders.

“Donald Trump sees American democracy as a sham and he wants to convince his followers to see it that way too,” said Jennifer Mercieca, a professor at Texas A&M University who researches democracy and rhetoric. “Putin hates western values like democracy and the rule of law, so does Trump.”

Trump quoted Putin, the dictatorial Russia president who invaded neighboring Ukraine, criticizing the criminal charges against Trump, who is accused in four separate cases of falsifying business records in a hush money scheme, mishandling classified documents, and trying to overturn the 2020 election results. In the quotation, Putin agreed with Trump’s own attempts to portray the prosecutions as politically motivated.

It is of paramount importance to understand the difference between Trump and a mentally ill prop like Roseanne Barr, who is like a MAGA-era bearded lady. Watch the crowd of young people extremists grow deathly silent as Roseanne Barr rants and raves. She is simply a crazy person spouting — and there is nothing novel about that in America:

Again on Saturday, as he has done previously, Trump recited ‘The Snake,’ a song written by civil rights activist Oscar Brown in 1963 and a hit for soul star Al Wilson five years later. Trump uses it as a cautionary tale against accepting immigrants into the United States. Trump is a political leader was being cheered by the Durham crowd whipped into a frenzy by his racism, nationalism and venomous menace. Here are the words that bring the Trump crowd into a state of existential frenzy and fury:

On her way to work one morning,

Down the path alongside the lake,

A tender-hearted woman saw a poor half-frozen snake.

His pretty-colored skin had been all frosted with the dew.

“Oh well,” she cried, “I’ll take you in and I'll take care of you.”

“Take me in oh tender woman,

“Take me in, for heaven's sake,

“Take me in oh tender woman,” sighed the snake.

She wrapped him up all cozy in a curvature of silk

And then laid him by the fireside with some honey and some milk .

Now she hurried home from work that night as soon as she arrived.

She found that pretty snake she’d taken in had been revived.

“Take me in, oh tender woman ,

“Take me in, for heaven’s sake,

“Take me in oh tender woman,” sighed the snake.

Now she clutched him to her bosom, “You’re so beautiful,” she cried.

“But if I hadn’t brought you in by now you might have died.”

Now she stroked his pretty skin and then she kissed and held him tight .

But instead of saying thanks, that snake gave her a vicious bite.

“Take me in, oh tender woman,

“Take me in, for heaven’s sake,

“Take me in oh tender woman,” sighed the snake.

“I saved you,” cried that woman.

“And you've bit me even, why?

“You know your bite is poisonous and now I’m going to die.”

“Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin,

“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in,

”Take me in, oh tender woman.

This is a call for erasure of our nation, our civilization, our future, our peace, our happiness and our children’s future, lives and rights.

There have never been words that have ever passed the lips of an American president, former president or aspiring president like what was said by Donald Trump in Durham, New Hampshire. His rally was an assault on Americanism. What it has triggered is a milquetoast statement from Andrew Bates, deputy White House press secretary:

"Echoing the grotesque rhetoric of fascists and violent white supremacists and threatening to oppress those who disagree with the government are dangerous attacks on the dignity and rights of all Americans, on our democracy, and on public safety.

The response is weak and unacceptable.

There is another Washington Post story that is important to read today, and it is good news. It shows that the president is frustrated and growling at his thus far cosmically inept political operation that has led to the annihilation of his approval levels, reelection support and the reinvigoration of the fascist cause.

It is time for the White House to fight back against the threat to the country all day, every day, seven days a week. It must be answered with an embrace of Americanism, which is also an antidote for the moral sickness infesting so much of the broken, brittle, Ivy League left.

Fight back.

Fight back for America.

Fight back for the future of America.

2024 will be an epic year. Get involved.

Everything is on the line.

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VIDEO COMMENTARY: Trump’s border crisis

Today, I also break down Donald Trump's latest rhetoric on the US-Mexico border, and why it could cause danger for our entire democracy:

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