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Trump’s Fascism
In the days before the American election, Trump has shown what America could look like under a second Trump term. For the last 4 years I have been pointing to parallels between Trump and the European leaders of the 1930s. Using words like Fascism upsets plenty of people. They do not understand that we are not saying that Fascism is always the same. It is an attitude, and a set of actions, not a precise copy of Fascism-past.
We have seen so much, especially over the last year, as Trump has grown in confidence, particularly after the Republican Senate told him he was above the law and failed even to hear his impeachment trial. In amongst all the noise though, two things stood out for me over the last few days.
The first is when Biden visited Texas just before the election. A convoy of armed men in trucks, with Trump flags flying from their vehicles, surrounded Biden’s campaign bus and tried to force it off the road. To many, the image of trucks of armed men with flags flying reminded them of ‘Islamic State.’ They are now being investigated by the FBI.
The second was Trump’s response to this: he embraced it, joking that they were welcoming Biden, were just nice guys. This was menacing, and a change from the last few years. He made no effort even to pretend this was anything other than his people, with guns, taking on his opponent.
