First, a fascist is a blood and soil nationalist. That is, he defines the nation in terms of the ethnicity of the majority of its citizens. He invariably believes that all races, religions, and ethnicities except his own are inferior, and anyone who doesn't share the correct race, religion, and/or ethnicity is to be treated as a second class citizen. Iran is a fascist state based on religion. Nazi Germany was a fascist state based on ethnicity.
Second, a fascist is militaristic. He worships military power and its exercise, and often wears military regalia.
Third, a fascist is a totalitarian socialist. In a fascist state the dictator has ultimate control over individual lives as well as the economy, politics, and education. He seeks to centralize authority in himself.
Fourth, a fascist is secretive. The public is not given access to the workings of the central government. The press is controlled by, and is an organ of, the state.
Fifth, a fascist seeks to abrogate the constitution, or reduce it to a meaningless document.
Sixth, a fascist subjects his political enemies to extra-judicial sanctions. Those who oppose him are often tried on phony charges or summarily executed. There's no such thing as a rule of law for citizens of the fascist state.
Fascism, like communism, its ideological cousin, is an evil ideology. It's an ideology not of the right, as many suppose, but of the left, which accounts, at least in part, for why the left has become so comfortable with violence and violent rhetoric. Fascism is evil, the reasoning goes, so, if Trump is a fascist, then violence is justified to keep him and his allies from imposing tyranny on the country.
But how does Trump fit the above six criteria of a fascist?
- Trump loves America, but his love is not based on race, religion, or ethnicity, but on principles like the freedoms enshrined in our Bill of Rights.
- He may be the most averse president in our history to the use of military force, preferring whenever possible to settle disagreements by making "deals" and employing economic levers rather than military coercion.
- He's not a socialist, he's a capitalist who believes in free markets and fair trade, insofar as we're not being exploited by other countries.
- He may be the most open and transparent president in the history of the country. Unlike Mr. Biden, Trump is not hidden away in a basement, sequestered from the media - a media which, despite their hostility, is given unprecedented access to him.
- So far from seeking to abrogate the Constitution, Trump, unlike some previous presidents, appoints jurists to federal and Supreme Court seats whose judicial philosophy is based on a reverence for that document.
- Unlike his predecessor, Trump does not have armed FBI agents raiding Mr. Biden's home and rummaging through Jill Biden's underwear drawer. Nor has he sought to prosecute Mr. Biden in courts of law on frivolous charges as Mr. Biden had done to him.
