[JustAnotherFan]

If you saw, in any other country, the incumbent strongman president lose an election yet claim victory and fraud, fire the Defense minister, while most of his party members support him or say nothing, you would call it a coup.

I think the odds are low it succeeds, but the past 4 years has opened my eyes about how weak our institutions are. This coup will fail only because Trump is too much of a bumbling fool for the supine enablers in his party to bring it over the finish line. A slightly closer election, a slightly smarter authoritarian, and it would be a different story.

How we go on, knowing the Republican party will go full fascist if they could, is a real doozy.

Bingo, three times. A very low likelihood of the coup succeeding doesn't mean a "zero chance, no chance, none, nada." It is by definition a non-zero probability event. Part of American exceptionalism is not applying the same critical lens to what happens here as they do to what happens in other countries. After all, it's not fascism here, it is just economic nationalism. It isn't wars of aggression here, it is just protecting the homeland. It isn't a police state here, it's just an imperfect attempt at law and order. No biggie.

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How we go on, knowing the Republican party will go full fascist if they could, is a real doozy.

Interesting.  I've always thought that the likelihood of fascism would happen within the Democratic party.  

The right consists of free-market capitalists, who think the individual is the primary political unit, believes in property rights, and is generally distrustful of the administrative state and government solutions to social problems. They view family and civil institutions such as church as needed checks on state power. These people don’t think government should force a business to provide employee birth control or think law should coerce bakers to make cakes against their conscience. They think the solution to bad speech is more speech; the solution to gun violence is more guns. These people talk about “freedom” — the method individual decisions.

The left believes the opposite. These people are distrustful of the excesses and inequality capitalism produces. They give primacy to group rights and identity. They believe factors like race, ethnicity, and gender compose the primary political units. They don’t believe in strong property rights. They believe it is the government’s responsibility to solve social problems. They call for public intervention to “equalize” disparities and render our social fabric more inclusive (as they define it). They believe the free market has failed to solve issues like campaign finance, income inequality, minimum wage, access to healthcare, and righting past injustices. These people talk about “democracy” — the method of collective decisions.

By these definitions the Nazis were firmly on the left. National Socialism was a collectivist authoritarian movement run by “social justice warriors.” That this brand of “justice” benefited only some based on immutable characteristics perfectly aligns with the modern brand. The Nazi ideal embraced identity politics based on the primacy of the people or “volk” and invoked state-based solutions for every possible problem. It was nation-based socialism — the nation being especially important to those who bled in the Great War.

This has to be the dumbest post, yet. Your so-called definitions are a joke. If the Nazis were leftists how do you reconcile that all the Heil Hitler saluting idiots in the streets are participating in the Trump rallies, and physically attacking antifascists? Oh wait, you probably think the antifascists are the real fascists, right?

And this notion that because the political right in this country doesn't believe in socialized medicine (unless it is through the VA or medicaid/medicare) and wants corporations to be free of regulations, that it is somehow the anti-authoritarian alternative to the leftists who do not want cops murdering people in the streets is ... stupid. The right does not consist of free-market capitalists. You can't even find a single free-market capitalist in the Republican party. They all want to use the government to subsidize entire industries (e.g., oil and gas, agriculture) and send in the police to stop impoverished people who dare to operate in grey markets (e.g., selling loosies). The right is okay with the government coercing bakers to let people into their stores without masks, and to coerce coffee shops to serve cops, they just don't want the government to dare be used to recognize the basic humanity of anyone who is not a cis white man.

Just stop, Mick. You have delved deeply into stupidity territory.

[JustAnotherFan]

If you saw, in any other country, the incumbent strongman president lose an election yet claim victory and fraud, fire the Defense minister, while most of his party members support him or say nothing, you would call it a coup.

I think the odds are low it succeeds, but the past 4 years has opened my eyes about how weak our institutions are. This coup will fail only because Trump is too much of a bumbling fool for the supine enablers in his party to bring it over the finish line. A slightly closer election, a slightly smarter authoritarian, and it would be a different story.

How we go on, knowing the Republican party will go full fascist if they could, is a real doozy.

Bingo, three times. A very low likelihood of the coup succeeding doesn't mean a "zero chance, no chance, none, nada." It is by definition a non-zero probability event. Part of American exceptionalism is not applying the same critical lens to what happens here as they do to what happens in other countries. After all, it's not fascism here, it is just economic nationalism. It isn't wars of aggression here, it is just protecting the homeland. It isn't a police state here, it's just an imperfect attempt at law and order. No biggie.

---

How we go on, knowing the Republican party will go full fascist if they could, is a real doozy.

Interesting.  I've always thought that the likelihood of fascism would happen within the Democratic party.  

The right consists of free-market capitalists, who think the individual is the primary political unit, believes in property rights, and is generally distrustful of the administrative state and government solutions to social problems. They view family and civil institutions such as church as needed checks on state power. These people don’t think government should force a business to provide employee birth control or think law should coerce bakers to make cakes against their conscience. They think the solution to bad speech is more speech; the solution to gun violence is more guns. These people talk about “freedom” — the method individual decisions.

The left believes the opposite. These people are distrustful of the excesses and inequality capitalism produces. They give primacy to group rights and identity. They believe factors like race, ethnicity, and gender compose the primary political units. They don’t believe in strong property rights. They believe it is the government’s responsibility to solve social problems. They call for public intervention to “equalize” disparities and render our social fabric more inclusive (as they define it). They believe the free market has failed to solve issues like campaign finance, income inequality, minimum wage, access to healthcare, and righting past injustices. These people talk about “democracy” — the method of collective decisions.

By these definitions the Nazis were firmly on the left. National Socialism was a collectivist authoritarian movement run by “social justice warriors.” That this brand of “justice” benefited only some based on immutable characteristics perfectly aligns with the modern brand. The Nazi ideal embraced identity politics based on the primacy of the people or “volk” and invoked state-based solutions for every possible problem. It was nation-based socialism — the nation being especially important to those who bled in the Great War.

This has to be the dumbest post, yet. Your so-called definitions are a joke. If the Nazis were leftists how do you reconcile that all the Heil Hitler saluting idiots in the streets are participating in the Trump rallies, and physically attacking antifascists? Oh wait, you probably think the antifascists are the real fascists, right?

And this notion that because the political right in this country doesn't believe in socialized medicine (unless it is through the VA or medicaid/medicare) and wants corporations to be free of regulations, that it is somehow the anti-authoritarian alternative to the leftists who do not want cops murdering people in the streets is ... stupid. The right does not consist of free-market capitalists. You can't even find a single free-market capitalist in the Republican party. They all want to use the government to subsidize entire industries (e.g., oil and gas, agriculture) and send in the police to stop impoverished people who dare to operate in grey markets (e.g., selling loosies). The right is okay with the government coercing bakers to let people into their stores without masks, and to coerce coffee shops to serve cops, they just don't want the government to dare be used to recognize the basic humanity of anyone who is not a cis white man.

Just stop, Mick. You have delved deeply into stupidity territory.