I recently rewatched a clip of Ronald Reagan who said that when fascism comes to America it will be in the guise of liberalism. This is the sort of twisted thinking the right wing has always been guilty of. It made me go back to the dictionary and reread what is meant by fascism. Here goes:

fascism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

How can it be any clearer that what Trump, the GOP, right wing Congressional leaders, Christian Nationalist leaders, and Trump’s ardent supporters are pushing toward is fascism? But then again, Trump and his followers are not the kind to look up the definition of a word even though it takes about ten seconds to do so.

When the entirety of what you espouse comes from a deep desire to lash out at others and the system, and to blindly accept the words of manipulators as truth, then fascism can be the result. And this fascism, despite Reagan’s pretense as a good American, comes from the Right and not the Left.

History holds some wonderful lessons, but it is forgotten within two generations. Think of the insanity of the 1940s that led to the death and suffering of more than 50,000,000 human beings, and untold animals, sparked by the rise and fomentation of fascist ideas. The US rallied and fought a protracted and horrific war to free the world from fascism, including under the banner of Nazism. The generation of fighters and the war effort is all but gone. And here we are a few generations later and we had a US president encouraging the overthrow of our democracy and who now promises to be a dictator if reelected, and who regurgitates the fascist words of Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler.

Can a sentiment from the word’s most infamous fascist — Hitler — be anything other than fascist rhetoric?

There are some people who see that the mistreatment and subjugation of others always leads to mass suffering and destruction. Such people are on the left of the political spectrum. And there are others who have no insight into what their beliefs and actions — even if the action is the support of a politician who is a lifetime criminal grifter without a moral compass — will lead to. The latter group pulls everyone into a cyclone and their concerns are self-centered and materialistic.

I have often wondered if so much of the rhetoric of the Right, which by the way is not really conservative by definition, is not even believed by its own leaders. Instead, it is designed to rally people to a cause whose purpose is to consolidate more power and money. Most people are fundamentally selfish, greedy, angry, and very attached to what they have; they fear and resist change. If you want to appeal to these people for your own selfish reasons then you have to exploit this mindset. The political right has this down to a science.