(06-10-2021, 12:14 PM)mikesez Wrote:

(06-10-2021, 06:52 AM)Race Bannon Wrote: Fascism is a heretical variant of communism, a rival movement, with both ideologies being properly categorized on the Left.  The polar opposite if each is American style Constitutional liberties based on private property and the individual as the supreme political unit, with free cultural institutions as the primary sustainers of human flourishing.

American conservatism remains as the last bulwark in the world against all of the socialist modes if thought  - national socialism and Soviet socialism.

There's more than one way to describe the political spectrum or compass.  Yours is fine but it's not the only one.
I think you'll agree with me that Trump was not a great defender of private property or of individuals or of private cultural institutions other than Fox News.
As he's not a great fit for "the right" on this spectrum, it's not inconsistent to say he has commonalities with "the left" on it, including with the fascists.

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I don't disagree at all with what you are saying.  In fact, if one removes the Third Reich's race theories from the equation -- which causes everyone to shut down their brain and make "fascist" a synonym with "bad," when in fact they should be thinking of Franco, Mussolini, ISIS, etc. -- people would be well-served to understand how deeply we are constantly flirting with fascism all over the world, and in the USA.  
Fascism is a form of post-Marxist thought that says "keep the socialism, keep the idea of looking out for the common man (the volk!), keep the transformative, powerful central government, but also keep the nation-state, the culture, the institutions, and the corporations -- just make them all in service of a collectivist goal."  It's easy to see why it gets mistakenly thought of as some extreme form of conservatism -- because it is the "conservative" version of Marxism, one that preserves parts of the existing order but amplifies them in service of a collective state.
Fascism is indeed the real danger around the corner -- but the Democrats do not seem to see that they are the fascist threat, one that has re-packaged the same rhetoric, and the same tactics, but purports to be acting on behalf of those in an identarian group -- all sorts of minorities that add up to a huge majority.  The world's Leftists have found a way to "re-wire" the basic framework of Marxism, but to surgically implant a transcendent good for the "oppressed" identitarians, instead of the "worker."
The thing that Marxism and Fascism were always missing was a religion -- and Wokeness now supplies that.

The reason Trump scares them so much is he talks like they do when it comes to things like limited government (or lack thereof), controlling spending (or lack thereof), and the things that government can do (like making America great).  Trump is truly the fulfillment of the Left-Right that Democrats have brought about.  
But I think the times are such that we must win national elections with candidates standing on the correct side, generally speaking -- Trump is an empty vessel, a reckless cannon, but his animal instincts are correct in almost every occasion.

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