If we're going to insult each other – and Lord knows we are – we at least ought to agree on the terminology.
I'm talking about “fascist” and “fascism,” which seem to be pretty much bipartisan in their use.
For instance, someone named Nick Licata on a web site called becomingcitizenactivist.org, points out that when running for his second term, “Trump referred to the Biden administration as a 'fascist government,' weaponizing federal agencies (DOJ, FBI) against him and conservatives.”
Conversely, according to Licata, “at an August, 2022 DNC fundraiser, President Joe (Biden) told the audience, 'It's not just Trump. It's the entire philosophy that underpins the – I'm going to say something – it's like semi-fascism.”
So even the guys at the top look at their opponent and see a fascist.
“Could somebody please write something defining fascism accurately?” my crusty old conservative colleague from Casper asked. He's frustrated that he keeps hearing people use the term, and about half of them don't seem to know what the ding-dong heck a fascist is.
So, here we go. (This Casper guy has been good column fodder for decades, so I'm game.)
The Merriam Webster Dictionary (I looked it up so you don't have to), says this:
“Fascism. Noun.”
“often Fascism: a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascist) that exalts nation and often, race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition.”
Second definition: “A tendency toward actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control.”
The guy most often associated with fascism was Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator whose constituents were so unimpressed with fascism that they shot him while he was trying to escape the country in 1945, and put his body on display, hanging from his ankles in a memorable moment in photographic history.
The term is most often used by our Democrat friends, who believe Trump is a fascist.
However, when you consider that almost everything Trump tries to accomplish is opposed by some federal district court judge somewhere, and everything he tries is apparently headed for the Supreme Court to decide, that doesn't sound like “dictatorial” power to me. Sounds kind of iffy.
And, with a razor-thin majority in the House, and filibusters a fact of life in the Senate, Trump comes up pretty short when it comes to imposing “severe economic and social regimentation.”
And, when it comes to “forcible suppression of opposition,” I don't think of National Guard troops making Washington, DC, safe for pedestrians again.
No, I think about the 93 criminal charges our Democrat friends dreamed up to keep Trump from seeking a second term. And I think of that bogus Russian collusion allegation that cost millions to investigate, and came up empty.
If you prefer that second definition of fascism, I'd say Trump falls short on “strong autocratic or dictatorial control,” given the constant and loud carping by the governors of California, Illinois, New York, Minnesota, that attorney general in New York, and the mayor of Chicago, to simply oppose everything Trump stands for.
They prefer crime over Trump.
Sounds like some pretty weak-sauce dictatorial power, if you ask me.
Especially at a time when the socialist leading in the race for mayor of New York says his plan is to get control of “the means of production,” control rent, make public transportation free, and even open government grocery stores to make a head of lettuce cheaper.
Now, that's what I call “strong autocratic or dictatorial control.” But so far I haven't heard anyone call Zohran Mandami a fascist.
Used to be, our insults didn't take a dictionary to figure out.
When someone told you, “Your mother wears army boots,” or called you “a scum-sucking pig” (a great line from the movie “One Eyed Jacks”), it couldn't be clearer. Case closed.
I think what our Democrat friends really want to say, for the millionth time, is that Trump is a dictator, or a “despot” (a ruler with absolute power). And they hate everything about him.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We get that. You hate him.
But, when they throw around the word fascist, I just don't think they've taken the time to look the word up in the dictionary.
Like we have.
Dave Simpson can be contacted at DaveSimpson145@hotmail.com
