Ten simple things MAGAs can do to stop any confusion about their movement being “fascist”
It was heartening to hear, after staging a rally at Madison Square Gardens with troubling historical echoes, that Mr Trump was told by his dad never to use the word “Nazi”. He may not have done well in his history classes. But no matter.
It remains clear that, if such verbal self-censorship and restriction of free speech (wokeism?) is a premise, it doesn’t follow that Trump Junior is not doing things which can only be reasonably interpreted as neofascist.
To build on Trump Senior’s sage advice, but pass from words to things, here are ten things MAGA fans can do to end all talk of “fascism”, based on the political scientific literature accumulated since the 1930s on far right political movements.
If MAGA was to adopt even, say, 5–7 of these easy tips, I think the debate would be over. We could all agree that the Generals, staffers, commentators, and scholars who do claim that MAGA is neofascist, and getting worse, are all mistaken.
And that would be a good thing.
1. Commit to peaceful transition of power
Commit to the nonviolent transition of power, accepting the election results, especially if Leader happens to lose. Even Hitler did this…