Plenty of conservatives would concur with Daily Kos writer Mark Sumner that Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is a fascist. They certainly would not agree with Sumner’s belief that the GOP as a whole has become increasingly aligned with fascism “since at least 1994.”
Sumner contended in a Sunday article that beginning in “the time of the Gingrich,” Republicans “realized they could simultaneously weaken the government, complain about the failure of programs they had just sabotaged, and create a perpetual-motion machine of government destruction…Republicans [would] take on anything, no matter how insane, so long as it kept dragging the conversation ever rightward.”
As for Sumner’s definition of fascism, he posited that it’s “conservatism run amok…conservatism shorn of moderation driven by empathy…conservatism that has hitched its wagon to hate, fear, and unreason.”
From Sumner’s piece (bolding added):
Donald Trump is a fascist…
[His] aggressive, monocultural, corporatized nationalism is fascism…
And with or without Donald Trump, this is where the GOP has been going for years…
…Conservatism does not equal fascism. Fascism is simply what results from conservatism run amok, from conservatism shorn of moderation driven by empathy. It’s conservatism that has hitched its wagon to hate, fear, and unreason. It’s also where the modern GOP has been inexorably going since at least 1994.
…[E]ven in the Reagan era, Republicans felt they had to move with some level of reasonable caution…[I]t wasn't until the time of the Gingrich that Republicans realized they could simultaneously weaken the government, complain about the failure of programs they had just sabotaged, and create a perpetual-motion machine of government destruction…
Republicans [would] take on anything, no matter how insane, so long as it kept dragging the conversation ever rightward.
Destroying the EPA and OSHA aren’t exclusively Mr. Trump’s ideas. They’re now “mainstream” Republican positions, along with getting rid of the IRS and funding what little remains of the government via flat taxes, sales taxes, and user fees.
Throwing people out of the country—including changing the definition of citizen from those born here, to those born here to the right parents—that’s not [just] Trump. That’s the GOP. That’s Trump…and Cruz. And Rubio…
Gleefully surpassing the votes of minorities. Burying the idea of free speech under a mountain of paid speech. Destroying programs that support the poor…
They’ve eaten away at the effectiveness of the government…and then stood up to point the finger at government ineffectiveness. And it’s worked…Over and over again.
Why? Because hate…
You’re a party based on obscure, unproven economic theories? Hey, add racism and sexism…[T]here’s always authoritarianism and military hawks…[W]eld on religious extremists. And xenophobes…
…That economic theory? It’s no longer the elephant. It’s barely even the tail. The guys cheering for Trump don’t care about the tax rate. They’re just there for the chance to draw that line around some group of Americans they can label as “other.”
