ext_36709 ([identity profile] steepholm.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] steepholm 2017-01-30 11:59 am (UTC)

That's selective enough to be highly misleading. Fascists will use whatever tools are to hand to advance their aims. For a while Mussolini used the language of revolutionary socialism (against the actual Socialist party in Italy), then threw it over in favour of nationalism - though he kept the feature of a one-party state. Trump, similarly, has harnessed popular resentment against political and business elites to gain power. Both men were thin-skinned narcissists who were quite happy to encourage and/or use violence to achieve their ends and to scapegoat the vulnerable.

Actually, Mussolini parasitized socialist politics in much the way that Trump did the Republican party - using its machinery and resources for his personal ends. Much will depend now on whether the GOP (in concert with the checks and balances inherent in the constitution and courts) will have the wit and will to heave this bloated cuckoo from its nest.

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