Ed The Fascism Checklist, Trump 2025

I believe it became obvious early on, and even more obvious given Donny's visible decline recently, that any even slightly complex fascist agenda being driven by the Trump team is coming from the younger, more competent, more vicious, more Einsatzgruppen advisors. Not the old orange toad himself. He's the front man.
 
I believe it became obvious early on, and even more obvious given Donny's visible decline recently, that any even slightly complex fascist agenda being driven by the Trump team is coming from the younger, more competent, more vicious, more Einsatzgruppen advisors. Not the old orange toad himself. He's the front man.
Which is why I believe that they'll happily remove him when he is no longer useful to them.
 
I believe it became obvious early on, and even more obvious given Donny's visible decline recently, that any even slightly complex fascist agenda being driven by the Trump team is coming from the younger, more competent, more vicious, more Einsatzgruppen advisors. Not the old orange toad himself. He's the front man.
I love your paranoia.
 
Which is why I believe that they'll happily remove him when he is no longer useful to them.
True. It is also why we should be ignoring Trump's garbled rants and concentrating on the history and plans of those advisors and backers instead. My short exploration so far indicates a veritable battalion of glittery-eyed Goeths just itching for the opportunity to launch pogroms against invented enemies.
 
Perhaps we should consider what sort of inaugural speech he'll make. Full on fascist or more stable? A demand for Danzig perhaps?
 
Perhaps we should consider what sort of inaugural speech he'll make. Full on fascist or more stable? A demand for Danzig perhaps?
My prediction is that Trump will make his standard the marxist-communist-fascist-loony-liberal-Democrats-and-criminal-immigrants-have-nearly-destroyed-America-and-only-I-can-fix-it speech at his rally on Sunday and then do a 180 and claim that he will unite all Americans on Monday.
 
Trump will talk about what's really important: that his Inauguration Crowd is bigger than last time, which was bigger than Obama's, and if you disagree you are an Enemy of the State.
Doesn't matter what he says. It will be garbled fascist nonsense and mean nothing. Less than nothing. He could be reciting the phone book backwards. Nevertheless, Fox and the talk-backs and the MAGAchuds will lap it up and try to make sense of it. Pareidolia for the right-wing morons.
 
I'd say Franco pretty much checks all the boxes, especially the core ideas of national failure followed by rebirth through ultranationalism under the great unifying leader.
I was in doubt about the „rebirth“ criterium. Or maybe it is so vague that any major change can be termed a rebirth. But I must admit that I know too little about Franco and Falangism.
 
Which is why I believe that they'll happily remove him when he is no longer useful to them.
He is useful as long as he is the only Messiah that can hold MAGA together. If he is incapacitated, can Vance command the same respect? In a dictatorship like Venezuela, an unknown vice-president has managed to take over the reigns and extend the power. Is Vance a Madura?
 
I was in doubt about the „rebirth“ criterium. Or maybe it is so vague that any major change can be termed a rebirth. But I must admit that I know too little about Franco and Falangism.
Same here, but reading though the wiki it looks like his regime took on most of the characteristics of fascism at first (including a sort of rebirth narrative) and then mutated over time, even restoring the monarchy by the end. Here is an excerpt on point:

Francisco Cobo Romero writes that, besides neutering left-wing advances by using an essentially antiliberal brand of ultranationalism, "in its attempt to emulate Fascism, Francoism resorted to the sacralization and mystification of the motherland, raising it into an object of cult, and coating it with a liturgic divinization of its leader".​

More on sacralization here.
 
1. Censor the media
I don't expect we'll actually see much of this, beyond vague threats to pull FCC licenses or lead MAGA boycotts.
2. Change election laws in such a way that opposition parties will never win.
Even deep red states occasionally elect a Democrat into local office or a Congressional seat, so never is a very strong claim. I wouldn't be surprised at extensions of common disenfranchisement tactics, e.g. ID laws which include gun licenses but not university issued cards.
3. Weaponise the judicial system and DOJ to investigate and prosecute dissenters.
I fully expect we will see more of this, as we did with Hunter Biden.
4. Give tax cuts to the wealthy and oligarchs to have their continued support.
This is a gimme; Reagan did it, Bush did it, Trump did it last time.
5. Internment camps for immigrants.
I'm on the fence here. American voters favor mass deportation but would likely balk at footage of camps.
6. Give the police unchecked power.
Nope; Chauvin wannabes will still face trial.
7. Use the military on protesters.
Probably not going to happen, in part because we won't see that much mass protest this time around.
8. Defund education.
At the federal level, no doubt.
9. Take away protections from LGBTQ+ community.
Already underway.
10. Marginalize the opposition; in this case, isolate and punish democrats and blue states.
No doubt we will see examples of this; happened last time around as well.
 
  1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
    Seems to be moving into the Lebensraum phase, though it remains to be seen if it's just make-believe or something he's actually trying to draw up plans for with crayons and sharpies between TV, golf, and hamberder sessions. Wake me up if he gets out his army men and starts wargaming scenarios on his bed. The "pew-pew" sounds from his room will be a give-away.

  2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
    Needs no further explanation. Most of these don't, in fact.

  3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
    Yup.

  4. Supremacy of the Military
    Yup. Also love how his supporters keep using the lack of new wars as an excuse to love him, only to do a 180 and enthusiastically support his sabre-rattling once he starts talking about invasions. But that's cults for you, I guess.

  5. Rampant Sexism
    Yup. Add to this a fear of people not conforming to gender roles. Nonbinaries and trans people aren't just a convenient scapegoat and target of discrimination, they probably also annoy the heck out of fascists who want everything to fit into neat little categories that can be easily understood.

  6. Controlled Mass Media
    He'll probably keep putting pressure on media that tries to be objective or liberal-leaning. edit: Heck, he'll put pressure on all media. The ones that bend over backwards for him will have to worship him even more. Whoever steps out of line will be mercilessly chastised.

  7. Obsession with National Security
    Yup.

  8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
    I personally see less Bible-thumping from Dump as I do from other presidents, but yup.

  9. Corporate Power is Protected
    Yup. Although deportations and tariffs will probably be painful for them.

  10. Labor Power is Suppressed
    Yup.

  11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
    Yup. Expect more anti-intellectualism, gutting of school budgets, and Umbridge-style interference in curriculum, as well as seething anger at 'woke' movies, games, etc.

  12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
    Yup. They'll keep using the justice system as a weapon.

  13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
    Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

  14. Fraudulent Elections
    Yup. The 2028 election will be a ◊◊◊◊ show.
eta: https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html
 
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Who knew? Deporting aliens is costly. That is, if you use trasportation. You could use the army, round them up and march them on foot, camping daily. Who would carry the tents? the army?
Republicans’ prized immigration bill, the Laken Riley Act, is apparently too expensive to implement, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
More than 70 amendments to the bill have been filed, delaying its passage further. The bill enjoys support from Senate Democrats as well, and even has two Democratic co-sponsors in Ruben Gallego and John Fetterman. Among some of the most egregious (and expensive) parts of the bill is the power it grants to state and local governments to help carry out immigrant detention, and some of the amendments concern that provision.
 
Republicans could do so many things they claim to want to do, if they were just willing to forego tax cuts for billionaires.
 
Looking forward to our resident “centrists” explaining how blatantly unconstitutional executive orders and pardoning violent insurrectionists isn’t fascist.
 
Doesn't matter what he says. It will be garbled fascist nonsense and mean nothing. Less than nothing. He could be reciting the phone book backwards. Nevertheless, Fox and the talk-backs and the MAGAchuds will lap it up and try to make sense of it. Pareidolia for the right-wing morons.
Quoting myself from a few days ago, I refer you all to what MAGA is trying to say about justifying the latest Trump ramblings.
 

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