I got family members who LIVED under Benito and Hitler in the Old Countries when they were kids. They suffered big time. They see not only the similarities of what they lived taking shape again here, they talk about the alarming parallels they are hearing, watching and reading with what they remember from back then. Most of the family, like most of you - ignores their warnings and wave them off as 'senile'.
What's insulting to their memories is watching them fear they are going to have to relive it all over again because none of us youngons are listening to them. As Opa told me - "There's no where on earth left to run to when I see the same thing happening here".
I'll take THEIR word about what they say Fascism is, and who Trump, Obama and Hillary reminds them of, than anything you or any other person who didn't live it insist Fascism is or isn't. THEY would know. YOU do not.
You can take anyone's word for anything but that doesn't of itself give validity to a concept. My 101 year old grandmother just passed away last month, and having lived through some unbelievable atrocities, would have laughed at comparing an American party nominee who has never called for, used, or inspired violence...and no, saying in the old days I'd have punched "that guy" for swearing in front of our children is not a "call' to general violence...to a fascist. Fascists suppress free speech, they don't give speeches on gun rights...fascists use their thugs to intimidate, attack and kill those with whom they disagree rather than having their own open forums assaulted by violent paid thugs.
Your ignorance and inability to contextualize history, paints democratic populism as demagoguery, it proclaims nationalism and patriotism to be xenophobia, and it is unable to distinguish between a candidate who does nothing to suppress the speech of his rivals whilst his own speeches and rallies are sieged by violent thugs who seek only to silence him. You take your shallow view of Mr Trump being egotistical and crass, which he inarguably is, and try to convert that to megalomaniacal fanaticism...but all along the way you have nothing to support your wild claims other than...well...your wild claims.
As Major Bill asked...where are the Brown shirts? Where are the calls for the annihilation of the opposition through violence? Where is the effort to oppress the free speech of others and to take away their right to bear arms? Where are the eugenics and the cultic mysticism? You will find none of these in Mr. Trump...none. What you will find, is genuine brown shirts attacking his campaign rallies....what you WILL find are violent paid thugs starting fights and attacking local police to "protest" Mr. Trump's free speech...what you WILL find is a party that seeks to disarm the populace in abrogation of the 2nd amendment...what you WILL find is a nationwide movement to create "safe" zones where free conservative speech is nullified in favor of liberal political correctness...and what you WILL find is a party that vilifies all conservatives as being the epicenter of evil and the cause of all our nations problems.
Heck, look to the American Left and you will find a movement on campus that strives for no less than to "re-educate" the children of those who stray from liberal groupthink. It works to literally rewrite history, shaping it to a radical and oppressive leftist ideology. And finally, you WILL find ont he Far Left an ideology that seeks to break our nation into ethnic enclaves and then to use those Balkanized groupings against one another to oppress the economic and social advancement of all. If you want to find fascism in its early stages in America, all you need do is look to the far left...instead, you proclaim a mirage that is little more than a figment of your misguided imagination. Open your eyes, read up on the genuine history and causes of fascism, and see what is really going on in our national polity.
Fascism, particularly the brand we saw in the pre-WWII era, was an extension of the socialist workers party mentality coupled with a distortion of nationalistic thought...and it has nothing in common with any of the ideas or attitudes of the current GOP nominee, nor does it historically fit as an analogy for anything in our modern setting. The nearest kind of tyranny you will find in our modern setting, one that promotes group well being and oppresses individual freedom in the name of "right thinking" is what we are finding on the Far Left in America. That you would twist this and accuse the very person opposing this oppession...using none of the tools so common to fascism in doing so...is a travesty of morality, an intellectual failure, and a self justifying idiocy you are foisting to justify your dislike of the GOP nominee. Its disgusting and unethical, and you truly should be ashamed.
