Trump; a new Hitler in the making

The professional pundits universally predicted that Donald Trump's White House campaign would crash and burn long before now.

He was, after all, nothing more than a buffoon, clown, self-aggrandizing entertainer, etc... not to mention a racist, bigot, misogynist know-nothing who accidentally became a billionaire because his dear daddy left him a whack of Manhattan real estate.

I imagine it would be hard to miss the Billionaires Club when fate favours you with that sort of break...

Nevertheless, the Trump campaign has unexpectedly grown legs, and the professional political and punditry class is getting worried.

That's why they're getting more and more comfortable tossing the "F" word into their speculations.

Fascist.

Yup, Trump is a fascist. Or at least he talks like one. Or he sounds like he might be morphing into one. Or something...

Look around. It's everywhere these last few days.

The Sydney Morning Herald.

ABC News.

The Globe and Mail.

Salon.

And that doesn't even scratch the surface.

Yes, Salon is correct; whether leftist or rightist in tone, America's mainstream news and opinion portals have united as one in labelling Trump a "fascist."

But what does that mean?

Not much.

Lots of really smart political theorists have spent a lot of ink defining "fascism." (anybody up for a re-reading of the works of Antonio Gramsci?)

You know fascism has arrived when the capitalist uber-class and the military-industrial complex and the government policy-makers have melded into one seamless ruling clique. The two nation states most approximating such a condition today would be the USA and Israel.

I think "fascism" is what Ike warned us about in his famous speech about the "military-industrial complex."

Look around... America has more or less arrived at where Ike was hoping it wouldn't.

And it has arrived thanks to the Democratic and Republican establishments.

Those are your fascists; the political careerists who segue from elected rep to lobbyist to think-tanker and back again, and champion the military industrial complex every step of the way.

The beltway is chock-full of these shit-bags.

They're Republicans, they're Democrats, they're the establishment on both sides of the aisle.

As for the inveterate casino promoter and reality TV star Donald Trump, while he may be an abrasive windbag, he is definitely NOT a part of that fascist establishment.