Facing Fascism

 SURVEYS CONFIRM that, six months after the election, fully seventy percent of conservatives, republicans, Trump supporters, who are essentially the same people, still insist that the election was stolen. That was not predictable, nor is it especially surprising. The percentage of people who sincerely hold this belief rather than merely espouse it remains uncertain, beyond determination. These facts are sufficient to morally indict those who espouse them as traitors to democracy and thus to the United States, whether sincere or not. There still exists no evidence that the election was stolen, and there never will, because it does not exist. What of the thirty percent who do not agree? Are they outcast from the Trump movement?  The entire Trump movement and presidency remains a huge hoax, the greatest in American history, underpinned by a massive convoluted web of lies and deceit, falsehoods concerning immigrants, medical and economic health, and a whole host of other forms of deception. That the Trump presidency ended amid the most blatant lie ever promoted by an American president and amplified by the greatest number of Americans in history correlates perfectly with the false foundations of entire Trump movement.  The United States of America, in its proclaimed values, is a sham and always has been, and the Trump movement is the latest culmination of delusional, false, misrepresented purposes. Concentrated wealth and power destroys democracy, and leads to authoritarian government blindly supported by an angry electorate, authoritarian populism. Rampant nationalism and xenophobia, and a backward looking ideology to an invented glorified past of supposed national greatness which never existed is the hallmark of fascism, whether under Hitler or Trump. Hitler and Trump are alarmingly comparable, as are their supporters. It would be as if Hitler had been voted out of office in 1937, four years after being elected in 1933. Hitler, to the world's misfortune, succeeded in conveniently circumventing the electoral process, and never had to be accountable to the voters again. Trump tried his best to do the same, but fortunately for the world, failed. We will never know what might have happened had Trump succeeded in refusing to leave office as he threatened, or had he succeeded in overturning the election results, or had his violent insurrection at the Capitol succeeded in overthrowing the government. Fortunately, we will never know.What we do know is that a large majority of his supporters wish he he had succeeded,and angrily regret that he and they failed. These facts alone are more than sufficient to place trump and his supporters in  the same infamous category as Hitler and his, and to despise and loathe them with infinite vigor.