This doesn't undercut Steve's main point, but it does provide some nuance: among those who were positive towards fascist strongmen in the 1930s was none other than FDR. Indeed, he modeled the National Industrial Recovery Act in part after Mussolini's policies.
Good piece. It took me a minute, but I remember Steve’s columns for the Tribune when I lived there in the nineties. Good to see you still writing, Steve.
I like the commenters ignoring the substance and dutifully parroting the "no but the left" mantra that we were all taught is an appropriate substitute for thought. If the question is "why" the authoritarians took over, even as their presence may have been a continuity rather than an aberration, the willingness of their useful idiots to excuse every possible excess with half-imagined grievances about girls with blue hair certainly is a contributing cause.
Your points are all valid but lately the left has been embracing true fascism - partnerships between big business and government - to a great extent. I think it is likely that the public views Trump as less fascist than the average leftist politician.
The current Republican movement is a reflex against the excessive overreach of the Democrats of the last few terms. Action / reaction. It's as simple as that. The Liberals have themselves been in authoritarian territory for some time. Trump isn't responsible for his own popularity. The people choosing him are, and the people have had enough of the Government overreach.
Why, why, why? This is the question that neither the book nor your article seems to answer. Given that there has always been a strain of authoritarianism on the right, why do they now control the party? Obviously the mere existence of that strain or faction is not enough, otherwise they would have controlled the party from the beginning. So what changed? What is the cause? Plus I think the issue is larger than presented. This is not a trend to authoritarianism limited to the US. It is everywhere. Look at Europe. I suspect that the failure of the conservative defense of a free society has been revealed to be bankrupt by its inability to answer the challenges presented by a culture dominated by subjectivist ideas that extend to denying the sex differences between men and women. If there are no facts only emotions, then politics is about gaining power to enforce your views.
This doesn't undercut Steve's main point, but it does provide some nuance: among those who were positive towards fascist strongmen in the 1930s was none other than FDR. Indeed, he modeled the National Industrial Recovery Act in part after Mussolini's policies.
Good piece. It took me a minute, but I remember Steve’s columns for the Tribune when I lived there in the nineties. Good to see you still writing, Steve.
I like the commenters ignoring the substance and dutifully parroting the "no but the left" mantra that we were all taught is an appropriate substitute for thought. If the question is "why" the authoritarians took over, even as their presence may have been a continuity rather than an aberration, the willingness of their useful idiots to excuse every possible excess with half-imagined grievances about girls with blue hair certainly is a contributing cause.
Your points are all valid but lately the left has been embracing true fascism - partnerships between big business and government - to a great extent. I think it is likely that the public views Trump as less fascist than the average leftist politician.
The current Republican movement is a reflex against the excessive overreach of the Democrats of the last few terms. Action / reaction. It's as simple as that. The Liberals have themselves been in authoritarian territory for some time. Trump isn't responsible for his own popularity. The people choosing him are, and the people have had enough of the Government overreach.
Of course Reagan's eloquence was in reading other people's words. He was always an actor.
Why, why, why? This is the question that neither the book nor your article seems to answer. Given that there has always been a strain of authoritarianism on the right, why do they now control the party? Obviously the mere existence of that strain or faction is not enough, otherwise they would have controlled the party from the beginning. So what changed? What is the cause? Plus I think the issue is larger than presented. This is not a trend to authoritarianism limited to the US. It is everywhere. Look at Europe. I suspect that the failure of the conservative defense of a free society has been revealed to be bankrupt by its inability to answer the challenges presented by a culture dominated by subjectivist ideas that extend to denying the sex differences between men and women. If there are no facts only emotions, then politics is about gaining power to enforce your views.
Obamism begot Trump
Trumpism begot Biden
Bidenism begot…lest he be barred from office, literally…
Get ready for Veep vs Idiocracy…both being based on a true story
Gotta run on. My dogs got the remote control. Peace through superior mental firepower.