Brett Kavanaugh - Revisited

I’ve never been a political animal, and never supported one party over another.  Two of my favorite modern Presidents are Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.  While radically different in some ways, both Presidents were sincere patriots who offered what they felt the country needed at the time.  And big majorities of voters agreed.  Donald Trump is totally different, however, and presents a number of very serious threats to the US, its system of government, and our way of life.  This is one of many commentaries on him and the dire situation we find ourselves in under his administration.

A distressing feature of the whole Trump saga is that we are bombarded on essentially a daily basis with terrible actions and comments.  So one day we learn about how Trump defrauded the US by falsely valuing hundreds of millions of dollars of his father's property.  My God - in any other time, that story would have been massive, and would likely have taken the President down.  But the very next day, another story breaks about how his people actually did talk to the Russians, followed the day after that by proof that he instructed his attorney to pay off porn stars.  Followed by giving the Saudi leader a pass on murdering a US reporter.  And on and on, day after day. 

We're overloaded - virtually every day, something that would bring down any other President!  And we forget.  A couple of months down the road, nobody even remembers how Trump defrauded the government, or any of that other stuff.  That's where historians come in.  They take things down for posterity, so people can remember, or learn, what happened.  I'm going to do that here, but just with one big issue to review in detail; something really important, where people have already forgotten much of what actually happened: the Brett Kavanaugh appointment. 

When people think of the whole affair surrounding Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination and confirmation as a Supreme Court Justice, they mostly remember the accusations about him sexually assaulting teenage girls, and how the Senate eventually didn’t believe those stories enough to derail his confirmation.  So he became a Supreme Court Justice for life.  Yet there is so much more to the story; so much to know that pretty clearly shows he had no right to take a seat on the Supreme Court.   

All of the reasons to deny him a place on the Court were readily available to the public, spread over many legitimate media sources, and hard to miss for anyone with their eyes and ears open to the facts.  Yet for a variety of reasons, most Americans are either unaware of them or chose to reject them as being partisan lies.  But facts are powerful things; you can ignore or deny them, but they still let us know the truth.  So let’s look at some facts about Brett Kavanaugh and his path to taking a seat on the Supreme Court.

We’ll start with was his earlier lying to the Senate, which is backed up by credible documentation.  As part of his testimony before the Senate for a US Appeals Court appointment in 2006, Kavanaugh lied about his role in handling the 2003 nomination of Charles Pickering for the Bush administration. https://newrepublic.com/minutes/150749/brett-kavanaugh-lie-us-senate.   In earlier testimony before the Senate (he was not confirmed in a 2004 attempt to get on the court), he also lied under oath – this time about documents he helped steal from the Democrats.  A September, 2018 article in Mother Jones documented this lie, along with four other occasions Kavanaugh lied under oath before the Senate.  https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/09/five-times-brett-kavanaugh-appears-to-have-lied-to-congress-while-under-oath/ 

Had they been known at the time, those lies would have kept him off of the Federal bench in 2006, which obviously would have kept him from being on the Supreme Court now.  He may still face impeachment and be thrown off the Court for those lies once the Democrats take control of the House, though that is far from certain.  Our overall takeaway here is that Brett Kavanaugh committed perjury on multiple occasions when under oath and therefore is inappropriate for any judgeship, let alone one on the highest court in the land. 

Then there are his earlier public statements in favor of more power for the Executive Branch, which is fine.  But part of that was his claim that the President should be exempt from all prosecution, and even investigation, for possible crimes.  This is extremely important given the current environment during his confirmation process, seeing as how the President who appointed him was the target of multiple criminal investigations at the time.  

Related to that is the fact that President Trump presented a list of qualified jurists from which he would choose his nominee to the Supreme Court by the spring of 2018.  At the time, the White House stated that this was a complete list of those under consideration, and that nobody else would be considered.  Kavanaugh’s name was not on that list.  But almost immediately after it became clear that Trump might face criminal prosecution, Kavanaugh’s name came out of clear air to land on the top of his list of finalists for the job, despite Trump being told he’d have a tough time getting Kavanaugh approved because of his “extensive paper trail.”  Rather obviously, Trump valued Kavanaugh’ probable “get out of jail free card” vote that made it worth him taking a big chance on him.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/07/us/politics/trump-mcconnell-supreme-court.html

Also related was the way that Kavanaugh absolutely refused to answer questions at his Senate confirmation hearing about his views on the President being investigated or charged.  Time and time again, Senators asked him to comment on that, and each time he deflected their questions, responding with a reply that did not address the question.  Most outrageously, the final time he was pressed to comment on this critical issue, he merely sat quietly and looked straight forward, not saying a word for a good 10 or 15 seconds.  When the questioning Senator asked if he was refusing to answer the question, he merely continued to sit quietly, saying nothing.  This kind of insolent behavior alone should disqualify Kavanaugh from being named to the Court.

A large part of Kavanaugh’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee dealt with the sexual assault testimony of Dr. Ford and other women, which ultimately led to a hiatus while the FBI investigated those charges.  Yet the FBI’s hands were tied by the White House in terms of who they could interview, and the 5-day time frame was much less than the FBI normally would take in such an investigation.  The BBC, which surveys show is the most trusted news source in America, wrote about the investigation’s flaws, including the understatement that it was “incomplete.”  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45693211

Then there was Kavanaugh’s dramatic closing comments to the Senate hearing, as he railed against the Democrats and Hillary Clinton.  "This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups," a seething Kavanaugh said.   https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/408821-kavanaugh-says-hes-victim-of-revenge-on-behalf-of-the-clintons   Never before has a nominee made it clear that he favors one party or another; how can he be unbiased if cases regarding Democrats come before the court?

His outbursts and other behavior prompted a group of 2,400 law professors of all partisan views to write an open letter to the Senate urging that Kavanaugh not be confirmed for his behavior before that body.  “We are law professors who teach, research and write about the judicial institutions of this country. Many of us appear in state and federal court, and our work means that we will continue to do so, including before the United States Supreme Court. We regret that we feel compelled to write to you, our Senators, to provide our views that at the Senate hearings on Sept. 27, Judge Brett Kavanaugh displayed a lack of judicial temperament that would be disqualifying for any court, and certainly for elevation to the highest court of this land.”  

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/03/opinion/kavanaugh-law-professors-letter.html

And then there was Ford’s testimony itself, which President Donald Trump initially said was “compelling,” and came from “a very fine woman,” who was a “credible witness”  But then politics pushed aside the truth, as Trump soon started mocking Ford, “imitating her inability to remember some details about the evening she was assaulted.”  When asked later about how he could say such horrible things about her, after he obviously believed her story earlier, Trump characteristically responded: “It doesn’t matter.  We won.”  Trump let the truth come out.  Not the truth about Ford’s charges, but the truth about all that matters to him – winning, regardless of what lies and nasty accusations he must present to do so. 

Maybe Brett Kavanaugh will turn out to be the brilliant and fair jurist that he and his supporters say he is.  But given the hyper-partisan environment and his questionable background and confirmation hearing behavior, we have a right to feel that might not be the case.  With “compelling” testimony from a “credible witness”, on top of an “extensive paper trail” questioning his honesty, and a “lack of judicial temperament,” the American people voiced their overwhelming opinion that he not be confirmed by 41% in favor, 51% opposed.  https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/410458-poll-majority-oppose-kavanaughs-confirmation-to-supreme-court   This is yet one more example when a minority “base” of Trump supporters have forced their will on the nation, via Republican lawmakers afraid to face their wrath by doing the right thing. 

It's Not Politics

My politics are moderate, centrist, and I don’t often get too excited about political goings on.  As a political independent, I vote for Republicans, Democrats, or whoever else seems to be the best person for the job at the time.  I rarely talk about politics, although I do enjoy a good discussion about certain issues or candidates once in a while.

A big problem these days is that many people don’t want to talk about President Donald Trump, his family, administration, and his actions.  “Hey – no politics, please” is a common request from people who don’t want to deal with all the emotion, disagreement, and drama that those topics usually cause.  I understand, and generally agree that politics is one of those topics that’s generally wise to avoid.

But the thing is: What’s going on with Trump and all is, at least from my perspective, mostly NOT about politics.  Here’s why I say that:

Politics comes from the Greek word polis, for city or, in this case, affairs of a city.  It shares the same Greek root with policies, which in this case refers to what kinds of laws and actions a city (or county, state, or nation) decides to enact.  For example: shall we raise taxes; if so, how much, and on which group of people or which products?  Should we make immigration laws tougher or easier; should we build a wall, and if so, how do we pay for it?  Do we need more environmental protections, or shall we reduce them to help businesses?  What about mandatory universal health care – good or bad?  Should we spend more or less on the military?  Be tougher on trade agreements, and threaten big tariffs?  All of these things are examples of legitimate policies that need to be addressed through the discipline of politics, operating within the constraints of established laws and procedures.   

Overall, I don’t have a big problem the President’s policies.  Some of them have merit, while most of them aren’t wise, in my opinion.  But for the most part, they all represent legitimate political goals that a great many Americans seem to agree with.  And that’s fine.  Our American political system has clearly established ways to consider his policies, and to either approve and institute them, or else turn thumbs down on them.  If our political institutions deal with Trump’s proposals in ways that the Constitution mandates, then right on – may the majority view determine the results!

No – my beef is mostly not about Trump’s policies.  It is about how he, his Administration, and his Republican enablers have ignored, violated, and otherwise abused the constitutional system that is supposed to determine how the country is run.  Starting with the BIG one:

Donald Trump was elected with the help of the Russian government; nobody seriously denies that they interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump and to hurt Clinton.  Furthermore, there is overwhelming evidence that Trump and his crew cooperated with the Russians in those efforts.  Trump’s campaign manager (Paul Manafort) was widely known in our intelligence community as a Russian stooge; he has been convicted on a number of felony charges related to the election.  Trump’s national security adviser (Mike Flynn) has similarly been convicted on a number of felony charges related to dealing with the Russians.  Trump’s son (Donald Jr.) agreed to a meeting with the Russians after they promised to give him dirt on Clinton.  Trump himself helped his son write a false description of what that meeting was about.  His personal attorney (Michael Cohen) has been convicted on a number of felony charges that all connect to his only real client – Donald Trump.  Trump himself publicly lied a number of times about his connections to the Russians, e.g. “I don’t have anything to do with the Russians; I don’t know any Russians,” when hard evidence later showed that to be false.  And finally, former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, has stated that he has non-public information showing that without the Russians’ help, Trump would have lost the 2016 election.  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/russia-turned-election-for-trump-clapper-believes

That (working with the Russians, utilizing information they had stolen from the Democrats in order to win the Presidency) is not “politics.”  Or at least, it is dirty and treasonous politics that no American - Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green, Independent, whatever – should approve of or accept.  To put a finer point on it:  Talking about how Trump stole the election with Russian help is NOT “just politics.”  It is NOT something that we should avoid talking about in mixed company.  It IS something that every American should be furious about.

Probably just as important is that by being falsely elected, Trump has been able to place two very conservative Justices on the Supreme Court.  That shifts the balance of the Court to clearly conservative, instead of the more liberal court we would have had if the majority of Americans’ will had been honored in the election.  To be clear: Two conservatives are on the Supreme Court now that should NOT be there, and they will likely keep the Court conservative for decades to come!  So, against the majority’s will, we will probably see legal attacks on abortion and LGBQT rights, attacks on immigrants, and protection of a President (Trump) accused of committing countless crimes – among other important national issues. 

Even if Donald Trump had legitimately won the Presidency in 2016, one of those two Justices should have previously been appointed and seated by President Obama.  For nearly a full year, the Republicans, who controlled the Senate, refused to allow any hearing to approve Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland.  This violates the Constitution’s intent, and it also went against the will of the American people. 

Here’s what Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution says: the President “shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States…”  The Senate used legal but dirty ways to deny President Obama their “advice and consent,” thus not allowing him his Constitutional right to “appoint judges of the Supreme Court.”  This chicken-shit action on the Senate’s part was seen as wrong by a majority of Americans, with “77 percent – including a whopping 62 percent of Republicans and 80 percent of independents – saying Senate Republicans were “playing politics” with the court vacancy.”   https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-03-21/even-gop-voters-think-senate-should-confirm-scotus-nominee

The bottom line here is, that by illegal, treasonous actions that put him in power, Donald Trump was able to control the judicial branch of our government for decades to come.  And the Republican Party, using dirty and unpopular methods that even their own constituents opposed, played their own disgraceful role in allowing this to happen.  So from where I’m sitting, this also isn’t “just politics.”  ALL Americans should be outraged with how the Supreme Court was stolen by the Republicans.  If they claim to be actual patriots who want what’s good for the country in the long-run, even those who will benefit from future Supreme Court decisions should not stand for the way they got what they wanted.    

There are multiple lawsuits and criminal investigations under way, in a variety of jurisdictions, regarding Trump benefiting financially from being President.  There is no real precedent for this; all past Americans severed their business ties upon becoming President. The Constitution’s Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 forbids the President from receiving gifts or payments from foreign governments.  Yet Trump continues to do business and to profit from doing so while serving as President.  A key example: There is evidence that he benefits financially from foreign politicians and lobbyists staying at his (very expensive) Trump International Hotel in DC.  It is widely believed that those foreigners stay at Trump’s hotel as a way to curry favor with him.  But whether that last part is true or not, Trump makes many millions off of his businesses that deal with foreign governments, lobbyists, etc.  No American, regardless of their political views, should find that acceptable. 

It’s not “just politics” to have the leader of our country constantly lie to us.  Even his most ardent supporters can identify a time or two when Trump has told a whopper.  Politically-neutral sources have identified countless examples of the President not being truthful.  Meanwhile, some partisan investigators estimate that he has been untruthful more than 5,000 times since becoming President; another source says he averages 7.6 lies or misrepresentations a day.  https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/01/politics/donald-trump-mistruths-analysis/index.html

“Big deal – all politicians lie.”  That is true, but whatever the actual numbers are for Trump’s lies, the fact is that he is untruthful many, many times more than any other politician in our country’s history.  With Obama or Bush or any other national leader, we can always find times when they spun the facts or, much less commonly, told outright lies.  But all in all, a non-biased person would say they were basically truthful people.  For the most part, we could believe what they said.

But in Trump’s case, we simply KNOW he’s not going to be truthful.  That means that Americans just can’t trust what their President says, knowing that he’s probably lying to them.  What happens when there is a real emergency or disaster, and we need the President to lead us, tell us what’s going on and what to do?  How can we know what to believe with Trump at the helm?  That’s NOT “politics as usual,” and that’s not something Americans can tolerate; or at least, it’s not something any of us SHOULD tolerate.   

We could go on, but I’m going to end with just one more reason to oppose Donald Trump’s presidency that’s not “just politics.”  He clearly places people in important federal government positions who are grossly unqualified for them, often because those appointments will benefit and protect him personally.  A number of key appointees have turned out to be corrupt on a huge scale, and have been forced out.  Again – other Presidents have occasionally given a friend a good job in his administration, or chosen a less-qualified person over a better-qualified one for political reasons.  But Trump has done so on a grossly unprecedented level.   

There’s Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education despite nearly zero educational experience.  Oh – but her brother was a big Trump backer!  Dr. Ben Carson, a noted brain surgeon who threw his support to Trump after ending his own campaign to be President?  Now Secretary of Housing and Urban Development – a brain surgeon!  Scott Pruitt, head of the EPA, after years of trying to reduce environmental protections, and now gone from the EPA, but with a dozen corruption investigations trailing after him. 

And on and on.  But the latest is the appointment of Matt Whitaker as acting Attorney General, after Trump fired Jeff Sessions for not shutting down the Mueller investigation.  Whitaker, a convicted fraudster, is almost universally considered grossly unqualified for the position.  Oh – but he has one particular qualification: He has publicly stated that the Mueller investigation is illegal and should be shut down, which obviously could save Trump’s skin.  And now we think we know who will replace Whitaker as Attorney General: William Barr.  His main qualification?  Well, he supported the President’s firing of James Comey, and has opposed Mueller’s investigation all along.  Barr would have the ability to shut down that investigation which, at this point, seems likely to completely bury Trump under a mountain of damning evidence.  There can be no reasonable doubt that both the Whitaker and the Barr appointments were about one thing only – saving Trump’s ass. 

Is the President within his rights in making these kinds of appointments?  Yes – he is.  But the real question here is: Do Americans want an Administration filled with unqualified, often corrupt officials whose primary qualification is loyalty to the President and a willingness to shield him from legal jeopardy?  We are not some banana republic, nor an authoritarian fake democracy. This kind of crap is not what the Constitution and our political institutions had in mind, and not “just politics” as we define the term in this country.   

Let’s recap.  Politics is a subject usually best left alone in conversation.  But the Trump presidency and all that entails is about much more than just politics.  There is massive, overwhelming evidence that Trump is unqualified, dishonest, a traitor who continues to act based on what’s good for Russia (latest example: Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, a.k.a. the last adult in the room, resigned on December 20^th over troops being pulled out of Syria, which hugely benefits Russia).  Trump lies to the American people over and over, he chooses what’s best for him, rather than the country, he surrounds himself with unqualified, often corrupt people now in positions of great power.

This is not “politics as usual.”  Trump’s feckless “base” may never see the light, but the rest of us have an obligation to speak up, to speak truth to power, to not worry so much about offending someone and worry more about what kind of country we want to leave our grandchildren. 

WHY?

I’ve never been a political animal, and never supported one party over another.  Two of my favorite modern Presidents are Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.  While radically different in some ways, both Presidents were sincere patriots who offered what they felt the country needed at the time.  And big majorities of voters agreed.  Donald Trump is totally different, however, and presents a number of very serious threats to the US, its system of government, and our way of life.  This is one of many commentaries on him and the dire situation we find ourselves in under his administration.

Why write these essays on the 45^th President, Donald J. Trump?  Hardly anyone reads them, and they change few minds, if any at all.  What, aside from what a critic called the “emotional gratification” I get from this exercise, is accomplished by these commentaries?  Let’s see: 

I like to write, and when pondering a complex, important issue, writing about it helps me organize my thoughts.  It makes me think deeper about the matter, to question my thoughts and feelings about it, to research it and either correct or reinforce those so as to end up with a more accurate perspective.  Is Trump really a fascist?  Is there actual evidence of his involvement with the Russians in the election?  What is the truth about him benefiting financially from being President?  I want my beliefs to match up with the facts rather than just what I’d like to be true, and I am glad to change my views if the facts justify doing so, as I've often done before on other topics. 

Most of what people read about the Trump presidency is pretty harsh, whether coming from his supporters or from his critics.  Folks on both sides typically use pretty nasty, insulting language that mostly repeats the same few, tired phrases.  Trump is an idiot, a criminal, a traitor.  Or, Trump is the only one who can make America great again, and there’s no truth to all the Deep State’s fake news trying to bring him down.  These essays look at specific issues, from a different point of view than you’re used to hearing, using calm, rational language that is backed up by verifiable facts and solid reason.  Mostly.  Yet there’s no denying a bias here, along with some rather harsh language directed at the President, since that’s what we'll see that those verifiable facts and solid reason justify.   

This is a little off topic, but that last point relates to a key complaint about Robert Mueller and his Special Prosecutor’s team: “They may be mostly Republicans, but none of them are pro-Trump, and so the investigation is deeply biased against the President,” many say.  First of all, everyone loved Mueller at first; he was universally praised as competent, fair, and tough.  But as soon as he and his team started looking into the Russian matter, it became unquestionably clear that Trump and his team were dirty, were mixed up with the Russians all along, and were lying about it – all direct threats to the country  What would you expect him or any other patriotic American investigator or prosecutor to do?  Of course you’d want them to develop a bias against the guy and to do every legal thing they could to stop him, right?   

Who Trump is, what he’s done and is doing – are extremely important to understand.  Probably no politician in the history of the United States of America, certainly no President, has been so flawed, and in so many ways.  Donald Trump is making important history that will be studied for centuries to come. 
* The certainty of his being elected with the help of the US’s greatest adversary, and the near certainty of his treasonous cooperation with that country, Russia, in achieving that goal and acting in ways that confirm his indebtedness to Russia. 
* The non-stop lies that leave the country unable to trust anything the man says.   
* The rejection of decades-old alliances, while embracing dictators such as Putin and Kim.   
* The reversal of virtually every type of environmental protective measure put in place by his predecessors.   
* Completely ignoring his own scientists and intelligence agencies regarding critical matters such as climate change, Russian interference, and the Saudi leader’s role in killing an American journalist.  All of these, and so much more, are hugely historic, and not in a good way. 

Connected to that point, many millions of Americans don’t do a good job of following reliable sources about what’s going on.  And even for those who do, memories often soon fade.  Ten years from now, five years from now, even a month later in many cases, the typical American will be fuzzy about what actually went down.  An obvious example is the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation, which most people will remember as simply about accusations that he sexually assaulted women, ignoring all the other critical factors.  So the short paragraph that ends up in the history books will almost certainly fall short of letting people understand what happened – the depth of the whole horrible story.  My essays help document the “whole horrible story” essentially in real time, while the memories are fresh and the facts are easily accessible.   

You’ve probably heard Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote before: If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be,
These days, the vast majority of Americans apparently think Jefferson was wrong.  They think that they can ignore what’s going on in the world, with our government, and with politicians, and are unaware of the people and issues who endanger the nation’s future.  38% of adults surveyed say that Fox News is their main source of information on those topics, as it essentially tied with PBS for 2nd most trusted news source in a recent poll (BBC came in first place.)  68% of Americans reported this year that they get at least some of their news from social media.  Fox News isn’t just sharply biased – they regularly report stories that are demonstrably false.  As for social media, it has always been full of opinions masquerading as facts, and of downright false stories – much of which we now know was, and is still being, placed online by the Russian military. 

That’s why I write these essays.  I’d like lots of people to read them, to do so with an open mind, and to go “Geez – I didn’t know those things; maybe I need to reconsider my support of Trump.”  And start talking to their friends about these ideas also.  I’d like the anti-Trump crowd to do more than just hate the guy; it would be nice if they were more active in spreading the word, in standing up and speaking out.  And I see it as one of my civic duties, part of being a patriotic American.  I plan to put my essays all together in a paperback book, and see if anyone is interested.  Probably, these writings will just end up as part of my own library, something to be proud of writing and to refer to in future years.    And if that’s all they are, I’m OK with it, even while hoping for more.

Fascism in Fashion

I’ve never been a political animal, and never supported one party over another.  Two of my favorite modern Presidents are Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.  While radically different in some ways, both Presidents were sincere patriots who offered what they felt the country needed at the time.  And big majorities of voters agreed.  Donald Trump is totally different, however, and presents a number of very serious threats to the US, its system of government, and our way of life.  This is one of many commentaries on him and the dire situation we find ourselves in under his administration.

One of the most troubling trends in American politics, and world politics for that matter, is the revival of fascism.  Before you get too upset about me insulting political leaders and their followers, let’s just take a look at what the words fascism and fascist mean, starting first with a bit of history.

Benito Mussolini was the original fascist, as he founded the Fascist Revolutionary Party (PFR) in 1915.  The party emphasized Italian nationalism, or the greatness of Italy and its destiny to regain much of the lands and power of the former Roman Empire.  Other leaders modified Italian fascism to fit their own countries, as the political system spread to Germany and Hitler’s Nazism, to Spain and Franco’s Falangism, and to various Latin American countries.

Nowadays countries like Russia are labeled as fascist by some, with Poland, Hungary, the Philippines and others moving in that direction too.  And in the United States, Donald J. Trump is accused by the left of being a fascist.  Leaving those other cases behind – are claims about Trump justified or not? 

For the purposes of our discussion, the guide to fascism we’ll use is Fascism: A Very Short Introduction, originally written by Professor Kevin Passmore in 2002, updated and printed by Oxford University in 2014.  We should note that in 2014 Donald Trump was a reality TV host and real estate developer, who nobody ever thought of as being President of the US, with few concerned about whether he was a closet fascist or not.  As such, we should be able to use Passmore’s expert definition of a fascist to fairly evaluate Trump being one or not.

According to Passmore, a fascist is ultranationalist, believing that his country is the very best, with destiny having chosen it to dominate the world, or at least the region where it is located.  President Trump frequently demonstrates that belief, with his rejection of globalism in favor of always doing whatever is best for America being just one example.  Trump's "America First" policies is another; building a wall to keep immigrants out is another example; tolerating racist, nationalist organizations “with good people on both sides” adds to the list. 

Fascist countries typically have charismatic leadership, being headed by someone whose captivating, dogmatic speeches electrify his followers.  Adolf Hitler is the classic example, as he ranted and raved to hundreds of thousands of adoring Germans throughout the country, and they answering with shouts of “Heil Hitler” and Nazi salutes.  Trump is similarly god-like to his followers, who pack his rallies to hear him viciously and with no evidence tear into anyone who disagrees with him, chanting “Lock her up!” and waving Make America Great Again signs.  Trump puts his listeners in a mad, trance-like state where they believe anything he says, just as Hitler did 80 years ago. 

Passmore includes dictatorship as a feature of fascism, meaning that one person has virtually all power in a country.  He or she runs the economy, runs the military, chooses state and city leaders, and decides who’s guilty, who’s innocent, who lives a good life and who is executed.  Fortunately, we don’t have a dictator in the US and never have.  Unfortunately, Donald Trump clearly shows that he wants to have much more power than past US presidents have had, and has taken quite a few steps to make that happen.  The most notable examples are the many disturbing steps he’s taken to hinder and actually halt the FBI’s investigation into his collaborations with Russia.  From removing - one by one - the top FBI leaders who could substantiate James Comey’s claim that Trump asked him to halt the Flynn investigation, to appointing a Supreme Court judge primarily because he said the President can’t be indicted while in office, to firing an Attorney General who protected the investigation and replacing him with a grossly unqualified fraudster who claims the FBI’s investigation is illegal.  Apart from that, we constantly hear about how he expects Congress, the courts, and the Federal Reserve to do what he wants and pressures them to do so in ways that no President has ever done.  And then there’s the admiration he’s expressed for dictators like Vladimir Putin and Rodrigo Duterte; beyond a doubt, Trump envies their power and wants to be like them.

Racism is another feature of fascist countries.  Hitler is again the best example, with his “superior race,” the Holocaust and all that.  In the US, multiculturalism and many millions of non-white citizens won’t allow things to ever go that far (we pray), yet legitimate news sources regularly report on how Trump discriminates against non-whites.  His Muslim bans, and his characterizing Latino migrants as a dangerous invasion of rapists and gang members, follow the same theme as his failure to criticize racist groups such as in Charlottesville. 

Is Trump an anti-Semite?  Not really, with a trusted son-in-law being a Jew, and with supporting Israel beyond what his predecessors had done.  On the other hand, many of his more radical supporters are anti-Semites, such as those young lads in Charlottesville who chanted “Jews will not replace us” while carrying torches.  You know – those “good people on both sides” types?  And then there was the murder of Jews in Pittsburgh by one of his supporters, inspired by Trump's vicious, hateful language.

Fascist countries really only have one political party.  The others are either eliminated through violent means, or otherwise kept powerless.  In the US, the Republican party controls the judiciary, the executive, and half of the legislative branches starting in January, 2019 (they controlled both halves before that).  The evidence strongly supports that Trump won the executive branch through fraudulent means, including help from the Russians.  There’s no doubt that the Republicans stole a key Supreme Court nomination, and blocked countless other judicial appointments until Trump was elected.  And in the legislative branch, there is plentiful evidence of dirty tricks by the Republicans, with Trump’s backing, to limit the legitimate power of Democrats.  The tide is slowly turning, but surely Trump prefers the Republicans controlling all three branches of government, and has done much more than past Presidents to make that happen, regardless of traditional constitutional and ethical restraints.

Violence, actual or threatened is another feature of fascism, says Passmore.  We know that very early in their history, the Nazis beat up or killed virtually every member of opposition parties.  By 1934, hardly anyone was left to speak up or oppose them.  Donald Trump of course doesn't go that far.  But who doesn't remember the clips of his 2016 rallies, when he urged his followers to "beat the Hell out of 'em" in regards to protestors?  "I'll pay for your legal bills, I promise you that."  He can't really do that stuff now as President, but it's pretty clear that he's a violent thug at heart and would probably do much worse if he thought he could get away with it.

Corporatism is defined as "the control of a state or organization by large interest groups."  In the cases of Germany and Italy, the large interest groups mostly referred to big business.  They supported Hitler and Mussolini, and those leaders in turn supported the businesses with big tax breaks and via other means.  Trump's belief in that policy is evident from his "historic middle-class tax cut," which every non-partisan economist has said benefited the wealthy and big businesses almost exclusively; the middle-class got a small tax break for 2 years, after which their taxes will be higher, not lower. 

Fascists also practice antiliberalism, antisocialism, and anticommunism.  Hitler was notoriously anti-communist, and wanted to totally destroy his nemesis, the Soviet Union.  In Trump's case, he hasn't expressed much of an opinion on the subject, but clearly views liberals and liberalism as his enemy.  "The radical left, an angry mob" he calls them, and his base eats it up, since they see liberalism as the nation's biggest problem.

Finally, Passmore mentions anticonstitutionalism, which we've already covered in the section on dictatorship.  The Founding Fathers built a form of government that would divide power between the states and the national (or federal) government, and furthermore divided it among the three branches of the federal government.  They expressly did so in order to prevent one person or one group from running the country – in other words, to prevent dictatorship.  So in other words, this feature of fascism is kind of redundant, with Trump's anticonstitutional actions directly aimed to give him dictator-like power.

We think of fascism as an ugly part of the far-away past, with caricatures wearing silly hats and giving silly salutes.  God willing, we'll never see those extreme versions of it again.  But it's clear that this form of governing still exists, and has gained in popularity in the last few years.  In the United States of America, where fascism makes perhaps the least sense, it has come back stronger than ever in the past.  Fashionable fascism – who'd a thunk it?

Donald J. Trump may lack the silly hat and the rigid salute (so far), but fascism surely runs deep in him.  His millions of American fans, mostly ignorant of history and sadly depending on Fox News, Breitbart News, and Infowars for their "facts," are fertile ground for Trump's manipulative methods.  Will those folks snap out of it at some point, or will their numbers simply be over-matched by Americans with common sense and an understanding of what it means to be an American?  Or will the country keep sliding down the slippery sewage pipe to saluting Der Drumpf wearing his own silly hat?  God only knows.