Opposites

Bookworm is trying to make it easy to understand.

Trump’s promises and actions are the opposite of Mussolini’s promise of a world that would see “all within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” That world, of course, was Obama’s (and Hillary’s) vision. I’m sure that both Obama and Hillary imagined that they would inaugurate a a sweet and loving statism, unlike the violent repression that characterized fascism in the 1930s. However, as the insanity the Left has unleashed since the inauguration reveals, statists really don’t do sweet and loving. They may throw sweetness and love about as rhetorical concepts when they leech freedom and money away from citizens, but at bottom they’re always about brute force.

And here’s the deal: If a small, weak government engages in brute force, especially against a constitutionally armed citizenry, that small, weak government is history. However, if a huge, overarching, comprehensive, far-reaching government engages in brute force against an unarmed citizenry that has had its freedoms drained away . . . there’s your fascism. And that’s not Trump.

Is Trump a populist? Definitely, insofar as he is responsive to ordinary people’s needs rather than trying to create a utopia predicated upon the visions of a global elite. But a fascist? Most definitely not.

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