Tenets, Anyone?

So, just to be clear, in case any Republicans gets so upset when you call them fascist and how that's so like a lib to name-call -- never mind, of course, that those same people are probably just fine with calling Democrats socialist (and the reality is that being a liberal is not anything the same as being a socialist, while adhering to fascist principles does, in fact, make you a fascist -- there are three basic tenets that define fascism, and today's Republican checks them all off.

The three tenets are -- the use of force against its citizens, xenophobia against outsiders and  those different, an effort to discredit other sources of power, like the press, judiciary, police and intelligence services.

I'm not going to look back over the past four years, since that would require a treatise, and more importantly it's not necessary since we only have to look to current events.

Force against its citizens was pretty clear to see from Republicans storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, and beating police and killing several officers.  And Republicans officials, lead by the head of the Republican Party spurring them on beforehand.  And most elected Republicans in Congress have not expressed horror and outrage at this, but tend to want to put it in the past and move on.  And this doesn't take into consideration all the kidnapping threats against public officials and threats to shoot officials they don't seem to like.

Xenophobia against outsiders and those who are different is the core foundation of all the voter suppression laws that Republican governments are trying to pass in red states across the country to disenfranchise minorities.  I'd love to start going over the past four years, but once I started, it would be hard to stop, and as I said, just looking at current events is plenty fascist enough.

And perhaps most of all, the effort to discredit other sources of power is what is behind all the 60 lawsuits that Republicans filed and lost -- and this irrational fake audit in Arizona, six full months after the election, after all  50 states certified their elections, after the United States Congress certified the election and after Joe Biden was sworn in as President of the United States.  It is a push to make the public distrust the judiciary, distrust the foundation of government, and distrust the press who are not allowed in to cover the "audit."  And it being used as a dry run for other red states to hold their own fake audits.  And again, we aren't even touching on four years of calling the press the "enemy of the people" and trusting Russia's word over our own intelligence services and more.  No, current events are more than plenty.

But more than all this, whenever any Republican expresses outrage (!!) to me for daring to say that today's Republican Party is fascist, my response is very simple.  If you don't like being called fascist, just stop acting like one.