Conservative Thoughts on Whether Donald Trump is Fascist or Fascistic

There has been a renewed reasonable debate about whether Donald Trump is a fascist, after more than one of the senior Generals who served under him has labelled him as such. There is certainly a reasonable basis for the label and for a concern about the threat to liberty and representative government Trump and Trumpism poses. The main aspect of fascism Trump shares is his authoritarianism. He not only lacks any understanding or respect for constitutional principles and the rule of law, but admires foreign dictators and tyrants across the political spectrum. Other fascist aspects manifested by Trump are his ostensible hyper-patriotism, militarism (although he is isolationist and in favor of appeasing aggression, such as Russian aggression against Ukraine), and bigotry against various non-Whites. Another trait that is characteristic of fascist leaders is his populism —to the point of scapegoating and demagoguery. But the word I think may be more fitting for Trump than fascist is fascistic. The reason is not to minimize his dangerous proclivities, but because otherwise it would give him too much intellectual credit. As his conservative former National Security Advisor observes, Trump lacks the education and intellect to read about or understand fascism fully, let alone to accept it and to be able to articulate any coherent ideology. In a similar way, I would not say for certain that Trump is racist, despite his bigotry and belief in racial and ethnic stereotypes, because he lacks the understanding of the pseudoscientific theory of racism. Moreover, his narcissism prevails, as he effusively praises anyone who praises him and harshly criticizes anyone who criticizes him, no matter their racial or ethnic background. This narcissism is a trait that makes him vulnerable to manipulation through flattery and encourages him to seek only sycophants in subordinates, instead of honest advisors. What is more important to recognize about whether Trump is literally a fascist or not, is the clear threat he poses to liberty and representative government because of his lack of education and intellect, his bigotry, his authoritarianism and admiration for foreign authoritarians, and his general lack of principles.

Donald Trump Is Not Pro-Life

Although Donald Trump is moderately anti-abortion, he is not pro-innocent life. I have posted about how he weakened the pro-life language and policies of the 2024 Republican Platform and his favorability of allowing States to choose not to protect the right to life. But I have also noted his broader anti-innocent life positions and policies. He sent refugees fleeing for their lives to their deaths by deporting them and condemned others to being murdered by foreigners because he blocked them from being able to flee tyranny and terrorism. Trump even pardoned a war criminal who had murdered innocent civilians, and he praised the policy of the former Filipino President of encouraging murder, which included innocent victims. I have also observed how his policies have sometimes shown careless disregard for innocent human life, such as how his Muslim travel ban barred entry by organ donors, that he deported immigrants who faced death as a result, and that his minimization of the threat of the deadly Coronavirus 2019 Pandemic cost many lives. Pope Francis recently identified Trump as not pro-innocent life because of how the Republican presidential nominee wants to kill refugees. The leading liberal pro-life group, Democrats for Life, makes the same argument that I have been making that not only is Trump not pro-life, but that he undermines the pro-life movement. I have posted how he taints the pro-life movement with his misogyny, instead of it being seen as about love of every human being, and authoritarianism, instead of being seen as about freedom. They note the legal arguments in the courts were the focus, which, although necessary, were emphasized more than convincing women to keep their babies. As with conservatism in general, the pro-life movement would be best served by jettisoning Trump and renewing its commitment to love and liberty as the foundation of its advocacy for the right to life.

Russian Interference in Pennsylvania to Help Elect Donald Trump Again

The United States intelligence community found that a video circulated widely on the Internet that purports to show the destruction of ballots cast for the presidential Electors for Donald Trump being destroyed and those of his Democratic opponent being accepted for counting in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The fake video is the latest in a series generated by the Russians to help Trump, divide Americans and undermine confidence in elections. Others smeared the Democratic Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees. The Philadelphia suburban County of Bucks is the largest swing (i.e. between Republicans or Democrats) County in the largest swing State in the American Union. I had posted recently about various Russian efforts to interfere in American politics and the 2024 presidential elections, particularly again to help elect Trump, as the successfully Russians did in 2016 and again tried to in 2020, including setting up a purported rightwing Trumpist media outlet that fed stories to journalists who were duped by obvious pro-Russian content and who had failed to question the sources of the outlet’s funding. Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, a former Soviet intelligence officer, often interferes in Western politics and elections to promote its image and nefarious policies and undermine the image of those who oppose its aggression and other machinations, sow division to weaken the West, and to undermine confidence in elections and in the truth. The Bucks County example shows how sophisticated the Russians have been at micro-targeting their message that some on the far right, like on the far left, are more than willing to believe.

Foreign Digest: Moldova, Venezuela, Austria and Georgia

Moldova: The pro-European Union membership referendum won in Moldova last weekend. The pro-Western President leads the presidential election, but is short of a majority and will face a runoff in November, as expected. The European Union cited an unprecedented degree of Russian interference in the vote in the former Soviet Republic against both the referendum and the President. Russia has long maintained troops in a breakaway part of the former Soviet Republic inhabited by Russian speakers on the border with Ukraine. Austria: A far-right party won 29% of the vote in the Austrian parliamentary elections earlier late last month. Because no other party, including the main conservative (center-right) party, was willing to enter into a coalition government with the far-right, the President has given a mandate to the leader of the conservatives, the current Chancellor whose party earned the second-highest total of votes, to form a government. The developments in Austria are like what I posted about recently in France, where a center-right-led Government blocked both the far right and the far left from power. The election defeat by conservatives of the far-right in Poland was the first example of a resurgent center-right versus the anti-migrant, authoritarian and often pro-Russian far-right. Venezuela: The conservative Venezuelan opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, and the presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won the Sakharov Award. The prestigious award was named after the Soviet nuclear scientist and dissident. The former ambassador Gonzalez won the most votes in the Venezuelan presidential elections in July, but the ruling Socialist dictatorship declared itself the winner, despite the abundant documentary evidence to the contrary from the precincts, in results that have not gained widespread international acceptance. Venezuela’s Socialists have ruled the South American State for 25 years, after winning an election and then becoming increasingly authoritarian, persecuting the opposition and not permitting freedom of expression or free and fair elections. Millions of Venezuelans have fled in the largest mass exodus in history. Georgia: The increasingly authoritarian and pro-Russian ruling party claimed victory in Georgia’s parliamentary elections yesterday, but several groups of European election observers, including from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, have cited hatred, intimidation and pressure, and a lack of impartiality of election officials in undermining confidence in the results. The Georgian opposition maintains the election results are being stolen. The opposition and the pro-Western President and have cited Russian interference and vote buying, while the ruling party parroted Russian propaganda and disinformation. Russia had invaded the former Soviet Republic in 2008, seizing territory and setting up puppet states, and then encroaching further onto Georgian territory and refusing to leave. The Georgian Constitution requires Georgia to pursue membership in the European Union, a goal which the Georgian Government claims to support, but which it undermines with authoritarianism, particularly the Russian-style “foreign agents” law that criminalizes media and organizations that accept foreign funding. The EU has expressed skepticism of the election results. Georgia’s Constitution also requires pursuit of membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the defensive pact led by the United States. Most Georgians prefer to be integrated into Europe, instead of under Russian dominance.

Common Media Errors, That WMD Were Not Found in Iraq, the Trump Campaign Did Not Collude with the Russians, and Refugees Enter America Illegally

There are three factual matters or sets of matters that the professional American media consistently reports erroneously, or at least misleadingly, which I shall address in this, my 1,500th post, in chronological order. Thousands of Chemical Weapons of Mass Destruction Found in Iraq: The first is that no weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) were found in Iraq after its liberation from the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003 by an international coalition led by the United States, or at least that the ones that were found were not a threat. This error is false and would have been irrelevant anyway because Baathist Iraq was under United Nations resolutions to account for its weapons, which the Security Council found unanimously it had violated, thus enabling its tyrant to threaten his neighbors and American troops. The chemical WMDs the United Nations inspectors knew about and described as a “small but significant” amount of WMDs were found, plus other chemical WMDS that were not known, for a total of thousands of chemical WMDs. Although no “stockpiles” of such weapons were found, they were scattered amidst conventional weapons thus making Iraq in a sense more dangerous than thought, not less. Although no new WMDs were found, these chemical WMDs continued to be dangerous enough to sicken American and coalition troops who handled them for disposal. In addition, tons of U.N.-banned chemicals to make more chemical WMDs were found. A related media error in regard to Baathist Iraq was that the Liberation of Iraq was unrelated to the War on Terrorism because of a lack of an alliance between Iraq an al-Qaeda, the Islamist terrorist organization responsible for the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America that sparked the War on Terrorism. Although Iraq was not complicit in the attacks, it sponsored other terrorists, harboring and financing them, including some who had targeted and killed Americans. Moreover, two of al-Qaeda’s motivations were opposition to the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia, who were present to defend the Kingdom against an invasion by serial aggressor Iraq, and the U.S.-led economic embargo against Iraq. Al-Qaeda and other terrorists recognized Iraq as a battlefield in the War on Terrorism, where they were defeated. The conventional and WMD threat from a brutal tyrant with a history of aggression and its nexus with terrorism made Iraq a serious regional threat. Today, Iraq is an ally of the U.S. in the War on Terrorism. The Special Counsel Found Collusion Between the 2016 Trump Campaign and a Russian Cutout: The second media error is that U.S. Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, a Republican former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, found that there was no “collusion” between Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential Campaign and Russia, or at least that he did not find evidence of collusion. This media error is misleading because it absolves Russia of its complicity with its cutout, which it chose to mask its direct complicity, as well minimizes the much broader Russian election interference by focusing only on direct conspiracy. The Special Counsel explained that collusion was not a word used in federal criminal law and that he was charged only with investigating crimes. Because he did not use that word, Trump and his supporters claimed exoneration and the media’s repetition of the lack of finding of “collusion” is misleading. The Special Counsel found there was no criminal conspiracy between the Trump Campaign and Russian agents, but found there was coordination with the Russian’s cutout, Wikileaks, to whom the Russians had given the information they had stolen, knowing it would be published. Wikileaks, which is operated by an Australian, published the information the Russians had stolen. The Trump campaign they coordinated its campaign messaging with advanced knowledge from Wikileaks as to what it would publish. Thus, the Russians and Trump had thus colluded in the common parlance meaning of the word, if not the federal criminal statutory meaning. Moreover, the Special Counsel found that this interference was only one part of Russia’s “sweeping and systematic” attempt to influence American politics and the presidential elections, including by backing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 in both the Republican Primaries and the General Election. Several Russians were charged by grand juries because of the Special Counsel’s prosecution. In one of many examples of Russian interference and the Trump campaign’s willingness to accept it, Trump had publicly invited the Russians to steal certain information from his opponent, which they began to do minutes afterward. Furthermore, the Special Counsel found that Trump, his henchman and the Russians had obstructed his criminal probe, for which he recommended Congress impeach Trump. Special Counsel Mueller’s report was validated by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee. Refugees Do Not Enter America Illegally: The media often refer to undocumented migrants, particularly refugees claiming asylum, as having entered America illegally. Refugees are not only permitted by United States law to set foot on American soil to claim asylum from persecution, but are required to claim it on American soil, which they are permitted to reach wherever they can when fleeing for their lives or liberty. Refugees do not have visas and passports because they are fleeing dictatorships (some of which fear a loss of their population if they granted such documents), war, terrorism, crime or disasters. If an immigration judge rules that undocumented migrants’ fear of persecution is credible, then they did not enter illegally, but legally and are legally permitted to remain on American soil. It should be noted that U.S. immigration law has been so restrictive, that asylum is the main legal pathway to entering America, as the restrictiveness incentivizes irregular migration, both legal and illegal.

Foreign Digest: Germany, Italy, Bolivia, Cuba and Moldova

Germany: A former East German secret policeman was convicted in Germany for murdering a Pole who was fleeing the Communist Soviet satellite State in 1974, the first homicide conviction for a former secret policeman. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Italy: The rightwing Italian Parliament approved a law to make surrogate motherhood a universal crime, meaning that it would be illegal for Italians to obtain one abroad or to have one obtained abroad be recognized legally. Surrogacy was already illegal domestically in Italy, as is the law in many other Western European States. The rightwing Italian Government had proposed making the ban universal, which its allies in the national legislature approved, thereby making Italy’s surrogacy prohibition the strictest in the West. The Catholic Bishop of Rome (the Pope), the Italian Bishops Conference, Italian pro-life organizations and an international convention of doctors have decried the practice as commoditizing and thus objectifying women, in a practice described as “womb-renting.” Concerns have also been raised about the anti-family aspect of surrogacy, especially as a loophole around the ban on adoptions for homosexual couples, although the practice is committed 90% of the time by heterosexual couples. Italy has been trying to increase natality to reverse a drop of its birth rate that, along with the Covid19 pandemic and outmigration by university graduates, has caused the population to decline, despite an increase in migrants and a higher birth rate among migrants and their descendants. Bolivia: Former Bolivian President Janine Anez was cleared of criminal charges for a coup d’etat by a Bolivian Court last week for having ascended to the presidency in 2019 after the leftwing President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, was forced from power by a popular uprising after seeking an unconstitutional fourth term. The increasingly authoritarian leftist had completed a third term, even though the Bolivian Constitution allows only two and a referendum to eliminate the two-term limit was defeated. The conservative Anez, who was succeeded by a leftist ally of Morales who was elected to office in 2020, remains jailed on other political charges, however. The current President and Morales have split as Morales has been seeking to return to power. Cuba: The total collapse of the Cuban electricity grid since Friday has led to protests today on the Communist-ruled Caribbean island-state. Cuba’s Communists have ruled brutally since 1959 and have been intolerant of freedom of expression, including the freedom of speech and of peaceful assembly, which makes mass protests like today’s uncommon. Moldova: Moldovans have been voting today in presidential elections and on a referendum for a constitutional amendment to include adhesion to the European Union expressly in Moldova’s Constitution. In the presidential election, the pro-Western President is being challenged by a pro-Russian Socialist and other candidates. If no one reaches majority of the vote, as second vote will be held on November 3, as expected. There is a significant Russian-speaking minority in the former Soviet Republic, especially in breakaway Transnistria, next to the border with Ukraine, where Russian stations troops, against Moldova’s wishes. Moldova accuses Russia of interference in its affairs. It has arrested hundreds for vote buying.

Celebrate Columbus Day for Spreading Christianity and Western Civilization to the New World

As I do every year, I post on Columbus Day (October 12, the anniversary of the Discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492 on behalf of Spain) or on the legal federal and state holiday that commemorate the discovery and explain why it is worthy to celebrate the greatest event in human history. I have explained that Columbus’ scientific discovery of a western an oceanic route to the New World from the Old World, which was based on his keen observations that led him to theorize correctly that a large land mass inhabited by Asiatic people existed much closer to Europe than thought, among other scientific discoveries he made, meet the definition of a discovery (an uncovering), even though others had arrived first, namely the Indigenous Americans who came across the land bridge from Asia during the Ice Age. I have noted how Columbus’ great navigational skills, unlike the discoveries by other Europeans before him of the Americas, bridged the two worlds permanently by lifting the cover of the Atlantic Ocean that had hidden the two Hemispheres of the world from each other for millions of years. I have observed how some nativist bigots in America, like the Ku Klux Klan, who hate Southern Europeans and Catholics, had sought to minimize the achievement of Columbus by promoting the Leif Ericson legend and that Columbus Day was thus intended as a day to appreciate the contributions of immigrants and refugees to America. But this year, with a controversy among Latin American leaders about the legacy of Columbus, I note the Genoese navigator brought Christianity and Western European Civilization to the Western Hemisphere. Although some of the Indigenous Americans had already been civilized and had remarkable accomplishments, and others not civilized, they all lacked knowledge of God and the Judeo-Christian beliefs of a rational universe created by God and of equality among all human beings created in His likeness. These beliefs were developed through Western Civilization, which itself was influenced by Greco-Roman civilization, forming the basis for modern science, liberty and representative government, among other contributions to mankind. These beliefs led Columbus and the Spanish to save Indigenous American tribes from victimization by other Indigenous tribes from the most vicious cannibalism or massive human sacrifice ever known in the world by abolishing these atrocious practices, among other terrible practices in the Americas before European contact, including slavery and genocide. Despite atrocities and abuses committed by some of the Western Europeans themselves against some of the Indigenous Americans, the contributions of Christianity and Western Civilization ought not to be minimized and cannot reasonably be dismissed based particularly upon multiculturalist ideas that themselves were brought from the West. It is worthy to appreciate the cultures of Indigenous Peoples, but not necessary or appropriate to acknowledge their contributions by exaggerating their accomplishments or ignoring their culture’s faults, or by denigrating the Faith and the cultural contributions of Westerners, no matter the human faults of the purveyors of Christianity and Western Civilization, as many on the Left do who do not appreciate Christianity or Western Civilization. To celebrate Columbus Day is not only to celebrate the rejoining of the two Hemispheres and the reuniting of the separated members of the human family who inhabited them, but nothing less than to celebrate the spread of the Good News of Christ and the ideals and benefits of Western Civilization, which has brought great improvements to the entire world.

Foreign Digest: Venezuela, Nicaragua, Hungary, Georgia, Gaza and Syria

Venezuela: The Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, a conservative former legislator who was barred from public office by the Socialist dictatorship, won the Vaclav Havel award. The award is named for the Czech playwright who was a dissident under Communism during the Cold War. Meanwhile, the Carter Center published its analysis of the results of the presidential election in June, in which it found that the candidate Machado backed, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, a center-right former diplomat, was elected by a 2:1 margin of votes. The Center and United Nations observers were the only international observers allowed in the South American State during the elections for a six-year term. Both have condemned the election as failing to meet the standards for being free and fair. The Carter Center’s results match the documentation from most precincts in Venezuela that proved a decisive win for Gonzalez, but the pro-regime electoral commission declined to publish the results and the regime-favoring supreme court upheld its decision. Gonzalez has been driven into exile and Machado into hiding as the Socialists, who took power 25 years ago through elections and have become increasingly authoritarian, persecute the opposition and have been violently breaking up peaceful protests. Nicaragua: United Nations report found that political detainees in Nicaragua have been tortured in various ways by the Marxist Sandinista regime of longtime dictator Daniel Ortega. Dozens of political prisoners remain incarcerated after over a hundred were sent into exile. The Sandinistas seized power militarily in 1979 and ruled tyrannically under Ortega until they were forced by a counterrevolution backed by the United States and other international pressure to allow elections in 1990, which they lost. Ortega was elected President of Nicaragua in 2007 with a promise not to become dictatorial again, but he has broken that promise by persecuting opposition candidates, repressing non-governmental organizations, and using violence against peaceful protestors. Hungary: The European Union’s European Commission has recently referred EU member Hungary to the EU’s Court of Justice for the 2023 Hungarian “sovereignty” law that targets individuals or organizations that receive foreign funding. The EU President has expressed concern about Hungary’s deepening ties with the imperialist Russian Federation and Communist China, which create a risk to the EU’s security. Hungary was denied funds by the EU, which has labeled the Hungarian President, who rules by decree, an “elected autocrat.” A United States Republican Senate delegation to Hungary last week expressed similar concern about the Hungarian Government’s backsliding from liberty and representative government and its close relations with Russia and China. The delegation’s exhortations to the Hungarian President to change his policies reflect the Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s condemnation of Hungary’s drift toward autocracy and toward enemies of the West, which is contrary to American interests. The Majority Leader has strongly criticized the isolationist and “nationalist” Trumpist wing of the GOP versus Reagan Republicanism, which favored U.S. global leadership to defend American security, independence, and freedom. Georgia: There will be parliamentary elections in Georgia on October 26. The increasingly pro-Russian and illiberal ruling party is competing versus the pro-European pro-freedom opposition. Most Georgians favor their State joining the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the defensive pact led by the U.S. Georgia has applied for membership in both organizations and enshrined joining them in its constitution. The ruling party says it also favors membership, but its support for a Russian-style “foreign agents” law has alienated it from the West and the EU. The Russian Federation invaded the former Soviet Republic in the South Caucuses in 2008, seizing two breakaway territories in which it set up puppet governments that declared their independence that is only recognized by Russia and a handful of its allies. Russian forces then encroached further onto Georgian territory, instead of withdrawing. Gaza and Syria: The United States led a joint operation with Iraq and Jordan that was conducted in Gaza to free an Iraqi Yazidi who had been kidnapped 10 years ago as an 11-year-old girl by Islamic State terrorists. She had been held in captivity ever since, until her captor was recently killed in the ongoing war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists that rule the self-governing territory and use it as a base for attacks on Israel. She was able to signal for help, but remained trapped in Gaza. The Islamic State, the off-shoot of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, killed thousands of Yazidis, who have a different faith from Islam, and kidnapped thousands of others, many of whom were sold into sexual slavery or recruited as child soldiers. Although a few thousand Yazidis have been freed or rescued, thousands more remain unaccounted for, with most of them presumed dead. The I.S. had taken over large swathes of Syria and northern Iraq and declared a caliphate, until an American led international coalition was invited by Iraq in 2014 to destroy the Islamists, which was successful in killing its leader and deprive it of all its territory, but pockets remain and there are I.S. affiliates around the Islamic world. Meanwhile, the U.S. conducted more airstrikes against Islamist State targets in Syria.

Rise of Pertussis Cases in America, Especially in Pennsylvania

Federal and state officials have been reporting in increase in cases of pertussis “whooping cough” cases in America since the end of restrictions against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid19). The rise of the contagious, debilitating and even deadly disease, which affects children and older adults the most, is particularly acute in Pennsylvania, where the number of cases has increased more than tenfold (from around 200 to 2,000) over last year. Respiratory illnesses decreased during the physical distancing and mask-wearing of the Covid19 Pandemic, but have gradually returned to pre-pandemic levels, or even higher. The increase in vaccine hesitancy is a contributing factor for some contagious diseases, as I have posted about in regard to measles and other preventable diseases that had nearly been eradicated in America and Europe, but that now have been circulating in greater numbers. There is increased hesitancy to vaccinate because of unscientific ideological beliefs from the far left to the far right and among libertarians about the safety of vaccines, which have been proved to be far safer than the diseases they prevent or at least mitigate the severity of and are the most effective defense against those diseases. Vaccines have eradicated the deadly disease of smallpox and have nearly eradicated the debilitating disease of polio, for example. Disinformation about vaccines has been effectively spread by the Russian Federation to weaken the West in a form of biological warfare. Because not everyone can be vaccinated because of various immunity problems, those who cannot be vaccinated rely on “herd immunity” from the vast majority of those who do. When the proportion of a population that is vaccinated decreases below a certain threshold, the contagious disease starts to spread again. It is consistent with conservative principles to be responsible for not only our own health as individuals, but that of our families and communities.