Joyce Vance: "Can We Call it Fascism Yet?"

A view from the other side.

   It seems foolish to me to accuse the right of being Orwellian, especially given the clearly Orwellian nature of the contemporary left... But that doesn't mean I don't worry about Trump and the right. Under normal conditions, I'd be much more concerned about the right than I currently am. Trump, of course, is an inherently alarming component of the contemporary political landscape. There's no denying that. However, he's not the orange demon the left makes him out to be. Or he wasn't until he lost it after the election. The road to hell is paved with comparative judgments, but to my mind Trump is, to a large extent, a kind of weapon against the much greater threat, the genuinely Orwellian left. Though God knows I desperately hope we don't have to put our eggs in that basket. 

   The left is much more reminiscent of Soviet and Chinese communism than Trump is of fascism. Note that the author has to define 'fascist' merely as "hate-fueled bully" to make her charge stick. Trump is an angry dude alright, and rather a bully. Again, he's not nearly as bad as the fantasy Trump of the left's fevered imagination, nor as bad as the left. But he's bad enough. As I keep saying, in a sane world he shouldn't be allowed within a hundred miles of the Oval Office. 

   This is a strange argument, and I don't exactly know how to think about it, but I do think it's predicated on truth: part of the problem is that the left was dedicated to driving Trump over the edge. Russiagate alone is perhaps the greatest political outrage of my life. Of course we can reply that Presidents must have the ability to keep their heads under relentless, unfair attack. Obama did. Nevertheless, the left's madness--and in particular its anti-Trump madness--has played a large role in getting us where we are today. The left told us that Trump was a crazy strongman...and then they worked diligently for years to make that true. So I have limited sympathy when they proclaim Aha, we were right!

   Siding with Trump is a little bit like siding with e.g. Pinochet to oppose the Soviet takeover of the world. Reminiscent of a deal with the devil.

   Almost everyone I know who voted for Trump did so with trepidation. OTOH, it is clear that very many on the left who voted for Biden did so only because he won the primary, and no more radical candidate was available. That comparison is a bit of a cheat, but there it is. There are Trumpian cult-of-personality true-believers. Contrary to what progressives allege, they aren't really part of mainstream discussion. But go check out the comments at e.g. Free Republic (a very righty website) sometime... 

   What a mess.