The Republican establishment, that lumbering beast, still can’t decide on how and whether and when to go after Donald J. Trump. But last week afew Republican insiders floated an accusation that you usually hear liberals sling against the right: That the real estate magnate turned populist is actually a fascist. The hook for this charge was Trump’s illiberal musings about Muslims and databases and his lies — or, to be charitable, false memories — about cheering throngs of Muslim-Americans after Sept. 11.
But the charge can be easily fleshed out with more examples. Writing for Slate last week, Jamelle Bouie argued that Trumpism, however ideologically inchoate, manifests at least seven of the hallmarks of fascism identified by the Italian polymath Umberto Eco. They include: a cult of action, a celebration of aggressive masculinity, an intolerance of criticism, a fear of difference and outsiders, a pitch to the frustrations of the lower middle class, an intense nationalism and resentment at national humiliation, and a “popular elitism” that promises every citizen that they’re part of “the best people of the world.”
Does this sound like Trump? Well, yes, it rather does
And, Donald Trump: Why the Muslim database won’t doom Trump - The latest comments on Muslims play straight into his populist appeal.
Just as Trump’s provocations aimed at Mexican immigrants and John McCain’s war record have fueled his presidential run rather than destroyed it, his latest demagoguery on Muslims plays straight into his populist appeal.
“He has made so many other inflammatory irresponsible statements … that I’m skeptical this will hurt him either,” said Colorado-based Republican consultant Dick Wadhams. He definitely benefits from this notion of he tells it like it is and he doesn’t care what people think.”
On terrorism, as on so many other issues, what sounds outrageous to political and media elites can sound reasonable to large swathes of the American electorate, said veteran New Hampshire-based Republican strategist Dave Carney.
“When [elites] sit around and have a wine after work and some brie and they talk about the situation and geopolitics and what’s going on in the Mideast they’re talking about the Sunnis and the Shia and Alexander the Great and … what font the f**king French should’ve used to draw the maps after World War I,” he said. “Americans after work, if they can have the time to have a beer and see what’s going on, think there are these radical Islamist terrorists who want to kill us.”
Bernie Sanders: Bernie Sanders, Your Cool Socialist Grandpa.
The national voter base is much different from Vermont’s, but Democratic politics have become more Vermont-like in recent years. It’s safe to say that Mr. Sanders’s candidacy would not be taken as seriously if the 2008 economic recession hadn’t lit a fire under progressive Americans’ seats. The same plutocratic disaster that inspired Occupy Wall Street also helped push progressives like Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts into office.
It’s also what has filled a new generation of young Americans with righteous rage. Compared to the baby boomers, millennials earn less, have more student loan debt, and can’t afford to buy homes.
Young people appear to be warming to socialism in ways their parents probably never would have considered. A 2011 Pew Research Center studyfound that just 31 percent of the American public had a positive view of the term “socialism,” compared with 50 percent for “capitalism.” But among 18- to 29-year-olds, 49 percent had a positive view of “socialism,” while 46 percent had a positive view of “capitalism.” Trust in capitalism was further eroded among black and Hispanic respondents.
Rand Paul: Rand Paul's approach to the Syria refugee crisis has libertarians grumbling.
Rand Paul was already in trouble in a Republican primary dominated by the bombast of Donald Trump and the evangelical appeal of Ben Carson.
Then the Paris attacks happened — and his relatively dovish approach to national security suddenly looked wildly out of step with GOP voters.
And now he has a third problem: His base of support — libertarian voters — isn't happy with his response to an terrorist assault that killed more than 130 people in France, and upending presidential politics in the United States.
Paul hasn't walked away from his signature opposition to electronic surveillance, calling attempts to blame Edward Snowden's NSA leaks for the attacks "bullshit." Nor has he vowed to "bomb the hell out of ISIS" or send in 10,000 ground troops, as Trump and Lindsey Graham have, respectively. But his eagerness to seize on the Syrian refugee controversy — floating a dead-on-arrival bill to deny visas to anyone from a countries with an active "jihadist movement" — is rubbing many libertarians, who tend to favor open borders, the wrong way.
Ted Cruz: As Cruz gains, GOP senators rally for Rubio: The idea of Cruz as the nominee makes fellow GOP senators shudder.
Ted Cruz has built his Senate career and presidential campaign on his willingness to stick it to the Republican establishment. And now that he’s gaining momentum in the primary, his many GOP nemeses in Congress are returning the favor by quietly coalescing behind Marco Rubio.
Senior Republican senators who’ve clashed with Cruz for years have had nothing but nice things to say about Rubio even as he’s dissed — and largely ditched — his day job in the Capitol. Just this month, Rubio has racked up endorsements from nine members of Congress, compared with two for early GOP front-runner Jeb Bush. More House endorsements for Rubio are set to roll out in December, according to campaign sources, and several GOP senators said privately they expect their colleagues to get behind Rubio once the GOP field thins.
The Establishment: GOP establishment hits bottleneck in NH.
Republican establishment candidates are stuck in a bottleneck in New Hampshire, with a sizable group of contenders unable to break away in the first-in-the-nation primary state.
In a state that has in the past favored mainstream conservatives such as Mitt Romney and John McCain, several centrist Republicans need a strong showing in New Hampshire to prove they’re viable in the states that follow.
