Jon Chait picks up an idea I expressed a few days ago. There is no appropriate language to describe the current rise of far right nationalism. We can use fascism, but that tends to backfire, even when applied appropriately. AOC's description of the internment camps along our southern border as concentration camps is technically accurate, but allows Republicans to whine "But it's not Auschwitz!" which...not the point, dude.
As Chait picks up, Trump hasn't been a full on fascist - in fact his current reticence to attack Iran is not something a fascist would do. "War is a force that gives us meaning," said Mussolini, and fascism is militaristic by definition. Totalitarianism doesn't quite work.
In some ways, white supremacist works, but that fails to capture the entire political nature of what Trump and others like him are doing.
As I said, we don't have a word for this.
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