Speaker 1: I often get emails that say, David, is the modern Republican Party now fascist? Is
fascism what they would employ if there were no barriers or opposition or obstacles? So let's
explore this a little bit and think it through. And where I end up coming down is that the modern
Republican Party is a fascistic, authoritarian party, but not actually fascist. But part of
the reason why they are not actually fascist is that there is opposition in the United States.
So let's start with the definition. What are we talking about when we talk about fascism?
Fascism is a far right authoritarian political ideology which often includes dictatorial power,
forcible suppression of opposition and very strongly regimented society and a very
strongly regimented economy. Now, some of these things might not sound like the rhetoric of the
Republican Party. What strong regimentation the Republican Party is all about Freedom and liberty.
Yes, the rhetoric is. But are they actually like that when it comes to policy? So we're going to
talk about that. What is the Republican Party platform and policy versus fascism or fascistic
authoritarianism? Because it is true that it used to be the case that the Republican Party was known
for conservative values, actually being for small government, promoting truly free market capitalism
or something close to it. But that is not at all what the modern modern Republican Party,
particularly under MAGA Trumpism, has become. It has become a party of hyper nationalism,
populist rhetoric, as well as extraordinarily overbearing suppression of opposition,
all fascistic characteristics. And the bulk of this, the culmination of it,
has been seen in the shift during the rise of Donald Trump and his influence on the
Republican Party. The rhetoric of Trump and the policies that Trumpists would like to
implement are every combination of authoritarian, sometimes xenophobic, anti-competitive, etc. And
we're going to look at a bunch of examples the Muslim ban, family separation at the border,
trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, trying to limit the speech of the press
and trying to get adversarial reporters banned, including Jim Acosta, etc.. In addition to this,
the attempt to suppress opposition. Speaker 2: Through.
Speaker 1: Election meddling tactics that disproportionately affect young people,
people of color, low income individuals, disproportionately, those who vote on the left is
another way in which Republicans under MAGA have tried to hold on to power by any means necessary,
even when they've been voted out completely anti democratically. Now there are people who will
argue these are straight up fascist tactics. Others say it's kind of too extreme a term,
but it is very hard to argue that it isn't fascistic and hardline authoritarianism. The
actions and the rhetoric of MAGA Trumpism, a.k.a the modern Republican Party have taken that bent.