This graphic isn’t subtle. Neither is Trump
By David Futrelle
I‘ve written a lot of posts for this blog since I started it in 2010. 3629, to be exact, not including 80 drafts of posts that I decided for some reason weren’t worth posting. It occurs to me that not all readers of this blog have literally read every single post on it. So they — you — may have missed out on some Actual Good Posts of mine from years past.
So today I’m going to start highlighting some of these Mammoth Classics. To start off, let me draw your attention to a post I wrote a few days after Trump’s electoral college victory: Donald Trump ticks all 14 boxes in Umberto Eco’s list of what makes a fascist a fascist. The basic thesis?
Though it contains precisely zero references to Trump — who at the time was just a real estate mogul with a penchant for boasts and bankruptcy — Eco’s 14-point checklist describing what makes a fascist a fascist applies to Trump and Trumpism in so many ways it’s scary.
I have to say, though I worried a little at the time that I might be overstating things, this post has held up surprisingly well. If I rewrote it today, I suppose I’d have to add quite a bit to some of the sections. The “conspiracy” section would be much longer and weirder; the bit about his desire for power unchecked by congress would have to mention his love of executive orders and now pardons; and finally, the section on his “fear of difference” would have to include his failed Muslim ban(s), Trump’s blithe indifference to literally thousands of deaths in Puerto Rico, and the horrors he has unleashed on Mexican immigrants, including the inhuman practice of separating parents from children and keeping both in cages.
Yesterday, in a heartbreaking article, The Boston Globe cited a public defender working on behalf of parents whose children were taken from them (for the misdemeanor crime of crossing the border illegally) and who said that
several of her clients have told her their children were taken from them by Border Patrol agents who said they were going to give them a bath. As the hours passed, it dawned on the mothers the kids were not coming back.
That’s a little on the nose, huh? There’s little doubt in my mind today that Trump is bringing fascism to this country — and we need to do everything in our power to get him out and roll it back, before it’s truly too late for all of us.
Call your Senators and your congressperson to demand they do something about these forced separations of parents and children at the border. You can get their numbers and a script here.
Ok, not all Mammoth Classics will end with a request you call some politicians (or do anything at all, really) but this one sort of needs to.
NOTE: On a lighter note, which do you prefer: “Mammoth Classic” or “Mammoth Rewind?” Or do you have a better idea of what to call these?