So is 2016 America like 1932-33 Germany? Is Trump a Nazi or, more broadly, a fascist? And what would America be like were he to become president? Trump is no Hitler, but certainly he is, or at least can be understood to be based on how he has conducted himself during this campaign, a fascist, and certainly his hardcore followers are fascists, and more true believing at that, and if you don't think that's true, what of the various right-wing extremists, neo-Nazis and the like, who are firmly in his corner?
In any event, about that dystopian future, I wonder if America might just come to resemble the Great Britain of Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men (minus humanity's inability to reproduce, unless that's a metaphor). It's not a perfect analogy, but there are elements there, a future predicted by Orwell and Pink Floyd, a pig flying high above Battersey Power Station, the military rounding up those who don't belong (the vilified Other), civil war breaking out, fear and hatred crushing all hope.
It's bleak, I admit, but Trump is no joke. Nor is it a joke that he's the presidential candidate of one of America's two main political parties and is being widely celebrated on the right. Yes, such is the state of American conservatism in 2016. Trump may be a sort of reductio ad absurdum GOP candidate, but fascism has broad appeal among Republicans, hence much of his popularity. That's why this is all much scarier than Trump himself.
Round-up by Michael J.W. Stickings of The Reaction. (Twitter: @mjwstickings.) I’ll be here through the weekend.
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