 I want to talk to you about the F-word. No, no, not that F-word. I'm talking about fascism. Is Donald Trump really a fascist, as some would say? Or is the word authoritarian sufficient? The term fascism is often used loosely, but you can generally identify fascists by their hate of the other, vengeful nationalism, and repression of dissent. To fight these ideas, we need to be aware of what they are and how they fit together. Let's examine the five elements that define fascism and what makes it distinct from and more dangerous than authoritarianism. First, the rejection of democracy in favor of a strong man. Authoritarians believe strong leaders are needed to maintain stability, so they empower strong men, dictators, or absolute monarchs to maintain social order through the use of force. But fascists view strong leaders as the means of discovering what society needs. They regard the leader as the embodiment of society, the voice of the people. I am your voice. I alone can fix it. Second, stoking rage against cultural elites. Authoritarian movements cannot succeed without at least some buy-in from establishment elites. While fascist movements often seek to co-opt the establishment, they largely depend on fueling resentment and anger against presumed cultural elites, for supposedly displacing regular people. Fascists rile up their followers to seek revenge on the elites. The out-of-touch media elites, the political elites, but the elites from the elites who led us from one financial and foreign policy disaster to another. They create mass political parties and demand participation. They encourage violence. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They'd be carried out of the stretcher, folks. Like to punch them in the face, I'll tell you. Knock the crap out of them, would you? And we fight. We fight like hell. Third, nationalism based on superior race and historic bloodlines. Authoritarians see nationalism as a means of asserting the power of the state. For fascists, the state embodies what is considered a superior group based on race, religion, and historic bloodlines. To fascists, the state is a means of asserting that superiority. When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. Fascists worry about disloyalty and replacement by groups that don't share the same race or bloodlines. And I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty. Fascists encourage their followers to scapegoat, expel, and sometimes even kill such others. Fourth, extolling, brute strength and heroic warriors. The goal of authoritarianism is to gain and maintain state power at any cost. For authoritarians, strength comes in the form of large standing armies that can enforce their rule. They seek power to wield power. Fascists seek state power to achieve their ostensible goal, achieving their vision of society. Fascism accomplishes this by rewarding those who win economically and physically and denigrating or even exterminating those who lose. Fascism depends on organized bullying, a form of social Darwinism. Our people are tougher and stronger and meaner and smarter. For the fascist war and violence are means of strengthening society by culling the weak and glorifying heroic warriors. I am your warrior, I am your justice, I am your retribution, I am your retribution. Fifth and finally, disdain of women and LGBTQ plus people. Authoritarianism imposes hierarchies. It's about order. Fascism's idea of order is organized around a particular hierarchy of male dominance. The fascist heroic warrior is male. Women are relegated to subservient roles. In fascism anything that challenges the traditional heroic male roles of protector, provider and controller of the family is considered a threat to the social order. Fascism seeks to eliminate homosexuals, non-binary, transgender and queer people because they are thought to challenge or weaken the heroic male warrior. I will ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female and they are assigned at birth. These five elements of fascism fit together and reinforce each other. Rejection of democracy in favor of a strong man depends on galvanizing popular rage. Popular rage draws on a nationalism based on a supposed superior race or ethnicity. That superior race or ethnicity is justified by a social Darwinist idea of strength and violence as exemplified by heroic warriors. Strength, violence and the heroic warrior are centered on male power. These five elements find exact expression in Donald Trump. His uniquely American version of fascism is rooted largely in white Christian nationalism. It is the direction that most of the Republican Party is now heading in. It's not enough to call Trump and those promoting his ideas, authoritarians, when what they are really advocating is something far worse, fascism.