 So we're About a mile or two from central business district of Sydney so many great parks here Relax guy dispensed with democratic norms in large part because he did not understand them Trump's authoritarianism Okay, so Trump's Authorism I didn't recall when do we have a more robust national debate? Right Trump's many things, but particularly authoritarian The self aggrandizing childish yeah, but How exactly was the authoritarian? You had all the major institutions of the country united in opposition to it so sore loser. Yeah Childish. Yeah Then exactly see the authoritarian fascist Does not mean his style of governance defies theorization or a philosophical rubric The chaos of the Trump presidency has given way to a period of rethinking on the right the result of which is a political and intellectual infrastructure Okay, so Trump was a fighter All right, he was self aggrandizing narcissistic childish But he did not allow himself to be intimidated. He was a fighter for good and for ill so I didn't see coherent ideology here to carry out his despotic impulses in a more systemized and its supporters hope victorious fashion They may not call it fascism or semi fascism But this is only because the word has become a universally recognized slur since World War two Most Americans. Oh, so if it wasn't a slur then And it'd be accurate to call Trump so I fascist And this is absurd Fascist simply means bad and nobody self identifies as bad People imagine democracy and fascism as a simple binary Leaving them unable to acknowledge political systems that reside in the vast space between the two Okay, so Every form of working democracy has a component that is dictatorial Right, you see this during covert when Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan I shut down Many rights as a part of an emergency response to covert was she being fascist Right when John F. Kennedy almost went to war with the Soviet Union the Cuban Missile Crisis They being fascist I don't think so All right, so When the policeman arrests you right? You can't opt out of being arrested Right. Is that that fascism? But this middle ground between Reagan and Mussolini is where the Republican party's most influential Ideologists and power brokers are consciously heading Wow middle ground between Reagan and Mussolini That seems a bit much Semi-fascism contains many features of democracy like contested elections and permissible criticism of the ruling party Wait, how's that any different than what Democrats have done? They've contested elections Does that make the Democrats? Fascist rails that maintain democracy's openness and stability such as a judiciary bureaucracy and news media That are empowered and motivated Okay, so And the democrats were empowered during wars They shut down many civil rights All right, so Jonathan shade is a good lefty looking at these things primarily through the lens of the maintenance of individual rights But in states of emergency politicians on the left United States stripped away rights freedom of the press freedom of association Freedom to gather and petition the government Semi-fascism has a nasty tendency to slide into something more like the outright version In which effective public opposition to the ruling party becomes impossible Two decades ago Vladimir Putin's Russia looked very much like victor or bonds hungry does today ah, so is america 2022 a place where Opposition to republicans is increasingly impossible And I think so might All right, lovely little walk here by sydney harbour Good opportunity to take one's mind off the rising threat of semi-fascism ruckus sham Every democracy has challenges and limits Look at covet all these rights just taken away Surviving in the city All right, this is just gorgeous why why does the rising threat of semi-fascism seem to diminish In the light of this beauty That's the central business district right ahead So much for opportunities to defy him at the ballot box It's unlikely they ever will Oh, maybe they're happy with victor or bond semi-fascist wing wishes to take several steps down this road I watched the conferences attendees practically declare they would do so Their methods and goals are ones that if embraced by their opponents would unquestionably and correctly be described as authoritarian or worse Nobody expressed any fear that a right-wing state Dedicated to endless political warfare might violate anybody's rights The only rights they respected were those of red america Okay, so the left controls every major institution united states with a partial exception of lots of business and the military so Don't really think you need to worry about Republicans being authoritarian And isn't this more applicable to the democrats Love this shoreline walk From watson's bay to rosebay Was losing south florida has attracted a huge collection of professional conservatives with national aspirations Some of whom were drawn away from new york and washington dc During the pandemic and almost all of whom gravitate not toward the former president in palm beach But rather toward the state's governor ron disantis The near unanimous favorite 2024 presidential contender of both the movement and the party's establishment