Today is the day when the Republican Party convenes to renominate Donald Trump as President of the United States. Trump has so thoroughly conquered the Grand Old Party that some call it “the Trump Party.” No member dare challenges his decisions, statements or policies, for fear that a humiliating tweet will end his or her career. A once-proud party that trumpeted its devotion to principles like free trade, personal responsibility, and respect for the rule of law now meets to show their obeisance to a man who rejects its foundational principles.
Our contributor Robert Shepherd has written an opening oration for the chair of the convention. It is short, witty, and to the point. It is a fitting tribute to the man who says he needs four more years of chaos to make America great again.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
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Trump the Fascist, or What to Look for during the Trump National Convention
Trump the Fascist
Trump is not a thinker, obviously. He has instincts, like wasp larvae. But his instincts are those of the fascist. We shall see those on excruciating display over the coming days.
A couple years ago, a brilliant friend of mine reacted to a post I made elsewhere in which I had called Donald Trump a fascist, saying that I was wrong. Perhaps it was Trump’s inability to think enough to formulate an ideology that he had in mind. However, consider this:
Fascists are myth makers. The term fascist comes from the ancient symbol of Roman power, the fasces, a bundle of sticks bound together. What binds the people together into a fascist state is a shared set of mythoi, as follows:
The mythos of a superior Volk. The Volk, or people, have shared characteristics that make them exceptional and superior to other peoples.
The mythos of the nation as the united Volk. The nation IS the Volk united, with individual wants or desires subordinated to service to the nation in achievement of its destiny.
The mythos of the destiny of the Volk. The Volk have a destiny to lead and/or rule the world.
The mythos of winners and losers. In every transaction, there are winners and losers. There is no such thing as a win-win for both parties. Because of their innate superiority, the Volk are destined to be winners and others are destined to be losers.
The mythos of victimhood. The Volk can achieve their destiny only by overcoming particular enemies that have kept it from winning by cheating it and bringing about a degeneration into decadence. These enemies include any people with different political beliefs, religions, or racial or ethnic or national origins.
The mythos of return to prior greatness, to a golden age. The Volk formerly was able to achieve its greatness, due to it because of its superiority, but it cannot now do so until its enemies are eliminated.
The mythos of Great Leader. In order to overcome decadence and achieve their rightful destiny, the Volk must be united by singularity of purpose under a Great Leader, the one and only one who can so unite them with the necessary singularity of purpose. For this to happen, the Great Leader must have all power and authority—a sole monopoly on violence. He or she is the embodiment of the united Volk (of the nation).
The mythos of transfiguration. For individuals to become the Volk and achieve their destiny, they must be remade, violently, by eliminating elements within the Volk that prevent its becoming a united, single tool in the hands of the Great Leader for achieving its destiny and the return to the Golden Age. Such transformation comes violently, via secret police and militarization.
Sound familiar? Look for these themes at the Trump National Convention this week.
Trump is an INSTINCTUAL FASCIST. All this just comes naturally to him. It’s his pathological narcissism writ large.
Bob I have often thought that, rather than a political theory, fascism takes the form of a writ-small personality disorder, as you say, raised to the writ-large level where it seeks and holds political power. The best you can say is that its a Bigger version of Bully, like Jabba in Star Wars. CBK
You understand this well, CBK. Know your enemy, I say.
The overriding belief of fascism in the Early 20th century was that the Enlightenment had been a failure. the only way humanity could be great was to achieve greatness by hooking yourself to the greatness of the great individual.
Sound like modern ideas? Need I say more?
Roy There are also various forms of kingship, which was what the scientific revolution revolved away from–the power associated with religious orders and then kingship with their bloodlines in neo-tribes that, throughout history, were thought to originate with the Divine of one sort or another . . . a true revolution, however, as in the west, it moved power from a from-above-downward source of order to a from-below-upward source (empirical).
Fascism and other forms of top-down political orders are children, so to speak, of tribal/kingship orders, but now sans the solid connection with bloodline, though that still arises in some orders. But generally with the new orders, the tribal/bloodline source-of-order is transformed and replaced with personality, wealth, fame, and/or a set of political ideas. All can be creative and/or destructive.
In democracies, we still need our top-down orders (Kingship is written-out of the U.S. Constitution), but they emerge in our culture in various new forms, e.g., as “worship” of the rich, Hollywood or sports stars, or even informally in family-lines, as with the Kennedy “clan.” Though these are not formally instituted (as they are still in England) they serve the same cultural purposes and fill the same very-human needs. CBK
LOL. Back to the future with Donald Trump. I mean way, way, way back to the days of the alpha male in troops of our primate ancestors.
Yes. Background in European Romanticism, Carlyle’s “great men,” Nietzsche’s “superman.” Childish.
Catherine: Thanks for the response. Very interesting. There is little doubt that one of the forces giving rise to Twentieth century fascists was the need for heroic figures that inspire public loyalty.
Bob: Go back far enough, and you will find orange in the orangutan
Love your opening oration, Bob Shepherd.
It is witty as Diane wrote, and true.
I am laughing.
For those who don’t care to go to the blog, here’s the text of that opening oration:
The 2020 Repugnican National Convention
Good evening, and welcome to the 2020 Repugnican Convention. But first, a word from our sponsors, Vladimir Putin and Goya Beans.
We are brought together this evening to show that it can happen here in America. This is not about politics. This is about a man. Donald “J. for Jabba” the Trump, Dear Leader Who Shines More Orange than the Sun. Because as all real Americans agree, what matters, what really matters, the only thing that matters, is Trump.
An inspiration to us all, Donald Trump has shown, by the life he has led, that in America, one can rise above adversity. If you just pay someone to take your SAT and go to work for Daddy keeping black people out of your slum landlord apartments, if you just inherit three quarters of a billion dollars from Daddy and blow it all on parties at Jeffrey’s and on casinos designed to rip off ordinary people, and if you go bankrupt through sheer incompetence, you can dig deep and launder money for Russian kleptocrats and start a fake university and pretend to be a businessman on TV, you can appeal to the worst instincts of the most racist Americans, and emerge a winner. You can put your semi-conscious spawn in high office, you can surround yourself with people dedicated to destroying the agencies and departments they lead, you can alienate and abandon every ally, you can pander and genuflect to dictators, you can betray our troops and those who fought alongside them, you can wreck the environment, you can take lunches away from poor school children, you can pretend to be a Christian, you can praise Nazis, you can pay off porn stars, you can take from the poor and give to the rich, you can do nothing about a pandemic that kills 180,000 Americans except suggest fake cures like injecting disinfectants—you do all this and so much, much more, and not lose a single vote.
We’ve got quite a lineup for you over the next few days. Bill Barr will play taps on the bagpipes over the remaining shreds of the U.S. Constitution. Don Jr. and Eric will take us inside the tackiest club in the universe, Mar-a-lago, to show us their collection of tails they’ve cut off endangered animals they’ve serially slaughtered. We’ll have an inspiring torchlight parade of Aryan Skinheads for Trump. We’ll honor the Confederate leaders who massacred African-American soldiers while fighting for the right of people to own others. We’ll make fun of disabled people and talk about ourselves and how great we are to grieving widows of fallen soldiers. We’ll hear President Trump speak in his inimitable Toddler English about the importance of family and his many wives and those he’s groped and what great legs and other body parts his daughter has. We’ll have a roundtable on law and order featuring the convicted and indicted felons from the Trump administration. We’ll gas some Moms in yellow shirts who still think that they have the freedom to assemble and to exercise free speech in America. But first, a word about the magic cure for Covid, oleander, from the My Pillow Guy and important information from the Demon Seed Doc about protecting yourself from succubi.
MAGA! Moscow’s Agent Governing America, Vlad’s Agent Orange. Make America Grate Again!
Trump/Dense 2020. 20 for sexual assault. 20 for bank and insurance fraud.
For more pieces about the Trump maladministration, go here: https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/category/trump-don-the-con/
The convention would be the perfect time to unveil a Trump monument on the national mall. Not something literal like a whole head at Mt. Rushmore, I’m thinking the whole planet of the apes buried stature of liberty thing. Just the Top of his head from the forehead up above grade. An esoteric element of a giant gold wave of hair floating across the turf, like some long lost buried Big-Boy eatery statue.
What a picture!!!
Reminds me of 40 years ago, from the song B movie by Gil Scott Heron.
That was the mandate
To the new “Captain Bligh” on the new ship of fools
It was doubtlessly based on his chameleon performance of the past …
As a liberal democrat – as the head of the Studio Actor’s Guild
When other celluloid saviors were cringing in terror from McCarthy
Ron stood tall
It goes all the way back from Hollywood to hillbilly
From liberal to libelous, from “Bonzo” to Birch idol…born again
Civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights…it’s all wrong
Call in the cavalry to disrupt this perception of freedom gone wild
God damn it…first one wants freedom
Then the whole damn world wants freedom
Nostalgia, that’s what we want…the good ol’ days…
When we gave ’em Hell
When the buck stopped somewhere and you could still buy something with it
To a time when movies was in black and white …
And so was everything else
Even if we go back to the campaign trail
Before six-gun Ron shot off his face and developed hoof-in-mouth
Before the free press went down before full-court press
And were reluctant to review the menu
Because they knew the only thing available was … Crow
Lon Chaney, our Man of a Thousand Faces …
No match for Ron
Doug Henning does the make-up …
Special effects from Grecian Formula-16 and Crazy Glue
Transportation furnished by the David Rockefeller
Of Remote Control Company
Their slogan is, “Why wait for 1984? You can panic now…and avoid the rush.”
Diane and Bob I think in 2016 most of us, including news commentators, were too dumbfounded to respond by speaking the truth and to counter-quickly the Trumpisms that came spewing out of Trump and his Republican cowards and sycophants. Like Charlie Brown with Lucy’s football, we kept expecting Trump to rise to the occasion of becoming the President of the United States. Instead, the United States is quickly becoming Trump.
At least with 2020 we are armed with the past and the seriousness of the assault; even though for way-too-many, apparently nothing penetrates. CBK
Let the circus begin, starring the blubbering ringmaster and his sideshow of abnormalities to morality like Miller and McConnell. Of yes, it should be quite a show.
Aie yie yie. Yes.
RNC theme music.
LOL!
Trying to promote consistency with the them….lol
That’s the music of “Entrance of the Gladiators” by Julius Fučík ([ˈjulɪjus ˈfutʃiːk]; 18 July 1872 – 25 September 1916), a Czech composer and conductor of military bands. Over the years, the music got hijacked by the circus and clowns.
Thanks, Joe. I didn’t know that!
Trump could well be the death of the Republican Party. The GOP may very well be held hostage by Trump and his loyalist fascist-minded voters for as long as Trump’s heart keeps beating.
When Trump loses the 2020 election, I will be surprised if he does not hold on to his core of ignorant, racist, easy-to-fool, deplorable voters by continuing his Twitter rants and hate-filled rallies. He has always craved attention and now he has a built-in audience willing to feed this super troll’s addiction for attention.
Do not be surprised that Trump continues to run for president in every election for the rest of his life even if he ends up a vegetable on life support.
Trump will make sure through a trust of some kind that his kids have to get his name on each presidential election ballot or lose their trust fund allowance.
Out of desperation, a 3rd major party will be launched by former Republicans that cannot stand Trump and the people that support him.
It isn’t like this hasn’t happened before in U.S. History.
“Eight U.S. Political Parties That Withered Away
It could happen to your favorite party, too.”
https://www.phillymag.com/news/2016/11/18/american-political-parties-died-whigs/
The Mythos of the Rose Garden” “OMG! She chopped down Jackie Kennedy’s trees!”
A rose garden with, well, no roses (or just white roses–I can’t tell by the pictures).
If someone has access to Michael Beschloss’ Tweet w/before/after picture of the WH Rose Garden, please post.
This, BTW, was renovated in preparation for the FLotUS’ speech there, so if you watch, you’ll see it.
Before: colorful, beautiful. After: vanilla, meh.
It’s time Moscow Mitch got some payback for what he did to the Merrick Garland nomination. Let’s retake the Senate and admit both Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico to the union.