Half the country sees former President Donald Trump as a fascist, amplifying concerns raised in recent days by Vice President Kamala Harris and past members of Trump’s own administration. Far fewer in a new ABC News/Ipsos poll level the same charge against Harris.
Nearly two-thirds also say Trump often departs from the truth, again more than say so about Harris. But Harris gets more criticism than Trump for pandering for votes by promoting policies she doesn’t intend to carry out – underscoring challenges for both candidates as the fur flies in their increasingly heated presidential race.
Fascism thrives on establishing an “In” group that has all the power and all the rights, and an “Out” group that gets nothing but suffering and is scapegoated for everything. You can guess which group that half thinks they’ll be a part of.
The problem is that they always need an “out” group. So what happens when you get rid of all of the illegal immigrants? Suddenly, you’re no longer part of the “in” group because you’re neurodivergent or have the wrong color eyes. Or whatever becomes the new “out” group.
Then you’re dead
My hypothesized order of scapegoats is:
They can’t be too obvious about the end state being the rich having absolute domination over the poor, nor can they jump straight to demographics that have historically fought for equal rights.