I remember learning more about FDRs actions during the war and how he "nationalized" some many aspects. His youth groups seemed very similar to Hitler's (though noble to Americans?). He altered the economy with massive abuses of presidential power. But the people seem to have supported him as the Germans did of their leader. Fascism as an idea was pretty popular in the US prior to the war and honestly I think the US was probably a major influence on the rise of Fascism in Europe. I'm of the opinion that the US adopted many of the same approaches to public / private partnerships that were in place in Germany too. We just don't call it that nasty name. I used to wrestle with this and then I just realized that there isn't really clear and uniform agreement on what fascism even is. Its kind of a useless term.

Today it even seems to be losing its shock value as WW2 becomes a more distant memory. I think the weakest argument against it is the racial one. You can remove the racism and its still rotten. And we've seen many different systems use racism to justify terrible things.

As far as Trump? He may be a fascist but I kinda don't think that's a helpful way to think of him. I don't see him as ideological at all really. He is no where near Hitler in how he thinks/acts. To me he's more of a strongman figure. Tough guy. Business mindset without the ideology. He seems to have some good instincts but also very easy to influence by those around him.

The thing that concerns me is the culture that led to his rise to power. He has always been more of a symptom of rot than source to me. I think the US could have a much much worse President. We are entirely divided in ways I don't see changing and a really smart politician could use this to crazy things. Things MUCH worse than the stuff people are losing their minds about. And this guy could be from the extreme left or right.

I'm thinking of the Return of the Strong Gods again.