There’s a rule in the writing of history which most academics who are asked to explain current events tend to ignore or forget. And the rule is this: you can’t use the past to explain the present, You have to understand each period of history on its own terms. What made Hitler a fascist was that he not only formed a fascist party but he backed it up with armed force, namely the SA which numbered 250,000 armed, uniformed men who went around and beat up anyone who went out in public and disagreed with what Hitler said. The SA wasn’t the army. It was a separate private armed force paid for by donations to the fascist party.

Now who does Trump have as an armed force? The Proud Boys? The 2,000 schmucks who invaded the Capitol, but wouldn’t have gotten near the building if Trump had called out the Metropolitan Police and/or the National Guard?

Fascism took over the Weimar Republic not because Hitler tried to get a court order to block an election, but because he had a large, armed force that backed him up by beating the opposition up. How many people has Matt Gaetz beat up?

By calling Trump a fascist you are distorting and misleading people about what happened in Germany in 1933 and also giving people a false analysis about today’s situation which needs to be understood on its terms in irder to respond to it properly.

Thanks for taking the time to write.