ROBERT REICH SAYS THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD.

In a new essay, he takes issue with Washington Post editorialists referring to Donald Trump's appeal as "authoritarian."  No subtlety required here.  "Trump Checks All Five Boxes of a Fascist."

That's a longtime technocrat writing for the people who argue with, but vote for Democrats.  We could dismiss the article as predictable propaganda, or we could look at the compare-and-contrast by which he says the past president goes beyond authoritarian.

Let's see what's in the first box.

Authoritarians believe society needs strong leaders to maintain stability. They vest in a dictator the power to maintain social order through the use of force (armies, police, militia) and bureaucracy.

By contrast, fascists view strong leaders as the means of discovering what society needs. They regard the leader as the embodiment of society, the voice of the people.

That's sloppy, and I can't help but think of the cult of the presidency and the bureaucracy-enabling legislation with "The Secretary shall issue" language as having the potential to become authoritarian.  Then I consider two years of corona tyranny.

Let's ask Don Pardo to show us what's in the second box.

Authoritarians do not stir people up against establishment elites. They use or co-opt those elites in order to gain and maintain power.

By contrast, fascists galvanize public rage at presumed (or imaginary) cultural elites and use mass rage to gain and maintain power. They stir up grievances against those elites for supposedly displacing average people and seek revenge. In so doing, they create mass parties. They often encourage violence.

We'll get to the grounds for grievance at the end.  Is it unseemly for me to note that the mainstream media and the universities that have a U.S. News problem and the entertainment industry and the social media companies give the impression of being coopted by the Coastal Establishment?  We have the symbolism of opinion polling and elections, and the substance of a Permanent Bipartisan Establishment that hasn't covered itself with much recent glory, while sneering at those deplorables.  Does it come as a surprise when the deplorables push back?

On to the contents of the third box.

Authoritarians see nationalism as a means of asserting the power of the state. They glorify the state. They want it to dominate other nations. They seek to protect or expand its geographic boundaries. They worry about foreign enemies encroaching on its territory.

By contrast, fascists see a nation as embodying what they consider a “superior” group — based on race, religion, and historic bloodlines. Nationalism is a means of asserting that superiority. They worry about disloyalty and sabotage from groups within the nation that don’t share the same race or bloodlines. These “others” are scapegoated, excluded or expelled, sometimes even killed.

How quickly we forget that  George W. Bush's "axis of evil" speech had Common Dreams types fearing the stormtroopers.  What is the Liberal International Order if not a kinder, gentler way for the United States to dominate other nations?

I want to take the fourth box to the returns and exchanges desk.

The goal of authoritarianism is to gain and maintain state power. For authoritarians, “strength” comes in the form of large armies and munitions.

By contrast, the ostensible goal of fascism is to strengthen society. Fascism’s method of accomplishing this is to reward those who win economically and physically and to denigrate or exterminate those who lose.

Why do the right-populists object to hiring more Internal Revenue Service employees, particularly when some of those hires must be cleared to be armed?  What are the social media companies, the mainstream journalists, and the prestigious universities doing if not maintaining state power?

Let's open the fifth box, inside which is evidence that Mr Reich wants to call Trumpian tendencies "fascist" because the "authoritarian" component hits pretty close to home:  "Authoritarianism imposes hierarchies; authoritarianism seeks order."  He has a billet at Berkeley, not Boise State.  His party has a seniority system that would make Old Bolsheviks blush.

[T]he palace guard media are part of the political class, and in on the grift. "[B]ipartisanship [is] properly understood as the Political Class protecting its perquisites against the rabble." That includes hiding the infirmities of political figures, and, with the late-born Silent Generation and early-born Baby Boom politicians hoping to rule for seventy years, there are a lot of infirmities to hide.

Yes, Donald Trump says many foolish things.  But when the likes of David Brooks and Charlie Sykes and George Will decide to punish all Republicans for daring to run Trumpian politicians, that is in the service of High Modern Authoritarianism, never mind that the elites, including Mr Reich, keep getting fundamental things wrong.

Thus does Laura Hollis get to conclude a recent column.

There is no “moving on” from corruption. To wave it away is to embolden the corrupt. If we as a people do not care enough about the integrity of our laws and the proper limits of our government to enforce both, those who flagrantly disregard those laws and those limits will not stop until they destroy everything we hold dear.

She's not referring to the foolish things Mr Trump says. She's referring to the damage wrought by the Obama and Biden presidencies with the concurrence of the likes of Anthony Fauci and Lois Lerner and Robert Reich, authoritarians all, and with the connivance of those Never Trump conservatives who revealed their preference for High Modern Authoritarianism.