There’s nothing entertaining, however, about Ron DeSantis. As Trump’s apparent descent into madness becomes ever more evident to those who’ve tried for years to ignore it, the Republican most likely to win the party’s 2024 presidential nomination rules Florida the way a fascist would, if that fascist were an American politician without access to his own military force who did not (yet) enjoy the power to shut down media he did not like. That won’t be the case should he become president.
Members of the mainstream media have long been wary of applying the term “fascist” to any American politician. They say it is not their job to characterize Republicans; they just “report the news,” even when what they are actually doing is passing along Republican lies and deliberate misinformation. Joe Biden has therefore done them a favor by referring to the ideology of Donald Trump and his followers as “semi-fascism.” The word is now, as journalists say, “in play.” (And by the way, while it may have been off-the-cuff, “semi-fascism” is a good term for employing fascist-like tactics at every available opportunity in a country that has not yet turned its institutions over to a fascist leader.)
Angry socialist professor Eric Alterman is big on name calling.
