Meanwhile the leading Republican presidential nominee is a right-populist (a.k.a. fascist), and the Democratic presidential nominee was almost a left-populist (socialist).
We are literally one economic crisis or major terrorist attack away from some form of significantly more authoritarian if not outright totalitarian government. Whether it would be "left" or "right" is sort of up in the air, and might depend on which side is able to produce a more compelling demagogue at the right time. In any case if history is any guide it doesn't matter much. Totalitarianism is totalitarianism.
If that comes to pass, we're going to find out what "turn-key totalitarian state" means. The infrastructure is in place. The only barriers are legal and social/cultural.
While I agree that the US is becoming a "turn-key totalitarian state" it is patently absurd to compare Sanders' brand of social democracy (an ideology incredibly far from Socialism) with Trump's fascism.
Social democracy coexists with Western values in basically the entirety of Europe. It has not led to the collapse of the continent into some totalitarian nightmare.
The fascism being advocated by Trump and members of the alt-right however draws a lot of comparisons to the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, and not because the right is unpopular with academics or journalists but because Trump and his supporters are using violent and xenophobic/racist language while they scapegoat ethnic and religious out-groups.
Off topic but: while I do sympathize with Sanders a bit and I agree with most of what you wrote, I also think his popularity is being driven by the same populist wellspring as Trump. That makes me a bit afraid that we might end up with something more like Hugo Chavez's Venezuela than Denmark.
I also agree that Trump is scarier. I just wanted to be an equal opportunity hater of authoritarian ideologies and to make the point that the "key" that turns our "turn-key totalitarian state" to the "on" position could come from either side of the normal political continuum.
>Meanwhile the leading Republican presidential nominee is a right-populist (a.k.a. fascist), and the Democratic presidential nominee was almost a left-populist (socialist).
That's just incendiary nonsense. Trump is no more fascist than Bernie Sanders.
No it isn't. If you really want to see fascism in the US you have to go to college campuses, where students are expected to shout down speakers and assault them.
You're right and wrong. To the extent that such suppression is happening on campuses that is also an example, but it doesn't excuse Trump. Your argument amounts to "but those people are also a-holes!" Well okay, sure, but yeah.
That's why I included left-populism in my top level comment. Populism tends toward authoritarianism and... authoritarianism is authoritarianism. The extreme left and the extreme right converge on very similar things. In both cases you get a lot of "the end justifies the means" and we know where that goes.
We are literally one economic crisis or major terrorist attack away from some form of significantly more authoritarian if not outright totalitarian government. Whether it would be "left" or "right" is sort of up in the air, and might depend on which side is able to produce a more compelling demagogue at the right time. In any case if history is any guide it doesn't matter much. Totalitarianism is totalitarianism.
If that comes to pass, we're going to find out what "turn-key totalitarian state" means. The infrastructure is in place. The only barriers are legal and social/cultural.