14
by YankeeTarheel
Republicans began their slow slide to fascism with McCarthy, the Junior Senator from Wisconsin, "Tail-Gunner Joe".
But it was slow. Nixon's appeal to the angry White Southern racists who were furious with their Southern Democratic President, LBJ, who signed the CRA and VRA, and appointed Thurgood Marshall to the SCOTUS, and left the Party in droves for the Republicans, following the early turncoats like Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms.
But the first REAL major shift to fascism came, not under Reagan, but with the rise of Gingrich, a fascist to this very day.
This made possible the Dubya regime to bring us far closer, with major players in his admin openly fascist and war-like. They had the unconstitutional "Patriot Act" written and ready to go BEFORE 9-11, just waiting for the right moment.
Then, of course, there was the Kochs, racists and fascist for generations, funding the fake "tea party" fascist movement, in response to the overwhelming election of President Obama.
And it just kept getting worse, laying the groundwork for the most dangerous man ever to be nominated by a major party, and to be elected. Not even the near-psychopathic Jackson was a dangerous to Democracy--as Jackson actually BELIEVED in it, unlike the would-be Cheetolini, who believes in nothing but his own ego, pleasure, and "getting bacK" at everyone who doesn't worship him.
But the American fascist racist movement is far from over and may STILL be picking up steam egged on by opportunists like DeSantis, Abbott, Kemp, Jordan, and the other McCarthy, well-described by Pelosi soto voce as "such a moron".
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."