In this political season, many people have described Donald Trump as a fascist. To be fair to those who make such claims, his ideas and slogans do definitely lean in that direction. Combining scapegoating an entire religion, a promise to "make America great again", a clumsy and brutish approach to foreign affairs, and almost total ignorance of how government actually works, Trump is full of bad ideas drawn from the authoritarian fascist playbook.
Recently, a group called the "USA Freedom Kids" put together what can only be called a Donald Trump theme song. And this reveals that even though Trump is a fascist, he's a thuggish and cloddish authoritarian bully who isn't even as polished as the fascists of the 1930s. Granted, the "USA Freedom Kids" are a trio of preteen girls doing badly choreographed dance moves, but that is pretty much the point: Trump can't even get a campaign song for his events that has any polish or panache. To be blunt, Trump is less stylish than either Mussolini or Hitler.
And that is one of the things that makes Trump's rise so perplexing. One can now look back with hindsight and see the evil of the fascist movements of the 1930s, but when those political groups were on the rise they were presented in a sleek and attractive package. This music clip is from the movie rendition of the Broadway musical Cabaret, so it is a little bit fictionalized, but the presentation is reminiscent of the package that the Nazis showed the German people: Clean cut boys in sharp uniforms singing about a brighter future. Trump's brand, on the other hand, is more or less the thuggish bully who took kids lunch money in school and then made fun of them for their weakness.
Subsequent Musical Monday: Come Home (Cardinal Pell) by Tim Minchin
Cabaret Musical Monday Playlists Mark Lambert Musical Monday Home
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