TRUMP is the one who wants to be a dictator. Authoritarian. Fascist.

Facts are troublesome things.

Obama was notable for pushing agencies to extend their charters so the government could take control over more and more functions. The Waters of the US used the EPA to extend control over puddles of water everywhere. Net Neutrality, which extended the communications acts of the 1930’s to the internet, giving the government de facto control over it. The EPA was also used to basically destroy the coal industry by declaring C02 to be a pollutant, much to the chagrin of farting cows everywhere.

Then, there was foreign policy. The Iran deal (never say “treaty”!) and our involvement with the Paris Accords were specially designed to be very difficult for the US to back out of once signed……..but were also designed to circumvent Congress on what is supposed to be their Constitutional duty— the approval of foreign treaties.

Then, just before he left office, he used the Antiquities Act to gobble up millions of acres and place them under government control.

All that is about as “authoritarian” as you can get. The fact that you (personally) may have APPROVED of those things doesn’t mean they’re not authoritarian — it just means that you’re a bit of an authoritarian yourself.

Now, what’s Trump done? Well, he’s been deregulating business functions that Obama regulated (that’s not very authoritarian of him, giving away government control to business), he’s been killing things like the Waters of the US regulations (again, giving away government control), he’s presided over an end to Net Neutrality (yep, not authoritarian), he’s backed out of the Paris Accords and lightened our support for the Iran deal (nothing authoritarian about that), and he’s given back a goodly portion of that annexed acreage back into state control, not the least of which was giving drilling right approval back to Alaska for ANWAR. (yea, you guessed it; that’s not authoritarian either).

There are many more examples. But the point here is clear: If Trump is a fascist, he’s certainly not very good at it. He’s may talk like an authoritarian at times, but his actual governance leans libertarian. Neither Hitler nor Mussolini would recognize him as a member of the fascist family.

HE is the one who adapted Hitler’s tactic of screaming “Lügenpresse” (i.e. “fake news” or “lying press”) to prevent the press’s reporting of TRUTH.

Well, I guess the larger question there is if the press is actually reporting truth or not. Obviously, they report on lots of things in a given day, and I’m sure that they are more accurate than not. But Trump has a legitimate gripe when it comes to his own coverage in the media; even some of the NeverTrumpers and #Resistance types have commented on this, that if you take a dispassionate look at the media coverage, it is not at all crazy for Trump to come to believe that they’re biased and plotting against him. Because they kind of are. :-)

The media is not as bad as Trump says it is…….but they do not have clean hands. If the media is going to be part of our political process, and enjoy special rights granted under the Constitution, then they cannot be above oversight, scrutiny, or criticism.

To claim they are above those things is rather…..authoritarian.