Bush 2 was a fascist. Stealing the 2000 election, and constructing this whole extrajudicial framework with ICE and Guantanamo and whatnot, very directly laid the groundwork for what's happening right now. Trump is only able to direct a law enforcement agency to wander the land executing his will without having to convince anyone whose allegiance is to the law instead of their orders, because George Bush set it up for him in the first place. Right-wing media at the time getting in on defining a fantastical narrative under which they could direct the anger of their followers at "enemies," Bush saying that atheists shouldn't be considered citizens... it was all there. It was just new, so it was just getting started, it couldn't have much impact and the country resisted a lot of it.

Trump is more fascist than Bush was. But the people who were seeing the first little seeds of something that could grow into something horrifying, all the way back then, were 100% right.

You hear harsh words and assume they must be hyperbole without trying to determine the truth. The truth is there have been fascist elements in US government for its entire history which have waxed and waned over time; it was waxing under Bush II and now it's a full moon. When people warned about fascism you say they were being unreasonable, even though you seem to acknowledge that Trump really is fascist, vindicating their warnings.

Just because Dubya wasn't given the freedom to exact fascism, doesn't mean The Decider didn't want it.

Ah yes, Bush, the paragon of antifascism

This comment was satire, right?

I'm not gonna go into detail because PhilipTheBucket already did that, but: Yeah, the court only stole the election for him.

For the record, the "weird" meme was years after their rhetoric was deemed objectively fascist by every historical expert on the subject. It wasn't hyperbole, only people saying, "it can't happen here, that's a slippery slope argument".

And now here we are: SCOTUS-approved racial profiling, concentration camps, disappearing, FCC openly stifling free speech, open attack on sec 230, a budget to benefit oligarchs, pay2win tariffs, rule-by-executive-order. Trump now considers it an act of terrorism to say you are anti-fascism.

To still bend over backwards to say "both sides" at this point is absolutely wild to me.

It was probably because Trump was talking and is now acting, like a fascist.

Hell, he's got a card carrying, open neonazi in his cabinet, that he picked. Twice.

Ie, Gorka.

What would you call the current state of the GOP right now if not fascism?

They are literally definitionally fascist though? What the fuck do you expect?