The term Fascism has returned to the news in recent weeks. This is a good thing. It means there is some comprehension growing of what it means and the mortal danger it poses for our country.

Trump and his pronouncements to his fan base coupled with his published “transition plan” of Project 2025 make plain, his intention of abandoning any idea of consensual governance—but rather to rule by dictates and caveat. In other words Trump wants to be the first dictator of the United States.

People need to understand much, much more about what fascism really means, how would it affect our daily lives and quite honestly, how it would endanger them.

Heather Cox Richardson reminded us about a publication from the War Department prior to the end of WWII from a series call “Army Talks” entitled, “FASCISM!” (A full copy of Army Talk Orientation Fact Sheet 64, FASCISM! is available at the end of this post.

“You are away from home, separated from your families, no longer at a civilian job or at school and many of you are risking your very lives,” the pamphlet explained, “because of a thing called fascism.” But, the publication asked, what is fascism? “Fascism is not the easiest thing to identify and analyze,” it said, “nor, once in power, is it easy to destroy. It is important for our future and that of the world that as many of us as possible understand the causes and practices of fascism, in order to combat it.”

At the time of publication, the majority of 420,000 Americans had already died fighting fascism in the two theaters of World War II. Add to this the millions upon millions who died at the hands of the fascist armies of Germany, Japan and Italy and the additional millions outright murdered in genocides in both theaters.

It is hard to overstate how much death, destruction, hate, oppression and genocidal murder are connected to the concepts and practices of fascism. Yet billionaires, large corporations, racists, bigots, white supremacists and religious fanatics have lined up in this country to support it.

One hallmark of fascism is the exclusion and demonizing of “others.” Trump started this on the very first day of his campaign after his descent on the golden elevator with his sign-waving horde of paid extras. He began his exclusionary screed with the demonization of immigrants of Mexican descent, “are ‘rapists’ and they are ‘bringing drugs and crime.'” And that was just his kick-off speech. His rhetoric has steadily descended over the years to the more recent “poisoning the blood” statements straight out of Hitler’s eugenics rants.

Any way you look at this, the motive is to create a fear and hatred of these “others” but also the sense that they are less than human. And this is important. Uncountable millions have been murdered over the past century alone because men were convinced that their opponents were not men or human.

Much has been done by corporate media to normalize the danger Trump and his fascist rhetoric and intentions represent to America. The owners of the New York Times, Washington Post and the LA Times have made this race sound like a normal election cycle—not one where the GOP candidate is a convicted felon.

Trump’s transition plan, Project 2025, contains references to mass roundups and detention camps. He has spoken recently and often about using the military against the “enemy within.”

We have been well acquainted with the horror of Germany’s concentration camps in World War II. It is possibly less well known is that the first of these camps, Dachau, was not for the Jews, but rather to house Germans who had opposed Hitler.

Ignoring the danger of fascism to America or writing it off as a “scare tactic” is just naïveté—or whistling past the graveyard.

There is nothing more important to the future of this country than voting down Trump and each and every one of his associates on November 5th. We dodged a national bullet on January 6th, 2021. We can prevent another one from being fired on election day.

Here is an important historical fact to remember: Hitler did not start as a dictator—first he got elected.

Army Talk Orientation Fact Sheet 64, FASCISM!