The End

The timeline of the downfall of the US:

The first six weeks (too many instances to individually list)

Insane trade war (done in bi-polar fashion) with our closest allies and trading partners.

Threats to invade Canada, Greenland, Mexico and Panama, as well as exiling Gazans.

Threats to our NATO commitment

Pulling funding and support from the Ukrainian defensive, appeasement of Fascist Dictators

Dismantling USAID, leaving countless food and medical supplies abandoned while people die.

Pulling Federal funding from academic institutions unless ideological goals (of Big Brother) are met.

1.20 Designates cartels as terrorist organizations and deploying the military to the border (superficially and precariously defensible, however Republican rhetoric has amped up, calling Democrats as colluding with the cartels, creating a false narrative for them to connect the dots)

1.20 Pardon 1500 criminal traitors as ideological enforcers.

3.09 Legal resident Mahmoud Khalil is abducted and disappeared to a prison camp, without charge of a crime

3.11 President Musk calls Mark Kelly a traitor for visiting an allied country at war.

3.14 Vice President Trump gives a disgusting speech to the DOJ, transforming it into a department of ideological warfare and

    labels the media "illegal":

3.15 invokes the Alien Enemies Act of 1789, last used in WWII to detain and imprison legal immigrants into prison camps.

The Return

Words Have Meaning!

While a lot of derogatory labels get thrown out by all sides of the political spectrum, if one actually applies the conceptual meaning of those words to actual political process, one can determine whether those labels are true or false, that is whether they correspond to the ideology and policy.  "Communist" gets thrown at the American liberal left, although that "left" is far to the right of all other liberal parties around the world.  But, if we actually define Communism - the abolition of private property (the means of production), we can ask if it applies.  Nowhere has the American liberal/democratic movement called for such an abolition.  Business, or the basic structure of the American economy, is nowhere on the chopping block. A good example is California -"Commiefornia" as empty-headed ideologues call it. Not only is it the world's fifth largest economy, it's home to the richest - private- businesses on the planet, those corporations which drive the international capitalist market, as well as producing enough surplus to create a class of potential oligarchs. Additionally, if one drives through the state, one will see dotted across every location, private small businesses. Everyone is potentially involved in production on their own terms, and making a buck. It's simply incorrect, a lie, to question the state of the state in relation to capitalism.  It becomes a term simply for "things I don't like."  And given the massive population, land, and business relations, both domestic and foreign, there simply has to be government involvement to avoid complete chaos. But that, as is clear from most of FAANG's presence,the system does not imped massive profits from capitalism.

"Fascist"is another term that gets thrown around, although the right generally throws it out re-actively in a kind of "doth protests too much" defensiveness.  But, what would an accurate position of that name realistically involve?

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism
by Lawrence Britt Spring 2003 Free Inquiry magazine

The 14 identifying characteristics of fascism. :
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.

6. Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies
or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually
beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed .

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Furthermore, we have the points of “Ur-Fascism or Eternal Fascism” by Umberto Eco:

1. The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”
2. The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense, Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”
3. The cult of action for action’s sale. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”
4. Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture, the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.”
5. Fear of difference. “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.”
6. Appeal to social frustration. “[…] one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.
7. The obsession with a plot. “The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia.”
8. The enemy is both weak and strong. “[…] the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”
9. Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.”
10. Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.”
11. Everybody is educated to become a hero. “in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”
12. Machismo and Weaponry. “This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality). Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons—doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.”
13. Selective Populism. “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.
14. Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”

By looking at such criteria, an objective uses of terms can be determined. If one party aligns with such characteristics, Fascism can be used as accurate description (if not proper label). It then is elevated above a "things I don't like" term of uselessness. (Masks are fascist because I don't want to act responsible in public). It's clear that the current dominating party conforms to these characteristics.