Throwback, not a fascist

Re: Stop Calling Conservatives ‘ Fascists,’ Matt Gurney, Dec. 10. The problem with using the word “fascist” in so general a sense as to include Donald Trump is that it continues and contributes to the dumbing- down trend of political discourse that has characterized the last 50 years, and for which left- wing media have been primarily responsible.

Back in the early 1960s, historian Hugh Trevor- Roper noted that “Fascist” had become a term of general insult, devoid of real political meaning, referring broadly to individuals who supported autocracy, militarism and economic nationalism. Such a definition utterly fails, in practice, to distinguish Fascist regimes from those based on different philosophies, for example, absolute monarchy, National Socialism, Stalinism, Maoism, the North Korean Kim dynasty. By 1970, the same fate had befallen “Nazi.”

As for Trump, he is a throwback to early 20th- century capitalists, like Henry Ford, who expressed similar ideas on “undesirable” ethnic minorities ( Jews rather than Muslims), immigration restrictions, and the superiority of the American way of life. Ford’s views were unexceptional for the time, among the Liberal elite, but Liberalism is a constantly evolving political entity, and what is fashionable for one era is toxic to the next.

Gary S. Tait, Toronto.