Yes he manipulated German's Nationalism. There is no doubt of that in my mind. But it wasn't Nationalism which led to death camps, conquest of other countries, or violation of treaties and alliances. These are NOT examples of Nationalism. He USED the peoples Nationalism. The actions he committed were not done out of Nationalism.

You write as if Fascism were NOT socialism. It is one type of socialism, no matter how much revisionist history the left has committed. There are several types of socialism. There is Communism which is one extreme form of socialism. At the other extreme is the mild form of socialism--Democracy. There is Democratic Socialists, Social Democrats, National Socialists, and others. Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, translated is, National Socialist German Workers' Party; better known as NAZI. Includes the words "National" and "German", which indicates Nationalism; and "Socialist" and "Workers", which indicates Socialism. If you read Hitler quotes from before and during his reign, he clearly states again and again that he and the party are socialist. Many use the fact that there was enmity between the National Socialists, and the Communists; to indicate the NAZIs were opposed to socialism. Not true. Each type of socialist felt theirs to be the right kind of socialism. I hope I don't offend anyone with this comparison, but think of the antagonism and historical violence between different branches of Christian religion. That they are opposed to each other does not mean one is of a Christian religion and the other is not.

Name when and how Trump pits different American groups against each other.

Did he call half of Americans deplorable? Did he attend a memorial service for cops who died protecting Americans and use the podium to speak of police racism and police brutality? He said, “Police officers use oppressive and abusive” tactics of a “broken and racially biased system” On other occasions he said cops use racial profiling. He said, "You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.... The African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away." This statement not only stoke fear and hatred between blacks and cops, but between blacks and whites. When Michael Brown was shot, he reinforced the medias characterization of an unarmed black man gunned down by cops, despite the video clearly showing Brown in the act of pulling one officer's gun out of the holster in the struggle, and the 2nd officer not waiting to see if he would turn the cop's gun on the 1st officer but instead shooting Michael Brown.

Obama accused pro-lifers as waging a war on women. He said anyone opposed to same sex marriage was a bigot. During the 2008 campaign, he called anyone who supported Hillary a racist. Later he called anyone in favor of immigration enforcement racists. He said Republicans are the enemy of Hispanics. Here is a quote from a speech where he denigrated midwesterners. “And it’s not surprising then they get bitter,they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

When the Antifa and BAMN thugs "protested" by setting fire to private property, smashing windows, and assaulting people, Obama said there actions heartened him.

But I don't want to pick on Obama as holding the bag on divisiveness. So here are some Hillary gems. Clinton said, "We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business." She called blacks super-predators. She called Republicans uneducated and characterized Republican women as doormats in so many words. Saying they do whatever their husbands, sons, or fathers tell them to. This was the only reason she would believe that Republican women didn't vote for her. When defending a rapist of a child, she said, "Children in early adolescence tend to exaggerate or romanticize sexual experiences and that adolescents with disorganized families, such as the complainant, are even more prone to such behavior." She encouraged divisiveness between the right and left by stating that the accusation that her husband had an affair with an aide, a vast right wing conspiracy.

So what has Trump done?

Yes he manipulated German's Nationalism. There is no doubt of that in my mind. But it wasn't Nationalism which led to death camps, conquest of other countries, or violation of treaties and alliances. These are NOT examples of Nationalism. He USED the peoples Nationalism. The actions he committed were not done out of Nationalism.

You write as if Fascism were NOT socialism. It is one type of socialism, no matter how much revisionist history the left has committed. There are several types of socialism. There is Communism which is one extreme form of socialism. At the other extreme is the mild form of socialism--Democracy. There is Democratic Socialists, Social Democrats, National Socialists, and others. Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, translated is, National Socialist German Workers' Party; better known as NAZI. Includes the words "National" and "German", which indicates Nationalism; and "Socialist" and "Workers", which indicates Socialism. If you read Hitler quotes from before and during his reign, he clearly states again and again that he and the party are socialist. Many use the fact that there was enmity between the National Socialists, and the Communists; to indicate the NAZIs were opposed to socialism. Not true. Each type of socialist felt theirs to be the right kind of socialism. I hope I don't offend anyone with this comparison, but think of the antagonism and historical violence between different branches of Christian religion. That they are opposed to each other does not mean one is of a Christian religion and the other is not.

Name when and how Trump pits different American groups against each other.

Did he call half of Americans deplorable? Did he attend a memorial service for cops who died protecting Americans and use the podium to speak of police racism and police brutality? He said, “Police officers use oppressive and abusive” tactics of a “broken and racially biased system” On other occasions he said cops use racial profiling. He said, "You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.... The African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away." This statement not only stoke fear and hatred between blacks and cops, but between blacks and whites. When Michael Brown was shot, he reinforced the medias characterization of an unarmed black man gunned down by cops, despite the video clearly showing Brown in the act of pulling one officer's gun out of the holster in the struggle, and the 2nd officer not waiting to see if he would turn the cop's gun on the 1st officer but instead shooting Michael Brown.

Obama accused pro-lifers as waging a war on women. He said anyone opposed to same sex marriage was a bigot. During the 2008 campaign, he called anyone who supported Hillary a racist. Later he called anyone in favor of immigration enforcement racists. He said Republicans are the enemy of Hispanics. Here is a quote from a speech where he denigrated midwesterners. “And it’s not surprising then they get bitter,they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

When the Antifa and BAMN thugs "protested" by setting fire to private property, smashing windows, and assaulting people, Obama said there actions heartened him.

But I don't want to pick on Obama as holding the bag on divisiveness. So here are some Hillary gems. Clinton said, "We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business." She called blacks super-predators. She called Republicans uneducated and characterized Republican women as doormats in so many words. Saying they do whatever their husbands, sons, or fathers tell them to. This was the only reason she would believe that Republican women didn't vote for her. When defending a rapist of a child, she said, "Children in early adolescence tend to exaggerate or romanticize sexual experiences and that adolescents with disorganized families, such as the complainant, are even more prone to such behavior." She encouraged divisiveness between the right and left by stating that the accusation that her husband had an affair with an aide, a vast right wing conspiracy.

So what has Trump done?

Patriotism will always come down to being a political tool. The decent men and women of our Armed Services do not see themselves as heroes or patriots; they are just doing their duty. The pledge you have above outlines that duty. A job description. Give a job description for a father. How do both fulfill it? Love and integrity. Courage and perseverance. Sacrifice and honor. We want to heap accolades on such people, raise them up, yet that is just who they are. To label it patriotic or a father's duty takes away from them, diminishes it in a way.

That is a troubling and highly complex question. If we want to see patriotism as a good thing, than we have to see that all patriotism, even that of our enemies or any others, as equally good. This is the book definition of Patriotism: "the quality of being patriotic; devotion to and vigorous support for one's country." Yet "devotion and vigorous support" means what? Or the simple definition of patriotism as "love of country" means what?

Patriotism is to me a sham; it does not come close to truth on the matter. Samuel Johnson said that it was the last refuge of the scoundrel, yet Boswell, his biographical commentator, gave no context. Let me provide one, my own.

Basically, there is absolutely no need for patriotism. America has ideals and principles and values that we honor and protect. Why? Because if we have integrity those same ideals and principles and values reflect what we stand for as individuals. It is not a dedication to borders or a flag but to the heart and spirit of liberty. If America strayed from these things, as much as another country threatened them, we would be equally zealous, "devoted and vigorous," in rooting out the corrupting influence. This is something the Right does not seem to understand.

Patriotism appears to mean to the Right lock-step loyalty to Trump and abject hatred for the Left. This is what is so totally bad about patriotism. It has no parameters. Such thoughts as those are not for the country or its principles but for party or a man. The word patriotism or patriot should be forever banned as being anything more than a poor and shaky description of multiple and perhaps conflicting feelings regarding a nation.

Um no, you're incorrect. Socialism is an economic structure working within a form of government, in the past under a dictatorship, where people are forced. Fascism is a governmental structure which is a type of one-party dictatorship. Fascists are against democracy. ... Fascism puts nation and often race above the individual. It stands for a centralized government headed by a dictator. Historically, fascist governments tend to be militaristic, and racist.

Hmm.... militaristic, racist and one-party agenda.


Does any of this sound vaguely familiar?

Robert Paxton, a professor emeritus of social science at Columbia University in New York who is widely considered the father of fascism studies, defined fascism as "a form of political practice distinctive to the 20th century that arouses popular enthusiasm by sophisticated propaganda techniques for an anti-liberal, anti-socialist, violently exclusionary, expansionist nationalist agenda.

There's that nationalist word again, is it a red flag or a red herring?

Socialism can be an economic system as well as political system. But is not first and foremost an economic system. The most critical defining characteristic has to do with property. Is the property privately own and controlled, publicly owned and controlled by the government (communism), or somewhere in between (socialism). For example, in NAZI Germany, property which had been privately owned and controlled before the NAZIs, were often still left in the hands of the former owners (unless they were of one of the undesirables of the state) but controlled by the government. The former owners were more like managers as it could be taken away at any time and given to another with no compensation. This included ALL types of property! It included the home you lived in, any land you used for crops or pasture, livestock, industry and business, even musical compositions and works of art as well as the tools you use to make them. It even included ideas if they were acted upon. If they could have, they would have controlled your thoughts, but they settled for shaping your thoughts. This is far more than economics!

Definition of socialism
1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3 : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

Under the NAZIs, definition 1 and 2 were totally in compliance with the definitions. Definition 3 would have to eliminate the words "Marxist" and "transition" to be in compliance with that definition. In other words, 'A stage in society between capitalism and communism.'

I will answer your last question first. Am I a patriot? No! Yes! It is totally unanswerable to any degree.

Patriots back in the late 60s and early 70s were those that did not mock our soldiers or march in the street. That is the reality of how patriotism is used, abused, and forgotten. The Constitutional right to assembly, to protest, meant you were anti-American.

"Why do we need necessary parameters in defining a patriot when being a patriot is the personal decision of the person and what they choose to recognize in their act of patriotism..???"
Patriotism: It is a very powerful and far-reaching word. The respect seems automatic for those that claim it. But without any controls, limits, ideals, values, or principles to properly define that role, anything--literally, anything!--goes.

Socialism can be an economic system as well as political system. But is not first and foremost an economic system. The most critical defining characteristic has to do with property. Is the property privately own and controlled, publicly owned and controlled by the government (communism), or somewhere in between (socialism). For example, in NAZI Germany, property which had been privately owned and controlled before the NAZIs, were often still left in the hands of the former owners (unless they were of one of the undesirables of the state) but controlled by the government. The former owners were more like managers as it could be taken away at any time and given to another with no compensation. This included ALL types of property! It included the home you lived in, any land you used for crops or pasture, livestock, industry and business, even musical compositions and works of art as well as the tools you use to make them. It even included ideas if they were acted upon. If they could have, they would have controlled your thoughts, but they settled for shaping your thoughts. This is far more than economics!

Definition of socialism
1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3 : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

Under the NAZIs, definition 1 and 2 were totally in compliance with the definitions. Definition 3 would have to eliminate the words "Marxist" and "transition" to be in compliance with that definition. In other words, 'A stage in society between capitalism and communism.'