Elon Musk has raised the "Roman salute" used commonly by Hitler and fellow National Socialists. It was a very honest statement of his right-wing politics--a further indicator of the fascist turn in American politics. It is the same coporatist-state alliance one found in NAZI Germany.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts, advocate of the unitary executive legal theory, has advanced presidential immunity for any and all official acts--in effect the fascist Fūhrer Prinzep that vests the Leader with total authority now enjoyed by Donald Trump.

Politicians fearing reprisals cannot be relied upon to curb the right-wing shift in American politics. The original question I've raised on democracy vs. fascism (or its right-wing, authoritarian American form) motivates my posts. Together we are witnesses to a real threat to American democracy.

In campaign and pre-inaugural rhetoric, one can identify anti-democratic, authoritarian features of the forthcoming Trump administration. Promising dictatorship (for one day?), demanding loyalty, using the military and police against immigrants, and relying on wealthy donors trouble democrats.

Based on the German, Italian and other experiences, we can construct an extreme or pure type for fascism: 1. the leadership or Fūhrer principle, 2. glorifying and returning to an assumed past, 3. militarism, 4. racism, and 5. coalition of government and industry and the owners of capital.

The United States and other real-world "democracies" or republics thus fall short of the pure type for democracy. Although they may exhibit some authoritarian or non-democratic features, they typically fall well short of totalitarian or fascistic forms of governance. So what is fascism?

Obviously, the United States and other "democracies" do not fit the Ranney-Kendall pure type perfectly. They are republics (representative democracies) lacking full participation, equality and all decisions taken by majority rule. We can only assess how close countries are to the pure type.

What is a democracy? There is no such thing in the real world as a "pure" democracy, but if there were, what would be its characteristics?

Ranney and Kendall define a pure (or ideal) type of democracy: 1. popular sovereignty, 2. political equality, 3. political participation, and 4. majority rule.

Democracy or fascism? That is the question.