My view, you've probably picked up, is focused on the mindset of people who follow the authoritarians who run fascist systems. Or many other kinds of systems. These "right wing authoritarians" I go on about actually were the followers in the Soviet Union. "Right wing" isn't about a particular ideology, it's simply about a conservative-to-reactionary way of thinking.

There are large numbers of RWAs in America, predominately in the stressed-out segment of the middle class. And that's what makes them potentially the agents of ER's middle-class fascism--not so much that they're already fascists, as they're ready to be molded into fascists to follow a fascist leader.

In any real democracy it's more complicated than that, of course, because the People and their demagogues perpetually interact and influence each other. The demagogues, especially, log roll to ensure that their People remain loyal and obedient. Demagogues determine what the people superficially want to keep them happy, and constantly alter their rhetoric accordingly.

Let me say what it seems few dare: The best current example of a fascist demagogue is, of course, Donald Trump. To me he resembles Mussolini (and it's refreshing I'm not using the H-name, isn't it?) because he pushes the fear buttons on immigration, yet while scapegoating brown-skinned people he also scapegoats hedge fund managers, and promises tax breaks and health care for the middle class, while increasing taxes on the wealthy. And no goodies for the poor, because they're one of the despised classes. Trump is very much, like Mussolini, a man of the people who wraps his demagoguery in a hyooge classy bow.