Retired General and former Trump chief-of-staff John Kelly’s recent on the record revelations about Trump’s frequent expressions of admiration for Hitler, Trump’s desire for not only another Roy Cohn to defend him (Bill Barr did an impressive imitation) but for loyal generals like Hitler had, Trump’s disdain for military service and sacrifice and his ignorance of history, will make little difference in an election that is all about feeling. On a wave of strong feeling either Trumpie or Harris will surf to victory, and God help us all if that wave breaks the wrong way.

To someone like me, who lost virtually his entire, once large, family to a killing machine unleashed by Mr. Hitler [1], news that a presidential candidate a statistical coin flip away from achieving his dreams of revenge admires, and frequently cited the successes of, Mr. Hitler is sickening.

But as Mr. Trumpie pointed out in his own defense, Hitler did a lot of great things too, and he was loved and unquestionably obeyed by his generals, even the ones who tried to assassinate him a couple of times, which many people don’t know, by the way. Hitler’s generals all revered him, even the ones who, with tears in their eyes, admitted under torture “sir, I tried to kill you”.

Chrump, of course, is a famously “transactional”, incurious, strongman-venerating moron who only knows that Hitler, whose word was literally law, dreamed big about making the Fatherland Great Again and, for a while (presumably before being betrayed by his own sick, disloyal people) was a huge winner. Nobody got ratings, or dominated, like Mr. Hitler at the time, nobody besides Mr. Trump, of course, if he’d been there, on German reality TV.

On the other hand, to someone who thinks Jews have too much unchecked power, that they control the weather (actually, I do that sometimes) and are hellbent on importing tens of millions of raping brown people to pervert democracy and impose their anti-Christian values by Jew trickery, using brainwashed, savage Blacks, Browns and Yellows, who will replace all White Christians, as Q foretells, well, Hitler, whatever his possible faults, had basically the right idea.

Lock the Soroses up, take their ill-gotten wealth (only white Christian billionaires deserve their honestly acquired wealth) and eventually, just quietly get rid of the eternal enemy of Jesus Christ. Where’s the hole in that plan? It’s perfect for someone who believes a violent mob assault on the Capitol police was totally justified “legitimate political discourse” or that the virtuous South was forced to become the Confederacy after the “union” viciously attacked them. Only a Jew could argue against propositions so straightforward.

The two sides do not have equally strong arguments, of course, but that’s not the point. Scholar of fascism Robert Paxton pointed out that fascism is not an ideology based on reasoned arguments but appeals to blood, soil, national grievance and violent action. Here’s Paxton:

“It seems doubtful,” Paxton wrote in The New York Review of Books in 1994, “that some common intellectual position can be the defining character of movements that valued action above thought, the instincts of the blood above reason, duty to the community above intellectual freedom, and national particularism above any kind of universal value. Is fascism an ‘ism’ at all?” Fascism, he argued, was propelled more by feelings than ideas.

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In this way fascism closely resembles the worldview of any narcissist and the little social circle they control. The infallible leader’s appeal is always to feelings, their own and the supreme values of loyalty, faith and love of those in their orbit. These appeals bypass observable cause and effect, context, ideals, facts, reason, logic, discussion, deliberation or anything else that “enlightened” souls try to guide their behavior by. If I feel it, says the leader, it’s fucking true. If you have a defiant feeling against mine, you’re fucking dead, asshole!

And so it always is, from Mr. Hitler to Mr. Koch to Mr. Nixon to Mr. Stone to Mr. Trump. The only people bothered by this natural hierarchy of strength are handwringing losers who sit worrying, and tapping, while virile men of action martyr themselves for a glorious cause that makes them feel righteous. In an advertising-based world where ads are ubiquitous and only strong feeling matters, how can you fault them for doing what heroes always do, being ready to die, and righteously kill, for their faith?

[1] I love this New York Times style tic. In a long ago article about Eric Clapton and Bo Diddley, the two guitar players were referred to throughout as Mr. Clapton and Mr. Diddley. That tickled me greatly.