He insisted that DeSantis is faking who he is to win the Republican nomination. “People who try to get a nomination in parties, do it by trying to appeal to what they think will work. Well, look what Rick DeSantis [sic] has done in Florida. He was known as sort of a nondescript political leader, member of Congress,” Beschloss proclaimed.

“Suddenly he really has tried to turn himself into sort of a local Mussolini in Florida. With the book banning, and the brutal tactics, and even this week, this suggestion that bloggers have to register with the state, for the honor of writing about the governor and other political leaders?” He sneered.

“This is fascism and authoritarianism that goes even beyond what Trump has talked about.” So not only is DeSantis a local Mussolini, but according to Beschloss he’s worse than Trump.

[I expect ahistorical gibberish from pundits about ‘fascism.’ People who actually study history — and hold themselves out as experts in the field — should know better. Fascists don’t dismantle corporate-government integration as DeSantis did in DisneyWorld; they expand such integration as a means to control the masses even easier. In fact, that’s the hallmark of fascism, and why China’s Xi is much more a fascist than a communist. Fascists don’t allow for grassroots control of public education either, and so on. If Beschloss doesn’t like DeSantis, that’s fine, but calling him fascist is intellectually bankrupt. — Ed]