In my twenties, it was more an epithet flung at figures you despised, like Nixon and, later, Reagan — under the heading, Friendly Fascism, due to his chucklehead style. It leaves you hanging though; it’s like saying: to each era its own fascism, including ours. The point isn’t that they didn’t vote for Lula but they didn’t believe others had. FDR said in 1936 that his generation of Americans had a rendezvous with destiny — a line Reagan, who admired FDR, repeated. It also starts to seem that every generation has its rendezvous with fascism.