The tension becomes clearer when considering how Stanley treats these other regimes. Elsewhere, he has described Russia as “explicitly fascist” and even “genocidal.” Yet in the Globe article, he places the U.S. and Russia in the same category of “fascist” powers for the purposes of geopolitical advice to Canada. On any reasonable scale, the gap between the United States and regimes such as Russia or Iran — particularly with respect to freedom of expression, political opposition and civil liberties — is substantial to say the least. Americans openly criticize their leaders, organize politically, contest elections and challenge authority in courts and public discourse. In Russia, such opposition is often systematically constrained and, at times, eliminated. In Iran, recent years have brought killings, mass arrests and violent crackdowns on dissenters, including women protesting state repression. Even with severe challenges, when democracies like the United States are placed in the same conceptual frame as Russia and Iran, it reeks of demagoguery.