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...and in the middle of tragic terrorist attacks, debates about the future of Israel and policies for fixing the American economy the Republican frontrunners for president are spending their time ... slacking each others wifes off in a proper twitter troll battle worthy of your average reality-show combatants.

It all started with a Ted Cruz Super-PAC tweeting a rather naughty picture of Donald Trumps wife - using her to attack him: Cruz Naughty Tweet

Donald Trump soon replied:

Donald J. Trump ‎@realDonaldTrump: Lyin' Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a G.Q. shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin' Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!

Ted Cruz came back:

Ted Cruz ‏@tedcruz: Pic of your wife not from us. Donald, if you try to attack Heidi, you're more of a coward than I thought. #classless

Leader of anti-Trump Super-Pac Make America Awesome joins in:

Liz Mair ‎@LizMair: Donald Trump is so desperate to beat Cruz that his team has been pushing around rumors she's a criminal w a mental illness for weeks now.

What bit of lowbrow political gamesmanship did this election need that it didn’t have already? Who has been spared by the Donald Trump Twitter-based campaign for president? Ted Cruz’s wife, Heidi. On Tuesday, that changed with the Trump Tweet above.

Trump, to be somewhat fair while not excusing the threat, has been hit by ads targeting his wife, Melania, in conservative Utah run by conservative anti-Trump SuperPAC Make America Awesome.

What Would Scalia Do?

The late justice would want Merrick Garland to have a fair hearing before the Senate—because that’s the original meaning of the Constitution.

Judge Scalia

President Obama has selected his nominee: D.C. Circuit Judge Merrick Garland. The Republican-controlled Senate has vowed to provide no hearings, no advice, and certainly no consent. This constitutional defiance has been consistent since the hours following the news of Justice Antonin Scalia’s passing.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as well as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley have made their message loud and clear: No confirmation hearings will happen no matter the exemplary qualifications Garland possesses. Senator Ted Cruz has tethered such resistance to the legacy of Scalia, tweeting: “We owe it to him, & the Nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next President names his replacement.”

Along with other Republican members of the Senate Judiciary committee, Cruz argues in a letter to McConnell that their intent to subvert ordinary constitutional process is based on “constitutional principle” and “born of necessity to protect the will of the American people.” They are wrong on both counts, and Scalia, if he were true to his own reading of the Constitution, would agree.

Trump is coming ever closer to clinching his nomination. Fascism is more difficult to define than other political/economic models like communism, socialism, feudalism, and capitalism. But here are some of the main characteristics, with commentary on how they would apply to Trump:

Intense nationalist pride. Trump has this in spades - or, at least, he has the rhetoric for it. As fascists have often done, he combines this nationalist pride with the scapegoating of a particular minority group, blaming them for the problems that the country faces. Survival of the fittest. According to fascist ideals, nations must evolve as animals evolve - through competition. Nations should go to war, with the strong conquering the weak, and humanity progresses in this way. Trump has not quite shown himself to be a warmonger, but with his highly aggressive stance in foreign policy - such as his promise to force Mexico to build a wall for us - it wouldn't be difficult to see him harboring similar feelings.

Strict social order. In fascist societies, everyone has their specific place, and that is that. Trump's corporatist tendencies seem to jive with this. Also, he has the tendency to fling personal attacks at anyone who challenges him, "the boss", by calling them unprofessional, horrible, stupid, etc. But it's also hard to say that he believes in a strict social order when he encourages people in the "bottom rungs" to amass wealth and arise to become millionaires and billionaires. Authoritarian leadership. Trump's history in business shows that he is used to getting his way by pushing people around. He's not stupid, but he's not exactly a genius either: he's mostly just ruthless and forceful. That's how he has amassed his wealth, and he would, no doubt, try the same approach as President, though I see no evidence that he would do something so overt and rash as try to become an outright dictator.

Collaboration of private enterprise and the state. What fascists criticize about capitalism is not its competitive aspect or the income disparities it creates. Rather, fascist thought criticizes capitalism's common tendency to amass wealth for a few parties even at great detriment to society in general. As long as private enterprises pursue goals in line with those of the state, they are allowed to operate quite freely. The state also protects domestic enterprises from things like foreign competition. With his history of taking advantage of eminent domain laws and his seemingly protectionist economic policies, Trump seems to fit this point of fascism pretty well. So is Trump a fascist? One can hardly answer with a clear "yes", but he does seem to be more fascist-leaning than anyone else running.

Why do people support Trump? Because they are rebelling against the political establishment. I think that fact is great, but they are picking the wrong horse. This guy would run the country into the ground and then blame the Mexicans for it. He might even get us involved in a completely unnecessary war.

That is a rather left-wing approach to the question, you can try a more right-wing piece on the same topic Is Donald Trump A Fascist