More Fascist Rhetoric from Trump
"Scum" and the "enemy from within."
Steven L. Taylor
·
Saturday, October 12, 2024
·
20 comments
This literally the kind of rhetoric used by Hitler.
The clip was worth sharing, but I do not have time for more commentary. So, I will refer you to a previous post that covered this ground: Trump Calls Political Rivals “Vermin” and Seeks to “Root Out” the “Threat from Within”
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
Follow Steven on
Twitter
At least half of the American people are looking forward to this. They want violence. They want to see brown people dragged out of their homes. They want mob action. They want the death of democracy. Trump’s not the problem, Americans are the problem.
Stevie, we realize that you’re not terribly bright. You DON’T have to keep proving it.
Look up the term “fifth column”. Are you naïve enough to deny that such a thing could exist? Or simply naïve enough to claim “That couldn’t happen HERE!”? (Hint: that attitude is what allows “it” to happen here. Ask the people in Germany in the ’30’s.)
Those must industrial-grade rose-colored glasses you’re wearing, Dr. Pangloss.
@Michael Reynolds:
Oh, I think Trump’s a BIG part of the problem. He gave those people permission to come out from under their rocks.
@alanstorm: how should a democratic government handle people who make up this fifth column? What is the correct way to identify these people?
@alanstorm: If the best you can do is be insulting, it rather demonstrates the weakness of your position.
It is telling that your response to fascistic rhetoric is to defend it by engaging in insults and attempt to demean rather than making an argument.
Please be civil. Future insults will be deleted.
@Michael Reynolds:
A goodly number of the nearly half of Americans only want the death of democracy, so they can have their tax cuts and deregulation. They think they can control the ones who want the violence and white supremacy. Deplorables like “alanstorm” demonstrate how utterly foolish that line of thinking is.
Those Americans are the problem. Be so kind as to not lump this American in with that despicable lot.
I am comfortable calling those who stormed the capitol, and those who encouraged them, and those who attempted to overturn the 2020 election, and those who try to suppress the votes of legal voters, and those who knowingly spread falsehoods and lies about pandemics and politics… “the enemy within.”
They are literally striking against the foundational element of America — democracy. And they are often using our systems of government to lock themselves into power.
It’s a broad group that basically includes anyone who has ever said “We’Re A rEpUbLiC, nOt A dEmOcRaCy” with any intent other than annoying our dear Dr. Taylor (one must allow people a little fun).
Whether we should have more or less open immigration, whether we should focus enforcement efforts on illegal immigrants or their employers, whether we should have a robust safety net for our own citizens, whether we should cripple our economy with the cost of mass deportations and sudden 20% tariffs on all imports, whether we should default on the national debt, and what country should we bomb next — there are policy differences that we can disagree on, while still maintaining the fundamental nature of our country — democracy. Those people who disagree on these important issues are not the enemy within, those are neighbors who are wrong.
But the seditionist segment are clearly the enemy within.
And I have trouble drawing the line between Trump’s fascistic use of the term, and the perfectly reasonable observation that Trump himself is an enemy of American Democracy and America itself. (And roughly 45-47% of the country are dupes — the actual enemies are relatively few)
My mother, before her death, got captured by the FOX News spiral. Back in about 2010.
She got hyper-politicized and would bring up utterly unprovoked very political hot topics because she knew I disagreed.
I can kinda understand leaning into political media that suits you, tickles that part of your brain. Wouldn’t do it myself, but I mostly get it, kind of.
My mom would call me up and dump rage shit on me because she knew I mostly vote D. I said I was uninterested in pursuing that topic. Said that again. Again.
She, apparently, was very pissed off that I voted against her preferred outcome.
Mom, our politics are not the same and that’s fine, but are you really going to come at me so hard because you think my voting against your preferred outcome makes me vile and despicable? Really?
We never got there, but I came damn close to go no contact with her. I explicitly told her many times that I do not want to talk about politics with her at all, ever. A bright, clear line of communication. If she brought it up I would alert once. Then abruptly hang up if twice.
She got very angry at me that I wouldn’t let her shit on me without pushback. Send me e-mails full of links if I didn’t immediately pick up. I blocked her e-mail address.
For a few calls, I was her punching bag. Her FOX News hyped enemy – a dumb, idiot liberal. She got really pissy when I told her to stop that shit.
I sincerely wish that no one close to you goes nutzoid about politics and pushes that at you hard. It’s very uncomfortable and you have to establish limits and boundaries. It’s difficult and uncomfortable.
I just want to know what you did last weekend.
You know, it’s something I agree with Trump on. Our biggest enemy is a US citizen. Definitely.
@alanstorm: YOU are the fifth column. A tool at best. A foreign operative at worst.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here before and yet here you are thinking your insults will have some weight? Why would any of us give a flying fig about who you think is dumb?
@de stijl: My mother also was caught in the Fox News spiral as she aged. In her case, she had been hyper political her whole adult life. The combination of hyper political views, Fox News, and progressing Alzheimer’s made visits colorful if nothing else.
Alanstorm’s comment is Poe’s law in action.
I’ve general question for political historians… What confluence of events and changes finally brought down McCarthyism?
@Jay L Gischer: It’s been a while since he’s been around, but he’s never been a nice person. Always a troll.
@alanstorm: The ultimate irony is that MAGA clowns like alanstorm here really have no clue that they are the enemy within. One of the defining characteristics of the fascist and fascist-adjacent is the projection of their own actual extreme views and actions onto their perceived enemies as justification (rationalization, really) for their own hatreds and future violence.
@Argon:
According to Britannica, taking on the US Army while using it, mixed with televised exposure and a journalistic expose.
Remember, though, the past is a foreign country.
@Kathy:
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
— William Faulkner
@CSK: Indeed. Roy Cohn, McCarthy’s protégée, would go on to coach Don Trump in the arts of demagoguery. McCarthyism isn’t dead.
@alanstorm:
If your goal was to win this year’s Dunning-Kruger Award, congratulations. That should lock it up.
[Further response redacted — Dr. Taylor has it in hand.]
@alanstorm:
I’d avoid talking about Germany in the 1930’s. You people are the Nazis.
“alanstorm” is a typical Republican.
Democrats live rent-free in his head, he needs a safe space because he can’t deal with the facts of the real world, and instead of confront his demons…. he projects his personal, imagined issues onto anyone else instead of the mirror. Because he’s an immature toddler.
This thread isn’t a Dr.Taylor issue… it’s a Republican issue, and it was true before MAGA.
I think this bridge troll is still big mad that Melania dropped an October Surprise against Trump.