Make them wear it
In his newsletter today, Dan Pfeiffer discusses the inane reaction to Joe Biden’s speech last week by both Republicans and the media. And then he addresses the substance:
Are MAGA Republicans (Semi) Fascists?
I talked about this a little on a recent episode of Pod Save America, but want to go deeper and offer more context. There are two parts to this overly pedantic, pundit-driven debate. First, is fascism the correct word to describe the MAGA movement? I think the answer is self-evident, but don’t take my word it. Federico Finchelstein, a scholar on fascism, wrote in the Washington Post:
Donald Trump represents a new type of global autocratic ruler who is legally elected, but also embraces elements that fascist figures like Perón felt were too controversial: totalitarian lies, racism and illegal means such as coups to destroy democracy from within. Trump might best be considered a “wannabe fascist.” By that I mean he is a populist who aspires to return to a form of fascism. His rule was not full-fledged fascism because it did not descend into dictatorship. But it could have been, if his attempts to retain power after the 2020 election had been successful.
Feel free to use your common sense in determining whether or not Biden is correct.
The leader of the Republican Party and the frontrunner for the 2024 nomination led a violent insurrection to overturn a legitimate, democratic election. Trump reportedly wanted to use the military and the Department of Homeland Security to prevent the peaceful transition to power. He also just demanded to be reinstated. But this is bigger than Trump.
A number of Republicans sanctioned, threatened, and encouraged political violence in response to the court-approved search of the President’s beach house. The Republicans are also actively and openly seeking to seize the electoral apparatus in order to install a Republican in the White House. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, explicitly ran on a pledge to award the state’s electoral votes to a Republican no matter whom the voters choose. And if that is not enough, the conservative movement and the Right Wing media have thrown in with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban who is, you guessed it, a fascist.
And if that is not sufficient, just go watch Donald Trump’s deranged rant of a rally from this past weekend. Delivered by someone else in some other country, we would have no problem describing that speech as fascism.
If the jackboot fits…
It fits. And this is no drill. There has been a slow slide in this direction for many years, starting with the original modern Republican demagogue, Newt Gingrich. Trump accelerated it and it’s now running at warp speed.
Unfortunately, the media is falling back into old habits — where it isn’t running headlong into the arms of the right wing:
The Very Real Threat
Per usual, the political conversation gravitated toward the trivial and trite. The use of the word “fascism” is superseded by the threat itself. The political press wants to talk about the word choice because it is less uncomfortable than trying to fit the existential threat of MAGA Republicans into their both sides, balance-over-accuracy model of journalism. But we should be crystal clear; America is at a very dangerous crossroads. While a strain of Right Wing extremism always existed in our politics, it has never been this powerful. Ironically, the MAGA movement is declining as a percentage of the population. The pro-democracy, pro-truth, diverse majority in the country grows every day. But in our political system, numbers are not power. Because of demographic shifts, geographic trends, and the biases of the Senate and Electoral College, the extreme minority holds a massively disproportionate share of political power. In the past, the Republican leadership accommodated the fringe. Now, the fringe calls the shots in the party.
If the Republicans win the House, the Senate, and key state offices, it is very possible that they will seek to overturn the election. And this time, they will have the power to succeed where Trump failed in 2020.
He’s right. And Biden has an obligation to call this out, timorous Dems and the self-interested media aside. As Pfeiffer says:
There is zero inconsistency between Biden’s message of unity and his decision to call out a dangerous faction promising violence in the thrall of a cult-like criminal leader. It is impossible to unify without dealing with the forces of division. If you want to heal the soul of the nation, you must be willing to cut out the cancer.
And they are a cancer.