By Jeff Gorke
SUWANEE, Ga. | Late last week I began to respond to Ashley Herndon’s tome in the July 9 GwinnettForum, “Explaining how fascism helps confuse today’s argument.” (As any reasonable person might do, I preamble by stipulating Trump is a bit of a hyperbolic loose cannon, lest the discussion get clouded.)
We live in Orwellian times where words have devalued via overutilization and misuse. We are terminally in “existential threat” mode whether it’s from Trump, the climate, white nationalism, etc. But who is a fascist? Let’s unpack just a few of recent facts, which are provable/documented).
- Who spied on Trump’s campaign after he’d been elected (during the transition)?
- Who orchestrated/signed the letter (51 intel agents) stating Hunter Biden’s laptop was “Russian disinformation” (It was not, and the FBI knew this as far back as 2019)?
- Who impeached a President due to cooked up “Russian Collusion?”; and
- Who has discussed (though abandoned) a trial balloon about packing the Supreme Court and/or doing away with the Electoral College?
Is any of that “fascistic” or dictatorial? A lurch for power? And who wants fascism to thrive? The leftists, who just won a political majority in France, and yet still rioted?
Those folks?
Fascists aside, I know of no candidate who “…tells their people…” they are the only people in the world who count. Can anyone name a recent one? And because you’re curious about Ukraine does that really mean you’re a fascist? Also, read up a bit on the United Nations. While their initial mission was laudable, their overarching need to play a role in international governance seems a bit ham-handed.
Lastly, while you may be an atheist, agnostic, whatever, there’s no cohesive move afoot to bring the United States back to 17th century puritanism. It’s intellectually dishonest to suggest that. Do some folks want that? Sure. Just like the neo-Marxists here in the country want to “burn it down” and start over. We agree that neo-fascists and Marxists are broadly against any structural religion or belief (Jews, Christians, etc.) as that impedes their goals (I give you Antifa).
This fear-mongering about “saving democracy” and the idea that Trump would be a dictator is laughable. When you have nothing to run on, you use fear to gen up support. Sidebar: if Trump was going to be a dictator, why didn’t he do that in his first term? If he was going to seek retribution, why not go after Hillary Clinton for paying for the Steele dossier (via her campaign) or having classified information on her home computer? Hmm.
Maybe I function under a simple rubric of “fascism.” This dog-eared trope has been bandied about liberally. The fascists I’m familiar with jailed opposition on trumped up charges, exterminated their enemies for the “greater good,” tamped down speech and commerce outside the “state needs” so as to manage the masses (“big tech?”), lied and otherwise deceived the electorate about things those in power knew to be true. (Let’s say, for instance, a candidate’s cognitive decline or Covid). Maybe I need a refined definition. Until then, we’d all benefit from a little less edge on the rhetoric, mainly those items that are factually false.
We are a great country for all of our differences. And we are better together and stronger for our communal heritage.
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