Trump IS a fascist and Americans need to understand that
Robert Reich in robertreich.substack.com
Suspicious packages, bomb threats, death threats,
harassment, assassination attempts, and violence are consequences of the
politics of hate, now emanating more ferociously than ever from Trump and his
sycophants.
Many explanations have been offered for why two
assassination attempts have been made on Trump over the last two months. Some
blame easy access to assault weapons; I’m sure that’s part of it.
But the real incitement to violence in America is
hatefulness — hate speech, fearsome lies, and dangerous, paranoid rumors — the
epicenter of which is Trump.
Trump blames the
intensifying climate of violence on Kamala
Harris and the Democrats: “Their rhetoric is causing me to be
shot at,” he said. “Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are
flying, and it will only get worse!” he wrote in a
social media post. Trump’s campaign has circulated a list of so-called
“incendiary” remarks Democrats have made against Trump and posted video clips
from top Democrats calling him a “threat.”
JD Vance says “we cannot
tell the American people that one candidate is a fascist and if he’s elected it
is going to be the end of American democracy.”
Hello? Calling Trump a fascist and a threat to democracy is
not inciting violence; it’s telling the truth. American voters need to be made
aware, if they aren’t already.
Let’s be clear: The most significant cause of the upsurge in political violence — including the two attempts on Trump’s life — is Trump himself, along with his close allies Vance and Elon Musk, and other cranks and crackpots that have come along for the ride.
Trump’s proclivity for violence was evident when he urged
his followers to march on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, knowing they
were carrying deadly weapons.
He has urged supporters to beat up hecklers;
mocked the near-fatal attack on the husband of the Democratic House
speaker; suggested that a general he deemed disloyal be executed;
threatened to shoot looters and undocumented migrants;
warned of “potential death &
destruction” if indicted in his New York criminal case; made the
ludicrous claim that “Babies are being executed after birth”; and predicted a “bloodbath” if he’s
not elected in November.
Trump has never taken responsibility for the consequences of
his hatefulness.
He still insists he was not responsible for the attack on
the Capitol. Yet since the attack, he has suggested the mob might have
been correct in wanting to hang his vice president. And he has
called for those arrested in connection with the attack to be released, casting
them as “hostages,” “political prisoners,” and “patriots,” whom he will pardon
if reelected.
His incendiary rhetoric about immigrants — calling them
“vermin,” claiming they’re “poisoning the blood” of America, charging that the
United States is “under invasion” from “thousands and thousands and thousands
of terrorists” — is worsening the hate and violence.
His baseless claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield,
Ohio, are eating people’s pets continues to generate bomb threats and death
threats there. Schools and government offices have been closed. After more than
33 such bomb threats, Ohio’s governor has provided state police to conduct
daily sweeps of Springfield schools.
“We did not have threats” before the claims, said Springfield
Mayor Rob Rue, referring to the accusations made by Trump and JD Vance. “We
need peace. We need help, not hate.”
When Trump was asked last week if he denounced the bomb
threats, he said, “I don’t
know what happened with the bomb threats” and repeated the lie that Springfield
had been “taken over by illegal migrants, and that’s a terrible thing that
happened.” In fact, Haitian immigrants are in Springfield legally.
The word “hate” has become Trump’s signature utterance.
During the presidential debate, he claimed that President
Biden “hates” Harris, that Harris “hates” Israel and
also hates Arabs. After Taylor Swift endorsed Harris, he posted “I HATE
TAYLOR SWIFT” in capital letters.
Hate is the single most powerful emotion Trump elicits from
his followers. Hate fuels his candidacy. Hate gives Trump’s entire MAGA
movement its purpose and meaning.
Trump’s closest allies are magnifying Trump’s hate.
Vance has doubled down on the false claim that Haitians are
eating pets in Springfield. He also says he’ll continue to describe Haitian
residents there as “illegal aliens,” although most have been granted temporary
protected legal status in the U.S. because of Haiti’s crisis.
Elon Musk posted to his
198 million followers on X, just hours after the alleged assassination attempt
on Trump, that “no one is even trying” to assassinate President Joe Biden or
Vice President Kamala Harris. Musk has since deleted the post and said it was
intended as a joke, but millions saw it — confirming that Musk is a threat to
the nation’s security.
Meanwhile, Musk’s blatant refusal to moderate hateful lies
on his X platform — and his descent into reposting many of them — is also
contributing to the rise of hate in America and around the world.
Musk’s X blared out lies that caused race riots in the U.K.
Musk himself shared lies that the U.K. was going to open detainment camps for
rioters. He claimed that the ex-first minister of
Scotland, Humza Yousaf, a Muslim, “loathes white people.”
When Europe’s Digital Commissioner Thierry Breton reminded
Musk of his legal obligation to stop the “amplification of harmful content,” he
responded by tweeting out a meme:
“Take a big step back and literally, fuck your own face!”
Before Musk bought Twitter and turned it into X, Twitter had
suspended Trump from the platform “due to the risk of further incitement of
violence.” Musk has reinstated Trump.
Hate is a dangerous corrosive. It undermines civility, eats
away social trust, dissolves bonds of community and nation.
A week ago Sunday, even before the second attempted
assassination of Trump, the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire posted on X that
“Anyone who murders Kamala Harris would be an American hero.”
The party deleted the post, but two days later it posted on
X a lengthy follow-up referring
to historical instances of violence supposedly “necessary to advance or protect
freedom,” including the assassination of “past tyrants like Abraham Lincoln,”
and stating that “it’s good when authoritarians” (that is, “progressives,
socialists, and democrats”) are made to “feel unsafe or uncomfortable.”
Trump, Vance, Musk, New Hampshire’s Libertarian Party, and
the neo-Nazis they’ve attracted to Springfield, Ohio show how infectious hate
can be as its venom spreads through political bottom-feeders and the swamps of
the Internet.
Those who wield hate for personal ambition are among the
vilest of human beings.
How to deal with the hate that Trump and his enablers are
fueling?
We must call them out for what they’re doing. We must vote
against the haters now running for office, from Trump on down, and urge others
to join us.
In the case of Musk, we must boycott his products and push
the U.S. government to terminate all contracts with him. Musk is a threat to
national security.
Most fundamentally, we must hold all purveyors of hate accountable for the consequences of their hatefulness.
© 2021 robertreich.substack.com
Robert Reich is the Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. His book include: "Aftershock" (2011), "The Work of Nations" (1992), "Beyond Outrage" (2012) and, "Saving Capitalism" (2016). He is also a founding editor of The American Prospect magazine, former chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, "Inequality For All." Reich's newest book is "The Common Good" (2019). He's co-creator of the Netflix original documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.
