The jubilant headline on the front page of Friday's New York Times was "Democrats Lose Fear of Calling Trump a Fascist."
Reporter Jonathan Weisman's first paragraph seemed daft. The F-bomb has "hovered" around Trump since 2015. "But for most top Democrats, it was a provocative term loaded with dread, historical import and potential incitement -- best left unsaid." It was?
Is the Times somehow skipping over Morning Joe and all the other liberals and Democrats who love comparing Trump to Hitler and Mussolini? Then there's the question of "fact checking." The "independent fact checkers" aligned with the Democrats never find calling Trump "fascist" or "Hitler" signal this is so accurate it doesn't need checking. But New York Times "fact check reporter" Linda Qiu slammed Trump for calling Kamala a "Marxist" at the loaded ABC debate.
False.
Marxism refers to the political, social and economics theories of Karl Marx, practiced as socialism or communism. Ms. Harris’s campaign has described her as a capitalist. She has not proposed to seize the means of production. And she has received the backing of more than 80 chief executives, some of whom have called her “pro-business.”
Weisman reported Kamala Harris proclaimed it would be "fine with her," that the F-bomb was worth dropping:
On Tuesday, as the radio host Charlamagne Tha God interviewed Ms. Harris, he interjected as the vice president contrasted her vision with her rival’s. “The other is about fascism,” he said of Mr. Trump’s vision. “Why can’t we just say it?”
Ms. Harris’s response: “Yes, we can say that.”
On Wednesday, speaking in Washington Crossing, Pa., Ms. Harris quoted Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Mr. Trump, describing his former boss as “fascist to the core,” as detailed in a new book from the journalist Bob Woodward.
Weisman then brought in the usual conga line of "fascism" experts, like Timothy Snyder and Ruth Ben-Ghiat to underline how this is so wonderfully warranted. Hillary Clinton and Liz Cheney have chimed in.
Mass deportation, which they admitted was currently supported by a majority of Americans, was explicitly linked to fascism. "Mr. Trump’s calls for mass deportations and internment camps, his promise to use force against a pernicious “enemy from within,” his leveraging of a cult of personality, his refusal to distance himself from groups like the Proud Boys and Three Percenters" allegedly fit the F-word.
Republicans were allowed to express objections. J.D. Vance called it an incitement to violence that was "beyond the pale." Ben-Ghiat then commented: "Vance is a very smart guy....He knows the power of the word." That's why the Left is throwing it.
Weisman quoted the Washington Examiner finding that Democrats have called Republicans "fascist" since Barry Goldwater's campaign in 1964. "Fascism is anything Democrats don't like," they said. That's true.
