Rachel Maddow explained that Trump is using the language of dictators as a way of undermining democracy by making people think that they need a strongman instead of democracy.
Maddow said:
It’s not just a bad and dangerous thing he’s doing that. You can stop him from doing by pointing out that it’s bad and dangerous. This kind of rhetoric trying to turn Americans not just against each other, but to the idea that some, some people among us are so dangerous that they must be exterminated, that some threats to us justify terminating the constitution that justify being a dictator if only for a day.
This is the sort of thing that has a political point. It is designed to make you believe that a democratic system with checks and balances and the constraint of the rule of law and elections where people are voted out sometimes, and divided power within government. Those things are not up to stopping these terrible evils that threaten us, the terrible threat that some people among us pose to the rest of us. This stuff is tactically efficient.
It’s designed to make us think that we need a strong man. We need a tough man. We don’t need a legal system and all its constraints. We don’t need a court system. We don’t really need a political process. We don’t need politicians. We don’t need Congress, we need strength will action, revenge, broken rules, maybe even violence. These statements are not just supposed to shock you, they’re supposed to work on you to make you believe we need something new and extreme to deal with our terrible problems. If only for a little while, maybe, maybe just a temporary dictatorship. And these tactics have a terrible history of working really well in other countries. And yes, here in our past.
Video:
Trump isn’t using the rhetoric of dictators to get a rise out of people or to get attention. He is using this language as a tactic to radicalize enough Americans against democracy so that he can win the election and return to the White House.
Donald Trump only knows one way to practice politics, and that is through fear. Trump has to keep people afraid so that he can play the role of the person who alone can fix everything.
As Sarah Jones pointed out while discussing Trump’s rhetoric, the former president is attempting to normalize the language of fascism:
The media has although not everyone, has normalized this. They should have really been calling this out when he called people vermin. Why does a leader want to dehumanize large sections of the population? It’s because you attack democracy by attacking anyone who supports it.” pic.twitter.com/BW1kOJUeT3
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) December 18, 2023
It is all a part of a calculated strategy of escalation that is designed to destroy democracy and return Trump to power.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association