The left, today more than ever, is big on name-calling. Oh, over here on the right side of the spectrum, we indulge ourselves in a little name-calling too, mostly humorous, sometimes sarcastic; I do it myself. But for the right, this is usually in addition to a thought-out, rational argument. For the left, these days, it takes the place of any thought-out, rational argument. Why is that? Well, it's likely because the left has no rational arguments to make. All they have is name-calling.
Now that we're half a year into "Trump 2: The Return of Trump," which, for those of us on the right, has been a glorious thing to behold, the left has a new battle cry: "Fascist." They use this term with no regard to what it actually means, what the United States actually is, or what Republicans actually think. That may well be because the leftists aren't thinking for themselves. Name-calling, along with anger and outrage, is all they have.
This piece on Substack from author Sasha Stone makes some good points.
Fascism has become the catch-all for the Democrats now to describe policies they don’t agree with. It’s FASCISM! They cry. They do so unironically. They genuinely believe it because they have absolutely no idea what fascism means. They don’t seem to know what any of the big words they throw around mean because, to them, it is merely a method of control.
Calling everything fascism is itself a form of fascism because it means that unless you conform to our way of thinking, we will destroy you by any means necessary. In this case, words are their means. They use “authoritarianism,” “Nazi,” “Hitler,” and even “racist” and “rapist” as a form of fascism, too, ironically enough.
It's a method of control that has failed. In the Age of Trump, Republicans just aren't having it anymore. Oh, in recent decades, the GOP had its share of soft-shelled invertebrates who would shy away from Democrat name-calling, for whatever reason. But now that's not the practice; when the left shoves, we shove back harder. When the left yells "fascist," we laugh at them, because we see it as the last act of a desperate party.
The fun part here is that the left tosses this term around without understanding what it really means or the origins of the word. Yes, it's generally used to denote a totalitarian state, a nationalist state where central authority is held by a central, autocratic government, often under the leadership of one dictatorial figure. Which, I might note, is what the left routinely advocates. Fascism is also an economic system in which the means of production are technically in private ownership, but the outputs of these companies are tightly controlled by the government. That sounds like something Democrats would favor, doesn't it?
As Sasha Stone points out, in a real fascist state, the left wouldn't be able to call the right fascists. They wouldn't be able to call us anything if there were an actual fascist dictatorship running the country.
If we were living in a fascist state:
—No one could call Trump a fascist at all, let alone as an endless howling caterwaul we all must endure day in and day out.
—You are mandated to only read state-run propaganda. All news comes from the state. There is no such thing as freedom of the press. What is our press now? Nearly 100% in support of the Democrats.
—You can’t protest with stupid signs that call Trump a fascist because you’d be shot on the spot or thrown in jail. They protest every second of every day, anywhere they want.
There's more, but you get the idea.
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Here's the thing: The left doesn't, for the most part, understand the terms they toss about so casually. Furthermore, they don't care. That's not the level of discourse most of them are capable of. There used to be some intelligent, thoughtful people on the left; the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), for instance, I always found worth listening to, even though I agreed with him on almost nothing, policy-wise. But he was intelligent, thoughtful, and framed his arguments well.
There's nobody like him among national Democrats today. Even Democrats in the Senate are prone to shouting "fascist" and "dictator," they are engaging in the rhetorical equivalent of a little kid calling another little kid "doody-head." And we should take them just as seriously as we would a little kid.
Facts matter, and the fact is, it's the left, not the right, that would take us down a totalitarian path. President Trump is abiding by court decisions, even when they're obviously horse-squeezed issued by an obviously biased judge. He's following the Constitution. He's working with our elected representatives in Congress. Yes, he's working much more aggressively than previous Republican presidents, and you know, that's probably why his approval ratings among Republicans are through the roof. That is what we voted for. That's what we're getting.
It's the left that would stack the Supreme Court with leftists. It's the left that would ram through statehood for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, to ensure four more Democratic Senate seats and an added edge in the electoral vote. It's the left that would lock up discourse with "hate speech" laws. It's always the left that seeks more, and more, and more control over what we say, over what we do, over where we live, over what we drive, what we eat, and what we say - and think. And it's the left that takes to the streets, to burn, to assault, to intimidate, to try to shut us up.
The right has finally had enough. President Trump, I would point out, is more symptom than cause of this, although he certainly gave the new, populist Republican Party a focal point, a standard around which to rally. But if it had not been Donald Trump, it would have been someone else; maybe not in 2016, maybe not in 2024, but someone else would have channeled this movement. We have had enough of the left's attempts at intimidation, we've had enough of their constant grabs for control, and we've had enough of their name-calling. And that, dear readers, is what really makes the left angry. That's why they are so unhinged. And that's why the Democratic Party is falling apart.
