Apparently terrified that there is a real chance their team will lose power in the 2024 elections, media pundits are abandoning all restraint already. You see, they want everyone to believe that the President who delivered that most fascist speech in American political history—that’s him above—has to be re-elected to “save democracy” from Donald Trump. The last few days have seen a wave of these screeds, and their audacity and palpable whiff or panic is remarkable. There were three especially notable ones, two from the New York Times and and one from the Washington Post. All three use Big Lie #3 from the Ethics Alarms directory, just recently updated: “Trump Is A Fascist/Hitler/Dictator/Monster.” Apparently a talking points memo went out from the Biden White House or the DNC to the Axis allies in the media as President Biden’s poll numbers have sunk to new lows (though still ridiculously high, given his performance and, well, you know). The theme in all three is the same: there is a “clear and present danger” that if elected, Trump will take over the government and install himself as a dictator. I wrote this three years ago:

David French’s primal scream in the Times, “It’s Time to Fix America’s Most Dangerous Law,” is the most insidious: his theory is that a President Trump would use the Insurrection Act, a federal law permitting the President, in a sufficiently dire emergency, to deploy military troops as a domestic police force under his direct command. The other two pieces (with suspiciously similar headlines), “Trump attempts to spin anti-democracy, authoritarian criticism against Biden” (the Post) and “Trump’s Defense to Charge That He’s Anti-Democratic? Accuse Biden of It” (NYT) spin out Big Lie #3 in more general terms. Isaac Arnsdorf and Marianne LeVine quote cherry picked “expert,” Jennifer Mercieca, a historian of American political rhetoric at Texas A&M University, for example: “Trump’s Iowa speech continues his use of fascist rhetoric: it’s us versus them, he tells his supporters, and ‘they’ are enemies who cheat. Authoritarians have a lot of rhetorical tricks for explaining away anti-democratic actions as actually ‘democratic.”

The Times piece, by Michael Gold, states, “While Mr. Trump shattered democratic norms throughout his presidency and has faced voter concerns that he would do so again in a second term, the former president in his speech repeatedly accused Mr. Biden of corrupting politics and waging a repressive “all-out war” on America.” It’s versatile of Gold to bring Big Lie #6, “Trump’s Defiance Of Norms Is A Threat To Democracy,” into the discussion, but like David French and the Post’s Biden campaign soldiers at the Post, #3 is still the weaponized lie of choice.

It is important to remember that attempting to frighten voters into believing that Trump is an aspiring dictator has been a tactic of the Axis since before he was elected in 2016. Three years ago, I wrote,

#3 is the Big Lie of longest duration wielded against Donald Trump. It arose early in the 2016 campaign, before Trump had been nominated. It’s a framing lie, designed to color everything he does or says within an established bias. If there is some interpretation of his words, however far-fetched, that can be used to support the premise that Trump is a fascist/Hitler/dictator/monster it will be. #3 is also useful for spreading fear and hate. It is a direct cognitive dissonance ploy: on the cognitive dissonance scale, [for]all of those labels are about as low as they can be in the value systems of most Americans. Linking any individual to them, even a President, effectively pulls his positive rations down without evidence or support.

#3 is a traditional anti-conservative, anti-Republican lie, and is distinguished in Trump’s case only by the fury and persistence with which it has been used by Democrats and progressives. President Roosevelt, in his 1944 State of the Union address, described Republican policies in the 1920s as “the spirit of fascism:” His successor, Harry Truman, warned that a Thomas Dewey victory in 1948 would bring a fascistic threat to American freedom even more dangerous than the perils from communism.  In 1964, Walter Cronkite  on the CBS Evening News  insinuated that GOP Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater (an advocate  of small government whose father was Jewish) was a Nazi, as  Cronkite biographer Douglas Brinkley noted.   2012. Nixon, of course, was often called a fascist for his administration’s dedication to “law and order,” also called “enforcing the laws.” He was an early recipient of the “Worst Nazi President Ever” award for opening diplomatic channels with Red China. A Democratic congressman accused President Ronald Reagan of “trying to replace the Bill of Rights with fascist precepts lifted verbatim from ‘Mein Kampf.’ ” MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann’s pronounced President George W. Bush as a “fascist” in 2008. …Nice, mild, Mormon Mitt Romney was a nascent fascist according to Watergate has-been Carl Bernstein, who wrote in 2012 that  “today’s Republican Party (and its Tea Party wing) represent the first bona fide radical political party to rise to dominance in Washington in nearly 100 years.” One would think that the “Boy Who Cried Wolf” principle would kick in after 70 years or so…

Not only hasn’t that happened, we are now seeing the first time that ‘the Republican candidate is a threat to democracy!’ theme is being used as the primary line of attack by Democrats in a Presidential election. Why? I’d say two reasons: Trump’s undisciplined rhetoric makes it too easy, and two, this time around, Democrats have nothing else. This is desperation at work.

Nonetheless, the hypocrisy and audacity is stunning. First, by deliberately setting out to frighten the weak-minded and the Trump-deranged into being terrified of a Trump victory (I am thinking of the normally smart, rational lawyer at the Boston Bar Association who told me with tears in her eyes that she was afraid for her two-year-old son shortly after the 2016 election), this irresponsible fear-mongering makes violence and rioting extremely likely if the GOP does prevail. Second, Biden’s failed Presidency has been ominously scarred by many examples of Presidential abuse of power and the breaching of democratic norms, far more than occurred during Trump’s four years. How can even Blue-to-the-core progressives deny that? Are they all hypocrites? Do they like anti-democratic measures as long as it’s Democrats using them?

Ann Althouse pointed out the similarity between the Post and Times headlines, and with her usual air of detachment, wrote,

You could just as well say that his opponents have been responding to him. Who made the first claim that the other side’s position is anti-democratic and who first responded by saying — I’m paraphrasing — I’m rubber you’re glue? Who is the real champion of democracy here? What a dull question! You have 2 candidates trying to win an election. Where is the substance that matters to real people? No one thinks that democracy works perfectly or that the candidates are choosing arguments about democracy based on idealistic principles about democracy.

Which, I think, misses the real significance of the Big Lie #3 line of attack. I’ll finish this post with the help of Ann’s commenters, most of whom seem to understand what’s going on here:

• “The real argument is about structural stability. Which side will kick away the constraints that keep the system from collapsing into something entirely different. Generally the conservatives are pro-constraint and the woke are pro-feelings instead.”

• “Trump is pushing back on our dishonest spin! No fair! Of course it was in insurrection, and just because we then changed the law to make what Trump was trying to do retroactively illegal, don’t try and spin that either! It’s authoritarian to question ex post facto laws that the Democrats are using against Trump, authoritarian and anti Democratic… oops, I didn’t mean to use that capital ‘D’ there, but don’t go pouncing and claiming that this was some kind of Freudian slip!And another thing! We are certain that the Electoral Count Act is constitutional, even if it goes against the plain text of the Constitution!”

• “If Trump was really half as authoritarian as they say, he would have executed his lowlife niece years ago.”

• “NYT: “Indicted over a plot to overturn an election and campaigning on promises to shatter democratic norms in a second term.” Hillary Clinton did that when she lied and paid for Russian Collusion hoax. THAT was the real coup.”

• “Doesn’t this look like a talking points memo to the news outlets?”

• “I don’t understand what Trump has done that fits the traditional understanding of “authoritarian.” Biden’s approach to governance is obviously more authoritarian and anti-democratic. Issuing executive orders and regulations that not only aren’t supported by, but in some cases are in defiance of, existing laws is pretty un-democratic, IMO. Biden’s serial, unconstitutional attempts to forgive student loans and his refusal to enforce immigration laws are just two examples. Prosecuting rival political opponents is pretty authoritarian, pretty anti-democratic. Working with big tech to censor information that’s contrary to administration narratives is also both authoritarian and anti-democratic. Refusing to prosecute people who engaged in ILLEGAL harassment of Supreme Court justices and their families is another example. Do the NYT and WaPo really want to have this debate??”

• “Trump’s very fearlessness scares the bejeebus out of the Media. They are not able to bully him with their editorials so they label him a bully. They are not successful in driving down his support so they label his supporters extremist. His insouciance inflames their hatred.”
• “I don’t think I’ll ever get over the rabid partisanship of organs like the NYT and WaPo. In the headlines!”