Editorial

Call It Fascism

It probably was not a coincidence that Donald Trump tweet-attacked four Democratic congresswomen of color July 14, just two days after Alex Acosta announced he was quitting as labor secretary in the controversy over his extraordinarily lenient handling of wealthy businessman Jeffrey Epstein for sex crimes 12 years ago when Acosta was US attorney for southern Florida.

Acosta announced his departure July 12 while standing next to Trump outside the White House. Trump said it was Acosta’s decision to quit. Of course, Trump may have nudged Acosta, since he had no wish to keep Epstein’s name connected with him and the two dozen women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct since the 1970s. Also, a big roundup of undocumented immigrants who had been ordered removed from the US, which Trump had promised, was a bust, and the continued holding of refugees, including children, for weeks or months in overcrowded facilities along the border without basic amenities, such as showers, drinking water or even space to sleep, was an embarrassment. So the Great Misleader distracted the American public, as he often does, with a series of tweets.

“So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

Of the four congresswomen Trump referred to, Ilhan Omar, a Somilia native, was the only member of “the Squad” born outside the US. She immigrated to New York with her family in 1992 at age 10 and she now represents Minneapolis. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, born in the Bronx, N.Y., represents the Bronx and Queens, Rashida Tlaib, is a native of Detroit, Mich., which she represents in Congress, and Ayanna Pressley, is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and now represents Boston. And if it can be argued that, as Trump said, their government is the “most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world,” the Squad, and their colleagues in the House, are trying to fix it.

Then Trump doubled down in a rally in North Carolina that was originally called because he expected to be distracting from Robert Mueller’s testimony at House committee hearings, which had been scheduled for July 17. Mueller’s testimony was rescheduled, but Trump put on a show anyway, including crowd chants of “Send her home,” in response to his attacks on Omar.

Trump based his 2016 campaign on fear of brown immigrants, including Latinos, blacks and Muslims, and he wants to make the Squad the faces of the Democratic Party. While their support for issues such as health care for all, tuition-free public colleges, environmental protection, living wages and support for basic human rights appeal to a broad base of voters, Trump believes stoking fear and resentmeent of people of color can unify white people and carry him to re-election.

Frank Bruni warned in the New York Times that the Squad members only represent their districts, and they replaced Democrats in solidly blue districts, so “their victories had zilch to do with why or how Democrats regained control of Congress and have dubious relevance to how Democrats can do the same with the White House in 2020. The House members they replaced were Democrats, not Republicans, so their campaigns weren’t lessons in how to move voters from one party’s column to the other.”

Other first-term House Democrats who defeated Republicans in districts where Trump had prevailed by four to 10 percentage points just two years earlier include Lauren Underwood in the exurbs of Chicago, Xochitl Torres Small in southern New Mexico, Abigail Spanberger in the suburbs of Richmond, Va., and Antonio Delgado in upstate New York. “None of them ran on the Green New Deal, single-payer health insurance, reparations or the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency,” Bruni said. “They touted more restrained agendas. And they didn’t talk that much about Trump. They knew they didn’t need to. For voters offended by him, he’s his own negative ad, playing 24/7 on cable news.”

Of the roughly 90 candidates on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s list of 2018 challengers with some hope of turning a red House district blue, just two made a big pitch for single-payer health care. Both lost. But candidates who picked up seats campaigned on protecting the Affordable Care Act, and coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, which Trump and the Repulicans tried to kill in 2017 and are still trying to destroy.

Republicans want to label the Democrats as socialists heading into the election year. Democrats shouldn’t pick up that bait, but they should remind voters the GOP still targets Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. A Kaiser Health poll in January found widespread support for expanding Medicare and Medicaid:

• 77% of the public, including 69% of Republicans, favor allowing people between the ages of 50 to 64 to buy health insurance through Medicare;

• 75%, including most Republicans (64%), favor allowing people who aren’t covered by their employer to buy insurance through their state’s Medicaid program

• 74%, including nearly half of Republicans (47%), favor a national government plan like Medicare that is open to anyone, but also would allow people to keep the coverage they have if they want to; and

• 56%, including nearly a quarter of Republicans (23%), favor a national plan called Medicare for All in which all Americans would get their insurance through a single government plan.

However, views on Medicare for All turn negative when people hear the arguments that it would eliminate private health insurance companies, require most Americans to pay more taxes, threaten the current Medicare program, and/or lead to delays in some people getting medical tests and treatments. And even if those arguments are misleading, they get plenty of airplay on corporate news channels and right-wing radio talk shows.

Republicans have been calling Democrats socialists ever since the New Deal. In the Trump era, the rhetoric has become more extreme, as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who knows better, called the Democrats “a bunch of communists” during an appearance on “Fox and Friends” July 15. “Well, we all know that (New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) and this crowd are a bunch of communists, they hate Israel, they hate our own country,” Graham said.

US Rep. Liz Cheney (R-S.C.), the third-ranking Republican in the House, agreed with the sentiment, tweeting, “We will never stop fighting the communist wing of the Dem party.”

It’s not just about Trump; it’s the whole party Trump has co-opted, few of whose “leaders” have the courage to separate themselves from his racist rhetoric (and many of whom may have thought it was a good strategy to unify his base).

Democrats should start calling out the Republicans for what they have become: a fascist organization that will increase the power and privileges of big businesses and billionaires by any means necessary. House Democrats should step up hearings on Trump’s alleged “high crimes and misdemeanors,” from his apparent violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act to keep his extramarital affairs secret before the election, to his attempts to obstruct the federal investigation of his campaign’s involvement with Russian and other foreign individuals before and after the election.

Democrats still might not get 20 Republican senators they would need to remove Trump from office after impeachment, but the people still deserve the truth — while we can still get it. — JMC

From The Progressive Populist, August 15, 2019

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