Hey, Joy Reid, Let's Talk About 'Fascism'
David Harsanyi
MSNBC’s Joy Reid recently accused presidential candidate Ron DeSantis of “running the most openly fascist campaign I think I’ve ever seen.” Political grifter Stuart Stevens chimed in to note that the Florida governor is even worse than Donald Trump – or even more like Hitler, if you can imagine such a thing.
Accusations of fascism are nothing new in politics. When libertarian Barry Goldwater won the Republican nomination in 1964, California Governor Pat Brown claimed the “stench of fascism is in the air.” And since that time, every major Republican presidential candidate has been branded a fascist or something approximating one. Even oppressively anodyne moderates like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan really just wanted to throw black Americans back into chains and old people off cliffs.
In recent years, though, Democrats have transformed the entire political debate into one pitting the forces of “democracy” against authoritarianism. Not that long ago, for the first time in American history, a president gave a prime-time speech accusing voters of the opposition party of turning to “semi-fascism.” “Now you need to vote to literally save democracy again,” the president warned. And the only way to save democracy was by empowering one-party rule — a position that should sound counterintuitive to anyone who’s ever read a book.
It is exceedingly unlikely that Reid or Biden could define “fascism” as anything other than policy positions they oppose. They’re not alone. Quite conveniently, every Dem policy position, from energy to taxes to voter ID, is essential in saving “democracy.” And, conversely, even innocuous acts of governance by Republicans are framed as tyrannical.
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https://thefederalist.com/2023/06/27/hey-joy-reid-lets-talk-about-fascism/
