CNN's John Avlon says President Biden's 'semi-fascism' comments were 'not helpful'
CNN's John Avlon said President Biden's "semi-fascism" comments were "not helpful" and "not befitting of the office president."
President Joe Biden will take to the stage Thursday night in Philadelphia to address the American people about alleged threats to our democracy. Will this be the speech of the uniter-in-chief who said in his inaugural address that we must, "see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors"? Or will it be the speech of the new, angry Biden calling out "Ultra MAGA" for its supposed extremism?
There has always been an unwritten rule in American politics that you can attack your opponent with everything you got, but you don’t attack their voters. However, just this past week Charlie Crist, the Democrat gubernatorial candidate in Florida said he doesn’t want votes from conservatives, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul told Republican New Yorkers to move to Florida, which, a lot frankly have already, and Joe Biden called the MAGA philosophy of Trump supporters, "semi-fascist." This is all extremely dangerous and it needs to stop.
Let's be clear, Biden did not call Trump a semi-fascist, he said it about the "MAGA philosophy" embraced by Trump’s voters. Fascism is a particularly dehumanizing accusation. Its root word, fasces, means a bundle of sticks, stronger together than separate, and in which each individual stick is indistinguishable from the whole. A blow against an individual fascist is a blow against fascism itself.
That is to say, once you identify someone as a fascist, they are as good a target for harassment or violence as any other person who shares their beliefs. Not only is harassing Justice Brett Kavanaugh, or swatting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene acceptable, so are attacks on your neighbor with the Trump flag on his truck.
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We already see the results of this illiberal and divisive approach to conservative voters from the left. A recent survey showed that 62% of college sophomores who voted for Biden would not be roommates with a Trump supporter, while only 28% of Trump voters said the same. Meanwhile, actress Sydney Sweeney came under blistering attack for posting a photo on social media at a family party with, gasp, Trump supporters. This isn’t political disagreement, it's personal disdain.
It wasn’t always like this. Back in 2008 when then-candidate Barack Obama criticized GOP voters for clinging to their God and guns he had to apologize and walk it back. Hillary Clinton came under similar bipartisan fire for calling Trump voters deplorables. But not this time. We seem to have reached a place where vicious attacks on the American people from their own president is par for the course.
When given the chance to turn down the temperature White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre instead doubled down. She said the fascist label fits because Republicans are attacking voting and abortion rights.
As to voting, presumably she means the Georgia and Texas voting laws that provide more opportunity to vote than Biden’s state of Delaware and where voting turnout records have been smashed. As to abortion, the Supreme Court simply left the decisions on its legality up to the states. This is fascism?
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In fact the fascist label is incredibly vague, a mishmash of Trump’s aggressive tone, the actions on Jan. 6 of a tiny, tiny fraction of American conservatives, and an increasing belief among progressives that to even question things like trans surgery for children or critical race theory in our classrooms makes one an unforgivable bigot.
Of course, the irony here is that an actual hallmark of 20th-century fascism was dehumanizing not just your political opposition, but the people themselves. How far a leap is it from saying I don’t want a conservative roommate, or date, or mechanic, to I think these people need to be silenced, punished or worse? History tells us that it is but a modest distance.
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Clearly Democrats think that this vile rhetoric is working in their electoral favor, maybe it is. Maybe these slings and arrows can save the Senate. But at what price? How much discord and division can the country handle? And what happens if Republicans decide that they too will target Democrat voters with hateful haranguing?
Joe Biden ran on a promise to restore normalcy, instead he is marching us into civil war. On Thursday night he needs to knock off the attacks on average people and remind the nation that we truly are neighbors, friends and fellow Americans.
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