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One persistent theme coming from the Democrats is that Trump, if elected a second time, would become a dictator and end democracy. For eight years, critics have called Trump an autocrat and likened him to the despised autocrats of the twentieth century, from Mussolini to Hitler. This rhetorical extremism is odd: Reagan and Bush were despised by Democrats, but they were not generally portrayed as threats to democracy. Nor have these accusations gone away; if anything, they are more intense now than in 2015 when they first surfaced.
It is one thing to say that Trump will do this, and will do that, if we have not already had Trump in office to see what he did in fact do. Trump’s critics latch on to his phrases like “dictator for a day,” which are quite obviously intended jokingly, or at least half-jokingly, and they say: Aha! He even admits he’s going to be like Hitler. But Hitler proceeded, almost immediately upon his assumption of power in 1933, to institute a widespread regime of repression. Hitler didn’t govern in a normal way for a term, and then somehow metamorphose into a dictator the second time around.
My premise is that actions speak louder than words, and we can make a sound judgement about Trump by considering his conduct from the time he entered politics to the end of his first term in office. Here we’ll see that Trump displayed all the largeness and audacity and even pugnaciousness of a Caesar, but he didn’t do anything tyrannical—indeed by many objective measures he did the country a lot of good.
Let me put it another way. If Trump were a dictator while he was President, then he was the most incompetent dictator in the history of the world. Dictators control the police agencies of government; Trump was relentlessly pursued by them. He didn’t run the agencies; he spent much of time running away from them. Moreover, dictators don’t lose elections because they control them and rig them in their favor. It is conceivable that the Chinese Communists are voted out of power in China? That the mullahs in Iran lose an election? Tyrants ensure they stay in power. They certainly never relinquish power voluntarily; typically, they have to be ousted by force. None of this applies to Trump.
Consider how Trump treated Hillary Clinton, which goes to the key question of whether Trump conducted himself in the manner of a dictator. Dictators, let’s recall, can be counted on to investigate, prosecute and seek to lock up their political opponents. During the debates Trump at one point fired back at her and said, “You’d be in jail.” During the presidential campaign, crowds routinely chanted, “Lock her up.” And given the way the Clinton Foundation raked in tens of millions of dollars from foreign entities, seemingly in exchange for foreign policy favors doled out by Hillary as Secretary of State, there probably was cause to investigate and indict Hillary once Trump became President and had the power to do so.
But the point is that he didn’t do it. He never even directed his Justice Department to investigate Hillary. If anyone suggested it, Trump nixed the idea. Much later, just a couple of months ago, Trump reflected on this. “And they always said, ‘Lock her up,” and I felt—and I could have done it but I felt it would have been a terrible thing.” Trump said this while noting ironically that he himself was now subject to a range of criminal prosecutions. So the point he was making is that he isn’t the one acting like a dictator; the people trying to get him are.
Who are the ones doing mass surveillance? Systematic censorship? Ideological indoctrination in schools and in the media? Criminalizing political differences? Targeting political dissidents and opponents? Attempting to lock up the leader of the opposition party in an election year? Clearly the ones doing all this are the Democrats. They, not Trump or the Republicans, are the party of tyranny and repression.
If you want further proof of this, just consider the Russia collusion scheme that was launched by the Hillary campaign, with the full cooperation of the Obama administration and the media, even before Trump took office. And let’s be clear about what they were going for, nothing less than portraying Trump’s election as illegitimate, his presidency as illegitimate, and Trump himself as a traitor in league with foreign powers.
To put it bluntly, they wanted Trump to be viewed and prosecuted for treason, with the understood penalty being life imprisonment or death. Had the scheme worked, this would have indeed been the outcome. And it was all based on invention and lies. This is how dictatorial regimes act—this is what they do. This point is critically important to our purpose, because again, we’re asking the question of who the real dictator is. As we can see from this wicked and sordid framing scheme, it’s certainly not Trump!
Eight years of Dictatorship under Clinton(Bill and Obama and Four Years under Biden we don’t need four more for Biden we need four more years of a real President under Trump
Not prosecuting Hillary was a big failure by Trump. A legitimate trial with evidence and all constitutional rights respected has nothing in common with dictatorial action.
The Democrats and the Left are nothing but liars and their accusations are pure fantasy.
As merit is discarded by leftists, you have a point – that they actually are guilty of being criminal low-lifes; not just falsely accused of it.
I don’t count Trump’s giving the seething bitch a pass as a “big” failure, as I believe he was trying to not set a precedent. (Tinhorn dictators jail the opposition party for sport.)
Now that these grifting trash have gone full throttle in banana republic bullshit, they need to reap what they sow.
We have merit on our side, but we also have sell-out weasels on our side. Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, Chris Christy & feckless Republicans discard character in pursuit of vanity,
Henc, a few things need to happen first.
Once we purge more Cheneyesque fools, replace deep state actors like Wray, and maneuver to avoid the DC kangaroo court district, we should indeed try and convict that grifting crook Hillary (She won’t have Comey to run cover this time.)
fsy:
The democrat and the republican parties and the media would’ve relentlessly crucified Trump had he gone forward with actually trying to prosecute Hillary Clinton. That’s a fact that cannot be dismissed, circumvented or ignored.
Would the deep state and the media roll over and praise Trump? Of course not. How about Comrade Kamala? But of course. They already are.
Well done. As a professor of political science I can say that all your points are factual, your interpretations objective, your conclusions valid. I might add: Democrat authoritarians routinely accuse the other side of what they’re intending and doing as a form of psychological projection (born of guilt) and a form of deflection (so rivals are blamed for the actual accrual of state power Democrats are building).:
Excellent point.
You said it better than I did . . . or will have said, if the censors get off their butts.
It’s refreshing to think you’re teaching students. I’m sick & tired of unaccomplished fools using lecterns to brainwash our next generation.
Hello Mr Salsman, Projection is based in a ‘mental disorder’, to loosely use the phrase, but not necessarily as a consequence of psychological injury. Most projectionists have ‘issues’, but, for a number of people, a psychopathic tactic of evil (yes, I do believe it exists as a pure entity); narcissistic sociopaths, most being the ‘common, everyday Hitlers’ we all deal with. But these mini-Machs are the Grand Masters of this, elevating it to a level that must be admired, as awful as that sounds. How can scum so low, reach so high?
My opinions have been formed by years of bartending. After that, I completed an M.D. and practiced Addictions Medicine, to get the fancy letters after my name. 😊
This is yet another example, in a LONG train of examples, of leftist fools engaging in projection.
It’s uncanny how the shear volume of their projection has been so constant, that it’s become a reliable predictor to gage their decent into farcical 3rd World tyranny.
They unwillingly accuse others of what they do – as a default.
They lack imagination, intelligence, and ethics, and as such, can only draw from the little they know.
This article did well in listing the many dictatorial traits they have engaged in.
Another byproduct is that their surreal, Godless dogma has amusingly had satire articles in “The Babylon Bee” become fact.
As so many exist, I’ll list only one example here . . .
The grifters impeached Trump for what the idiot Sleepy Joe actually bragged about on video – threatening to withhold “a billion bucks” from Ukraine. (The 2nd bullshit impeachment was borne of pure spite; to remove Trump from office who was already out of office.)
Dinesh nails it as usual. He is doing great work exposing leftist lies with his articles, books, and documentaries. There is just one thing I wish he would do differently. I believe he could have much more impact if he made his documentaries, including the latest one that just came out, free for viewing online. The “paywall” limits his audience almost exclusively to those who already agree with him — so he is “preaching to the choir.” So how can he pay for the production cost, you ask? I don’t know, maybe advertising, but he needs to come up with something if he wants to have a significant political impact.
The Dems are the undisputed champions of projection: accusing others of what they are actually doing. Hitler commanded an awesome political machine. He had the brownshirt street skirmishers. He had a loyal regiment of political fanatics. Together they steamrolled over Germany, convinced that their ends justified their means. If there’s anyone that abuses their power with quasi-legal intimidation and coercion, it’s those goons with the donkey armbands. We don’t have to worry about Trump turning this country into a dictatorship. We already have one. And Trump was vowed to put an end to their tyrannical regime. Ironic, wouldn’t you say?
I don’t know why the Dems are holding back,,,
Play the tapes Dems, play the tape, all TV stations, play the tape of Trump claiming he wanted to be a dictator,
Ohh Dems, you don’t have pictures, play the audio, repeat it over radio stations, everywhere, all over the place ..
Trumps voice saying, “he wants to be the dictator”