Call it fascism, because that’s what it is.
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
From branding parents speaking out against critical race theory and sexual ideology in schools as terrorists to the Mar-a-Lago raid, Attorney General Merrick Garland’s radicalized Justice Department transforms pre-election political opposition into national security threats.
The infamous DOJ letter on schools was sent out a month before the gubernatorial election in Virginia, where the National School Board Association, not to mention much of the D.C. establishment, is based. Much as Garland’s DOJ operatives feared, the school protests helped elect Gov. Glenn Younkin and nearly toppled New Jersey’s Democrat governor in the bargain.
The Mar-a-Lago raid was carefully timed around the DOJ’s day policy of avoiding politically sensitive moves 90 days before an election. The real election it has its eye on is in 2024.
And, if it has its way, 2024 will be the new 1984.
The Steele dossier, the Mueller investigation, the Mar-a-Lago raid, and everything before and after are part of the larger Spygate continuum which is marked by the use of national security tools to suppress the political opposition especially before and during elections. The claims of national security, whether they involve the Russians or classified documents, are just a tactic that allow Democrat officials to wield virtually unlimited investigative powers cloaked in secrecy.
Beyond the details of these investigations, which turn as hollow as Steele or Mueller on closer examination, is the larger construct of a crisis that is described as a “threat to democracy”.
The “threat to democracy” is shorthand for a threat to Democrats. The source of that threat are conservatives and Republicans. The vectors of that threat can be described as coming from Russia, school board parents, electoral activism or “disinformation” on the internet. The common denominator is that political activities which are inherently “democratic”, speech, protest and electioneering, are defined as a national security “threat to democracy”.
The net of this crisis extends from individuals posting on social media to political candidates and institutions. Meeting the “threat to democracy” requires the government to monitor social media and for social media companies to censor unapproved speech, for candidates who believe the wrong things to be barred from office, for the IRS to investigate conservative non-profits, for companies to be pressured into pulling donations to conservative candidates and for the military to be prepared to intervene once again in the event of another grave “threat to democracy”.
The threat to democracy or rather the republic here is coming from the Democrats.
The Spygate targeting of Trump is only one strand of a number of threads drawing together to criminalize opposition to leftist agendas. Cancel culture had already contrived to economically punish speech. The next step was criminal investigations of people who non-violently stood up to Black Lives Matter race rioters or drove over BLM’s racial supremacist slogan on streets.
The underlying rationale was that racism was a public health crisis and another threat to democracy. Individuals were components of the crisis. Those who would not take a knee and admit their privilege were perpetuating the crisis and posed a threat to the nation at large.
The same collectivist machinery is being ramped up to enforce global warming dogma by using financial institutions, insurance companies, SEC regulations, real estate codes and countless other financial minutiae to extra-legislatively impose the Green New Deal, punishing companies and individuals until they conform. Dot com monopolies are already censoring those who don’t.
Once again the argument is that all human life on the planet is endangered. Anyone who doesn’t toe the line is a threat to the race. And must either conform or be silenced.
Race and the environment are not the real issues here, no more than Russia or classified documents are with Spygate. Manufactured crises are used to justify totalitarian fascist abuses of power. The details of any individual crisis or allegation matter much less than the tactics used to suppress dissent in the face of this latest imminent emergency. Every crisis is met with a centralized response weaving together federal authority, corporate complicity, national media outlets, cultural elites and all the commanding heights of power in the United States of America.
As FBI raids blend into congressional investigations, National Security Council aides, political campaigns, opposition research labs and media outlets appear to speak with one voice because they operate as arms of the same machine. Likewise, school board leaders, DOJ officials, media outlets and publishing giants start functioning as components of a single political entity.
Because they are just different ways of describing members of the Left.
In true Orwellian fashion, the “threat to democracy”, like most leftist slogans, should be interpreted to mean the opposite of what it appears to. It’s democracy that is a threat to a political system that is undemocratic and built around undemocratic institutions.
The threat to democracy manifests itself when conservative candidates win elections and is most pronounced in the least democratic institutions, government bureaucracies, national media outlets, elite universities and the upper ranks of corporations. This increasingly integrated ruling class springs into action when it’s unable to rig an election and warns of a “threat to democracy”. The worse it loses, the more urgent the crisis and the more ruthless the method of dealing with it. Having lost one election and fearing losses in 2022 and 2024, it’s getting more ruthless.
The solutions to all the crises come down to the components of the machine, the administrative state, corporate leaders, technocratic monopolies, educational bosses, activist front groups and many others urgently grabbing more power to cope with the threat of losing elections.
The Mar-a-Lago raid is a warning that the machine is rapidly preparing to fight off the “threat of democracy” to the 2022 and 2024 elections by once again weaponizing national security, censoring “misinformation”, and stamping out the political opposition. It will do whatever it takes to win, not because it needs to win elections to pursue its agenda, but because winning elections is a convenient cover to explain the amount of power it wields.
Democracy is not just in its name, but its facade. When it loses the facade, people start to notice that elections don’t seem to change very much. And that things still run the same way.
America is in a bad and dangerous place. But it will be in an even worse one by 2024.
This is not just about winning elections, but about making them irrelevant. The goal is to eliminate the opposition, not just in the voting booth, but across society. The Left will use all the powers at its disposal to ban any kind of ideological non-conformity employing government, corporations, and the culture to prosecute, fire and cancel anyone who dissents.
All of this is being done in the name of a rotating series of crises, threats to democracy, social harmony or the environment, not because these threats are real, but because they enable the system to invoke different components to leverage against its political enemies.
Call it fascism, because that’s what it is.
Sheila says
Certainly heading that way.
mortimer says
When socialists go to bed with CORPORATIONS and BILLIONAIRES it is the definition of fascism.
Mussolini called this system ‘CORPORATIONISM’.
It is truly fascism disguising itself as something else. All that is needed here is a charismatic leader … duce … or fuehrer.
This is a brand new kind of fascism … INTERNATIONALIST FASCISM.
Wellington says
The single greatest threat to the democratic republic which is America (and it is dying) is the Democratic Party of the USA. I have stated this many times at JW but it deserves repeating again and again. The Democratic Party has lost its collective mind and is ready to shred the Constitution (and common sense) to advance its warped agenda, which now includes allowing public schools to go over the heads of parents in pushing all kinds of sexual material upon children as young as those in kindergarten and 1st grade, never mind all the CRT pernicious nonsense and its pathological hatred of Donald Trump AND Trump supporters.
I urge all sensible people who remain as registered Democrats to realize that the old Democratic party is gone and never coming back. Remaining in it for whatever reason, an example being to elect a more “moderate” Democrat in the primaries, is a train that left the station long ago. If America is to be saved, the Democratic Party must be placed on the extreme margins of American society if not totally done away with. Time is running out. Just as there is no reconciling Islam with freedom, so is it the case that there is no reconciling the modern Democratic Party with keeping America alive and well.
Mike says
amen
Infidel says
At this point, I consider Americans who are still Dems traitors to this republic. In fact, I’d sooner vote for the Communist Party of the USA than the Democrat Party, if the GOP option weren’t there or the candidate was a Marxist like Murkowski
Westman says
The guy who sent Colin Powell to lie at the UN, ruined Powell’s career, and started a fruitless war is also the bad advice that is ruining his daughter’s career through a fixation on destroying Trump and followers.
We have witnessed the heads of the very US agencies that are charged with protecting us, continually lie on media, in congressional investigations, etc. Not only did they lie, they were so arrogant that they knew, we knew from evidence, that they were lying and yet they did it with aplomb.
The unelected bureaucracy is almost running the government under shadow directions, with just a shred of real representation remaining for the citizen to believe he has free will..
The philosophy of today’s Fascism in government – “The ends justify the means.” Start rumors with lies that the bureaucracy and media like, use law as a political weapon, and make dissenting voices fear speaking out.
mortimer says
Wellington wrote: The Dems want to shred the constitution. That’s it!
Westman says
Yes, The US Constitution stands in the liberals way with required standards of government behavior and citizen’s rights. Changing it takes far too long and too much common agreement for those accustomed to instant gratification.
Brian Osborn says
Spot on as usual Wellington. Great comment!
James Lincoln says
Wellington says,
“I urge all sensible people who remain as registered Democrats to realize that the old Democratic party is gone and never coming back. Remaining in it for whatever reason, an example being to elect a more “moderate” Democrat in the primaries, is a train that left the station long ago.”
I agree.
The possibility of electing a more “moderate” Democrat in the primaries is only a very temporary Band-Aid – at a time when major surgery is required.
The “old” Democrat party of JFK type liberals, etc., no longer exists, and the current Leftist Democrat party is now an enemy of the state.
Yes, the current Democrat party needs to go.
The only problem is what to replace it with…
PMK says
Wellington,
Registered Democrats changing their party affiliation won’t make much difference. There are many closet Democrats who register as ‘independents’ but are reliable Democratic voters. Bernie Sanders is no more an ‘independent’ than Nancy Pelosi. Sensible Democrats should withhold their donations to candidates but most won’t. They still think they’re in the party of JFK and FDR. This year the Democrats are awash in small donors. No one should count on a red wave this November.
James Lincoln says
PMK,
To your point, Sen. Angus King (Independent Maine) caucuses with the Democrats.
And Alan Dershowitz, a reasonable JFK / FDR type Democrat, still has not realized that the current Democratic Party has left him.
Infidel says
You are right. Today, on Rob Schmitt, Alan Dershowitz, while condemning the FBI for what it did at Mar-a-lago, said the he wants Trump to run again b’cos he wants to vote against him a third time. People of his ilk are the reason that a segment of the Right wing is anti-Semitic
Wellington says
I am speaking, PMK, of registered Democrats leaving their party affiliation because they realize how awful the Democratic Party has become and not “secret” Democrats who register as independents. Surely, there must be at least several million Democrats who fall into the former category. If not, then matters are even worse than I thought; it would mean that virtually all Democrats have lost touch with reality and are enemies of America.
PMK says
Wellington,
I understood what you meant, but the fact is very few are going to change their party registration from Democrat to Republican. They’re going to call themselves ‘independent voters’. Many don’t like where the Democratic party is right now, but they love their own representatives. On C-SPAN I can always count on hearing from independent voters (C-SPAN gives them their own phone line) that they changed their affiliation from Democrat to Independent but they still vote Democrat. Some use their new status to vote in Republican primaries and then vote Democrat in November.
It’s not enough to change their party registration. Their vote is all that matters. Remember the Reagan Democrats. Few such voters, if any, exist in the Democratic Party today. Even though they supported Reagan, they still voted for Democrats in Congress and in their state legislatures.
Wellington says
PMK: You might want to take a look at this article:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/more-than-1-million-voters-switch-to-gop-raising-alarm-for-democrats
And this is coming from PBS, hardly a conservative site. You can find similar articles on this very interesting dynamic occurring within the last year or so.
Infidel says
2024? 2022 is more like 1984: at least w/ 2024, there are hopes of a GOP congress and a GOP president
tim gallagher says
There certainly are plenty of fascists among the left wingers. They try to shut down any person who disagrees with the bullshit they are trying to impose on all of us. They are great haters. I saw a good interview with Nigel Farage on Sky News last night, I guess it was partly because he is about to tour Australia, but he addressed the attack on western civilisation very eloquently I thought. The interviewer said that the usual rent a crowd lefties would no doubt demonstrate outside his talks in Australia, and he said that he loathed the crap that the left wingers seek to shove down our throats, but he defends their right to have their say, so they should be willing to allow him to put forward his point of view. Of course, that isn’t the way that the left fascists ever think or behave. To the oh, so virtuous left wing mob, it is always their way or the highway despite the insanity of much of their agenda – the transgender crap and the tearing down statues and trying to destroy all aspects of our great western civilisation, etc.
somehistory says
“On the YouTube show and podcast “TRIGGERnometry,” with hosts Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster, Harris addressed censorship of the New York Post’s now-infamous Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the November 2020 election.
“Hunter Biden literally could have had the corpses of children in his basement, I would not have cared,” Harris stated. “Whatever the scope of Joe Biden’s corruption is … — getting kickbacks from Hunter Biden’s deals in Ukraine … or China — it is infinitesimal compared to the corruption we know Donald Trump is involved in.”
\u201cSam Harris: \u201cHunter Biden literally could have had the corpses of children in his basement – I would not have cared\u201d\u201d
— Jack Posobiec \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Jack Posobiec \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1660829381
https://www.glennbeck.com/sam-harris-left-wing-conspiracy
Westman says
Biden is no more deserving of freedom from criticism than Richard Nixon. Sam Harris is ignoring Nixon’s, “It’s not illegal when the President does it!”. In some ways Nixon made the same mistake Sam Harris is making. Sam is busy as Allah, weighing the corruption of Biden vs Trump – wrong parameter!
It’s not about 10% for the Big Guy. It’s the fact that Biden and Nixon lied about their corruption. “I am not a crook”, is the lie Nixon and Biden have both made to the citizens. Biden should resign, yet will be unable unless his handlers put the resignation on the teleprompter.
somehistory says
Kind of like that Sherlock Holmes with the “creeper” and his “handler,” the mob boss. Holmes said, “You haven’t robbed and killed for gain like any half-way decent thug,” because the mob guy enjoyed the robbing and killing and cruelty.
The bidens enjoy breaking laws; he has even bragged about it, but pretends that he’s an upstanding guy.
Infidel says
I always thought that Sam Harris was overrated, despite him being one of the few atheists willing to call out islam and give it the same treatment as real mainstream religions
somehistory says
this declaration of his shows him to be a great big jerk. Dead children, indeed.
gravenimage says
Will 2024 be 1984?
……………………….
It’s certainly trending that way…
Pray Hard says
It already is.
Fane Babanul says
The Democrat Party tyranny is Nazi in all its manifestations.
Racial hate, discrimination and segregation is the basis for its very life.
Bill Ayers, the bomber who taught Obama into Marxism-Leninism is the guru of the Party and has “scientifically calculated” that the Democrats have to murder 25 million Americans in order to have Socialism imposed over America.
By now it’s clear that the Democrats are on their way to build the infrastructure need to exterminate all opponents and skeptics, their families, their children and their friends.
All are fair game for the Democrat murder and looting machine.
Eleanor says
Trump put it nicely in a nutshell when he said “they’re not after me, they’re after you, and I’m just in their way”. I’d love to see him win again in 2024, not only for the country’s sake, but just to pee them right off (again). There’s nothing more satisfying (and terrifying at the same time) than seeing a full-blown case of TDS hysteria (they are usually sitting in their cars while filming their own hysterical rant, I have noticed).
Walter Sieruk says
Maybe this current year of 2022 is actually the year “1984” so we don’t need to wait for 2024 to discover there are such absurd things as “thought crimes” and a politically correct demand for a “new speak.”
For “Big Brother Biden “is a villain and traitor to America and the American people. So much so, let us not be naïve about him, that is possible he would inflect upon American and Americans a socialist /Marxist tyranny if he could.
As the type of tyrannical government as in, the classic novel 1984 by George Orwell that was later made into a movie. In which, is headed by “Big Brother,” who issued a new speak dictionary with taught “Peace is war” and “Love is hate” and “Freedom is slavery” as well as “Ignorance is strength” and that the State headed by Big Brother declared that if it says “2+2 = 5 then it is 5.”
Likewise Big Brother Biden, first declared,” Inflation is strength.”
Myron J. Poltroonian says
“The fascists of the future will claim to be anti-fascists.” -Winston Churchill