July 23, 2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- "The
Intercept"
-
Donald
Trump’s speech accepting
the Republican
nomination for
president will
probably go down as
one of the most
frightening pieces
of political
rhetoric in U.S.
history.
Even for people who
believe the danger
of genuine
authoritarianism
on the U.S. right is
often exaggerated,
it’s impossible not
to hear in Trump’s
speech echoes of the
words and strategies
of the world’s worst
leaders.
Trump had just one
message for
Americans: Be
afraid. You are
under terrible
threats from forces
inside and
outside your
country, and he’s
the only person who
can save us.
The scariest part is
how Trump subtly but
clearly has begun
melding together
violence against
U.S. police and
terrorism: “The
attacks on our
police, and the
terrorism in our
cities,” he said,
“threaten our very
way of life.”
This is the favorite
and most dangerous
message of
demagogues across
all space and time.
After all, if we
know our
external enemies are
deeply evil, and our
internal enemies are
somehow their
allies, we can feel
justified in doing
anything at all to
our internal
enemies. That’s just
logic.
And if
anything, Trump’s
speech is actually
more terrific,
fabulous and huge
than those of
previous fanatics,
since he promises
he’s going to fix
everything
overnight. “The
crime and violence
that today afflicts
our nation will soon
— and I mean very
soon — come to an
end,” Trump says.
“Beginning on
January 20th of
2017, safety will be
restored.”
This use of fear to
destroy democracy is
so old that it’s
described exactly in
Plato’s Republic,
written in Ancient
Greece around 380
B.C.
Tyranny, says
Socrates in The
Republic, is
actually “an
outgrowth of
democracy.” And
would-be tyrants always
in every instance claim
to be shielding
regular people from
terrible danger:
“This and no other
is the root from
which a tyrant
springs; when he
first appears above
ground he is a
protector.”
Trump said that he
is going to
“protect” Americans
or some aspect of
American life 13
times tonight.
That makes sense,
since as he
portrayed the world,
we desperately need
protecting:
Nearly 180,000
illegal
immigrants with
criminal
records, ordered
deported from
our country, are
tonight roaming
free to threaten
peaceful
citizens. …
Egypt was turned
over to the
radical Muslim
brotherhood.
… Iran is on the
path to nuclear
weapons. …
This is the
legacy of
Hillary Clinton:
death,
destruction,
terrorism and
weakness. …
My plan will
begin with
safety at home –
which means safe
neighborhoods,
secure borders,
and protection
from terrorism.
…
I have joined
the political
arena so that
the powerful can
no longer beat
up on people
who cannot
defend
themselves. …
America was
shocked to its
core when our
police officers
in Dallas were
brutally
executed. … I
have a message
to every last
person
threatening the
peace on our
streets and the
safety of our
police: When I
take the oath of
office next
year, I will
restore law and
order to our
country. …
We must also
address the
growing threats
we face from
outside America.
…
Men, women and
children
viciously mowed
down. Lives
ruined. Families
ripped apart.
… Only weeks
ago, in Orlando,
Florida, 49
wonderful
Americans were
savagely
murdered by an
Islamic
terrorist. …
We Will Make
America Safe
Again.
As The
Republic explains, leaders
like this inevitably
end up “standing
up in the chariot of
State with the reins
in his hand, no
longer protector,
but tyrant
absolute.” This is
how liberty “passes
into the harshest
and bitterest form
of slavery.”
The good news
is that if you turn
off cable news —
apparently the
only source of
Donald Trump’s
knowledge about the
world — and go
outside, you’ll find
that the U.S. is
probably safer today
than it’s ever been.
Despite the
misleading
statistics Trump
used again tonight,
the rate of murder
and crime overall
remains
far, far lower than
in the past. You
also don’t need to
worry about ISIS:
even after the
massacre of 49
people in Orlando,
it’s likely more
Americans will be killed
by bee stings in
2016 than by
terrorism.
Nonetheless, anyone
who knows anything
about the past must
be genuinely
worried that a major
party could nominate
someone like Trump.
As the German
philosopher Hegel
famously said
200 years ago, “What
experience and
history teach is
this — that people
and governments
never have learned
anything from
history.”
Jon Schwarz
contributed to many
publications,
including The New
Yorker, The New York
Times, The Atlantic,
The Wall Street
Journal, Mother
Jones and Slate, as
well as NPR and
“Saturday Night
Live.” In 2003 he
collected on a
$1,000 bet that Iraq
would have no
weapons of mass
destruction.
