On the same day that Neil Cavuto attempted to pull some of Fox News’ reputation from the Trump Swamp, Fox’s Jeannine Pirro poured raw sewage all over her radio show by citing as fact the same white nationalist theory that motivated the El Paso mass shooting. Yes, a Fox News host is back to promoting the insane theory that led to the deaths of twenty innocent people.
The disgusting details from Newsweek:
They hate Donald Trump,” Pirro said, referring to Democrats. “He’s the one they want to get rid of.”
“Their plan and their plot to remake America is to bring in the illegals, change the way the voting occurs in this country, give them licenses, they get to vote maybe once, maybe twice, maybe three times,” Pirro continued. “You’ve got motor voter registration on the day of the election, we’ve got voter rolls that haven’t been purged of dead people in years, where the Democrats have resisted that.”
She added: “Think about that, it is a plot to remake America. To replace American citizens with illegals who will vote for the Democrats.”
We are used to shocking statements from Fox hosts, to the point they have lost the ability to shock. But, in light of El Paso, to say nothing about the danger to our body politic, I suggest we muster some shock, and anger.
We will need to count the dangers promoted in such hateful speech.
First, and most obviously, it encourages the lone wolves out there to feel comforted in their paranoia. Their hatred has been blessed by what they see as mainstream news. It is justified. They are justified, in their minds, as we have already seen in El Paso. I guess the body count is insufficient, still.
Second, it sets up a dynamic where Republicans are encouraged to not trust elections. We can beat Trump and Republicans’ asses any number of ways, and the Trumpers have been told ahead of time it is illegitimate. They can – and should, in their minds – take to the streets in fury. Their country is being stolen, so the theory goes. The election, should it result in anything but a Republican sweep, is illegitimate. Indeed, do you detect the sneer at the very act of voting? It is just just behind the words, like it would be better to rid the nation of such a “danger” altogether. After all, only one party is legitimate.
Third, it intensifies the meme that only Trump Republicans have rights to this country. Democrats might as well be foreigners attempting a coup of the United States. Picture a farmer in Iowa, one who has been devastated by Trump’s trade wars, and one who would normally vote out anyone taking away his livelihood. But, now he hears that it isn’t about “his” livelihood, it is about white Americans’ right to their nation. He could almost see himself as “selfish” for voting out Trump in such a situation. For his country, he cannot vote for the Democrat, or he loses his citizenship, not just his livelihood.
This is the insidiousness of such talk.
I could go on, but the maddening three above serves sufficiently for our purposes.
Have no doubt, this is planned. It is coordinated, and likely even polled for effectiveness within the populace, perhaps informally polled through data from search engines or Facebook.
Do not doubt that there is a large segment of our society wholly willing to throw out the constitution in all but name, willing to live in a dictatorship, so long as they get to keep “their country” from others. Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, and the opinion-makers behind the Republican elected officials are willing to dump me and you, and our rights, in order to keep power. Denying Obama the appointment of a SCOTUS seat was not a one-off, nor the suppression of the vote. It is the new normal, impose power, however obscene. They are encouraged in this endeavor by Russians who want to weaken the United States, and/or remake the U.S. in their image. Trump openly advocated for Putin over our democratic allies in the G7. His actions comport entirely with Pirro’s statement. It is all part of a grand plan.
Fascism requires racism or religious suppression in some shape or form. Fascism cannot flourish without an inner-enemy. Because the Civil Rights movement and King made outward racism intolerable to the majority of Americans, the fascists on the Republican side (not all Republicans) needed a new enemy for which hatred would be tolerated. I mean the word “hate” – a strong word, but justified – because it is a prerequisite.
Pirro’s language is right on the edge of the Hitler-Stalin playbook, it is an utter conspiracy theory (also a prerequisite), but hanging perilously on the justification that she is talking about “illegal invaders” and defense of “her” nation. The talk is getting stronger, the fact that it kills, is tolerated, if not encouraged. None of it is incidental, or accidental. It is the plan. I am supposed to fear going to a Democratic rally, or protesting the immigration camps. I am supposed to live in fear for writing this. The hate-filled emails outnumber the encouraging ones. Fear is part of fascism, too.
So, Jeannine, the response to hating Trump or his apostates? The answer is that I don’t have time to hate. I am too busy opposing all of you, Trump and the MAGA-head movement. Trump is his followers, they are Trump, and all of you are part of a global movement that only those at the top really see.
You want it. You like it. It makes you feel powerful, better than others, and courageous. In reality, you’re terrified little snowflakes, scared of a beautifully diverse America, one that rejects fascism in favor of freedom, elections, and opportunity, for all.
****
Peace, y’all. Peace, but hold your ground.
Jason
The shame of America is that millions of Americans will believe this outrageous lie and it says something about what they would be willing to do.
Only a couple of things:
1) It’s crap like what this talk which makes the plot they’re pushing as the real agenda sound like the greatest idea since the Marshall Plan. Who the hell would want to be around these bellicose morons?
2) However many of the ones who buy this are out there, my bet remains that we outnumber them two to one. And recent FBI preemptive arrests of would-be shooters may at least give the more rational among them pause.
And, of course, the morons who believe the crap that spews from the orifice at either end of Pirro’s digestive tract never once ask themselves, “Why don’t Republicans fight the Democrats by making all those illegals full citizens? Then they’d be glad to vote for our side!”
Then again, these right-wing fools (both the talk-show hosts and the sheep that follow the bleats) never bother to pay attention when the ONLY PROVEN cases of voter fraud have come from Republicans like Ann Coulter’s being registered in two different states or that Kansas GOP official who was caught casting votes in two different cities or when James O’Keefe was caught trying to vote with a fake ID (he actually tried to explain it away as his attempt to prove how easy it was to vote with a fake ID–which obviously failed since he got caught; yet the right-wing keeps claiming it’s too easy to vote with fake IDs).
The usual. Find out what the RWNJs are ACTUALLY doing by noting what they accuse the Dems of doing.