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The new Republican talking point—radio, TV, White House—is any critique of conservative public policy is an attempt to "divide the country."
2/ Let's be clear: the motto of The New Fascism is, "Don't divide the country." It's a way to intimidate dissenters and *end* public debate.
3/ Have a problem with the current debate surrounding police brutality? *Engage the debate*. Only a fascist says "Don't divide the country."
4/ Trump voters laud his candor, but his "Don't divide the country!" rhetoric masks a cowardly unwillingness to say what he really believes.
5/ And what does Trump really think? That the NFL should've given him a team and he doesn't give a *damn* about police brutality either way.
6/ We've been hearing "Don't divide the country!" from Rush Limbaugh, from Donald Trump, from Paul Ryan, from Republicans across the board.
7/ We started hearing this New Fascist slogan well before Colin Kaepernick took a knee. The far right uses it on *all* controversial issues.
8/ It's an Orwellian way of seeming to support unity while aggressively preventing the open dialogue that allows a lasting unity to develop.
9/ If Donald Trump weren't a coward, he'd have Huckabee Sanders just come out and *say* Trump thinks there's no police brutality in America.
10/ Of course, saying what you think allows a debate to unfold. Opting for pure rhetoric instead is a fascistic technique—and has long been.
11/ The best part? Trump's base has *long* had, as its animating issue, the notion that the New Left is squashing public debate and dissent.
12/ There may well be elements of the New Left that use such tactics. But they use them less often—and less successfully—than Donald Trump.
13/ The perverse paradox of Trump is, he wants to be loved but if he ever said what he really thinks he'd discover America isn't behind him.
14/ America *doesn't* support him not caring about policy—it *doesn't* support him using the flag as cover for his vendetta against the NFL.
15/ It *doesn't* support him using "tax reform" as a cover to enrich himself as he does virtually nothing at all for middle-class taxpayers.
16/ To be honest, I don't think his base even supports him avoiding the police brutality issue using cowardly, empty nationalistic rhetoric.
17/ The Trump voters I come across online are angry—they *want* to debate police brutality, not spout a "Don't divide the country!" bromide.
18/ That's why I call this "The New Fascism": what lies behind it is a fear the far-right position isn't strong enough to withstand debate.
19/ Trump wraps himself in the flag as a way to hide his personal motives but *also* his unwillingness to debate the police brutality issue.
20/ I think both Left *and* Right should reject the falseness and cowardice of Trump's "New Fascism" and just debate the issues at hand now.
21/ When I hear—say—Limbaugh replace *zero* facility with the facts of the police brutality debate with empty rhetoric, it's just grotesque.
22/ It also suggests that the Right has *no* response to many Americans' concerns about police brutality, and *that* should anger the Right.
23/ "Class warfare"; "dividing the country"; "election butt-hurt"—one side of our national political discourse collapsed into lame bromides.
24/ Anyone who's upset about "PC culture" destroying public debate should be *equally* upset about empty rhetoric destroying the same thing.
25/ If you love the flag and think it's being disrespected, defend that view with *studied positions on police brutality*—not fascistic pap.
PS/ Actually no, because Trump has yet to take *any* position on police brutality—which is what we're talking about. thehill.com/homenews/admin…
PS2/ Unless, of course, you count him telling a large gathering of police officers that they should definitely brutalize all their suspects.
PS3/ Afterwards he said, clearly falsely, that it was a joke—further proof he doesn't have the courage of his personal/political conviction.
