Trump's Fascism and the Warning JFK Wasn't Able to Give back in 1963

"Nazi-Curious Madman Currently Under Indictment For 91 Felonies Gives Speech"

Trump's rhetoric, coupled with his stated plans for his next presidency, should clarify for any thinking human being the fact that he must not be elected next year. 

By Charles P. Pierce

Published: Nov 13, 2023

This is a passage from a speech that an American president never gave.

There will always be dissident voices heard in the land, expressing opposition without alternatives, finding fault but never favor, perceiving gloom on every side and seeking influence without responsibility. Those voices are inevitable. But today other voices are heard in the land – voices preaching doctrines wholly unrelated to reality, wholly unsuited to the sixties, doctrines which apparently assume that words will suffice without weapons, that vituperation is as good as victory and that peace is a sign of weakness. At a time when the national debt is steadily being reduced in terms of its burden on our economy, they see that debt as the greatest single threat to our security. At a time when we are steadily reducing the number of Federal employees serving every thousand citizens, they fear those supposed hordes of civil servants far more than the actual hordes of opposing armies. We cannot expect that everyone, to use the phrase of a decade ago, will "talk sense to the American people." But we can hope that fewer people will listen to nonsense.

Sixty years ago next week, John F. Kennedy was supposed to deliver this speech at a fatcat luncheon at the Dallas Trade Mart. He never made it there. He never delivered the speech, but his prescience glows in the text. He was looking down the road, at the wildness that already was out in the country. Barry Goldwater was warming up for the 1964 presidential election, and Kennedy saw what Goldwater was going to do to stir up the burgeoning right wing ferocity. He'd come to Dallas even though Adlai Stevenson had been roughed up by a conservative mob. We are, he is said to have told his aides, heading into nut country now. He went there and never came back. And he never delivered this speech, with its warning that suddenly echoes into our time. Over the weekend, Fulton County (Ga.) Inmate No. P01135809, the guy who used to keep Hitler's speeches handy for bedtime reading, crossed over into a declaration of outright fascism and didn't break a sweat. What is so frightening is that it was so damned easy for him to do it. From the Washington Post:

“We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections,” Trump said toward the end of his speech, repeating his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. “They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American Dream.”...the threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within. Because if you have a capable, competent, smart, tough leader, Russia, China, North Korea, they’re not going to want to play with us.”

The Post at least got the headline right. The New York Times spent all weekend fumbling around the clear intent of the former president*'s remarks. The original headline — Trump Takes Veterans Day Speech in a Very Different Direction — lit up the Internet. I mean, the speech did, in fact, go in a very different direction — the general direction of Nuremberg. But the weekend was a threshold event. The former president*'s rhetoric, coupled with his stated plans for his next presidency, should clarify for any thinking human being the fact that he must not be elected next year. There is no other issue. Not any more. It is an issue that ought to be beyond argument, beyond partisan politics. It is the very definition of the Constitution's call to "provide for the common defense." Mitch McConnell, however, has other priorities. From Politico: After the governor got in the race, McConnell’s campaign chief, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), spent months trying to persuade former President Donald Trump to endorse Justice, according to a person familiar with the discussions. During the ultimately successful operation, Daines argued to Trump that endorsing Justice could knock Manchin out of the race — and make the Democrat more likely to run for president, siphoning votes from Biden. "You can do the math. If we don’t lose any incumbent — and I don’t think we will — he’s No. 50. And one step closer to having a majority,” McConnell said of Justice. “I’ve been involved in a lot of recruiting over the years, some successfully, some not. But I think that’s the best recruiting job I ever did.” Congratulations, senator. For your own private political purposes, you successfully treated with a Nazi-curious madman currently under indictment for 91 felonies. And you added another potential entry to the parade of third-party ratfcking clowns who care less about the former president*'s threat to American democracy. American conservatism, and its partisan vehicle, is now a couple of dozen armbands away from invading Poland. And it does not care. Here's the Republican national chairperson on the question of whether or not the former president* could be elected after being convicted of crimes.

"I know this is newsworthy, but as party chair, I'm going to support who the voters choose and yes, if they choose Donald Trump."

And asked about the former president*'s blatant Goebbeling about vermin, she said,

Again, I am not going to comment on candidates and their campaign messaging.

Well, that's one way to stay out of the camps once the fellow travelers turn on each other, which they will. Sixty years ago next week, John F. Kennedy planned to warn us of the awful consequences to self-government unless people stopped believing nonsense. He never made it to lunch that day.