\n<\/p>\n
Over the past week, Donald Trump<\/strong> promised to be a \u201cdictator\u201d<\/a> on two different occasions. Sadly, that\u2019s not a completely unexpected sentence to write given that he and his allies haven\u2019t been shy about planning an authoritarian<\/a> second term<\/a>, from installing MAGA loyalists<\/a> throughout the government to using<\/a> the Department of Justice to target political enemies. Fox News host Sean Hannity,<\/strong> who first blamed<\/a> \u201cthe media\u201d for focusing on this scary second-term agenda, asked, \u201cUnder no circumstances\u2014you are promising America tonight\u2014you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?\u201d Trump responded, \u201cExcept for day one.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cdictator\u201d response, accompanied by a vow to \u201cclose the border\u201d and \u201cdrill, drill, drill,\u201d was greeted by applause by the Fox audience. Of course the audience has been trained to love autocracy, with former host Tucker Carlson<\/strong> having<\/a> boosted<\/a> strongman rulers like Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin<\/strong> and Hungary\u2019s Viktor Orb\u00e1n.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n No longer the party of low taxes or small government, the GOP is the party of punishing your enemies. And the Republican base has been told by Trump himself that his political adversaries are \u201cvermin<\/a>,\u201d echoing the likes of Adolf Hitler. By othering his opponents, Trump is able to get his base to a place where they would support something that, in normal times, they might find morally reprehensible.<\/p>\n Jason Stanley,<\/strong> a Yale professor and author of How Fascism Works,<\/em> described Trumpism as \u201ca cult of the leader who promises national restoration from supposed national humiliation,\u201d from liberals, leftists, minorities, and feminists. \u201cHe promises to use state violence against these supposed national enemies,\u201d Stanley added. \u201cHe represents democratic forces as leftists destroying the country.\u201d Trumpism, he said, is \u201cantidemocratic by nature.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet many in the media seem absolutely allergic to calling Trump what he is. After the dictator comment, CNN ran<\/a> with the headline, \u201cTrump sidesteps question when asked if he plans to abuse power if reelected.\u201d But Trump didn\u2019t \u201csidestep\u201d the question; he answered by vowing to be a \u201cdictator,\u201d even if, supposedly, for one day. (He\u2019d double-down<\/a> on the comment days later at a Republican gathering<\/a>.) Over on PBS, New York Times<\/em> columnist David Brooks<\/strong> mused<\/a>, \u201cI guess I take him literally, but not seriously on this one. I think it was a joke. I think he was just playing to the crowd. I mean, he was telling a joke.\u201d The<\/em> Washington Post<\/em>\u2019s Jonathan Capehart<\/strong> pushed back immediately, \u201cHe\u2019s not joking. And if he is joking, the joke\u2019s not funny.\u201d<\/p>\n I understand how hard it is to do live television and I certainly have said the wrong thing before or understated something. But I\u2019m struck by those in the media who seem desperate to give a man who incited an insurrection to try and remain in power the benefit of the doubt. At the same time, the news media can be ill-equipped to cover deviations from norm, with journalists framing politics in America\u2019s two-party system as a debate between \u201ctwo sides\u201d (even if one is abandoning democratic principles). And straight-news journalists appear terrified of being called biased or partisan.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems almost a part of the mainstream media\u2019s DNA to try to normalize Trump and to treat his most outrageous and dangerous comments as not too big a deal,\u201d Margaret Sullivan,<\/strong> the executive director of the Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security at Columbia University, told me. \u201cI see some improvement on this but definitely not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Republican lawmakers have also brushed off Trump\u2019s autocratic comments. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t overreact to every word he says,\u201d said<\/a> Kansas\u2019s Roger Marshall,<\/strong> one of eight senators who tried<\/a> to overturn the 2020 election after Trump\u2019s defeat to Joe Biden.<\/strong> Trump, he told Fox\u2019s Maria Bartiromo,<\/strong> is \u201cgoing to be the president of national security.\u201d Other Republicans described<\/a> Trump\u2019s antidemocratic rhetoric to CNN\u2019s Manu Raju<\/strong> as \u201centertaining\u201d (Michael McCaul<\/strong>), \u201ca joke\u201d (Lindsey Graham<\/strong>), a \u201cunique\u201d expression (James Comer<\/strong>). Even Mitt Romney,<\/strong> one of the few Republicans willing to hold Trump accountable said, \u201cSometimes a little baby will spout off all sorts of words that you don\u2019t take him literally or seriously, and that\u2019s a bit of what we\u2019re seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, on the GOP debate stage you\u2019ll find candidates mimicking Trump\u2019s antidemocratic pseudo-populism. Ron DeSantis,<\/strong> like an Orb\u00e1n in cowboy boots with lifts, has already acted like an autocrat<\/a> on the state level with attacks on education and LGBTQ+ rights. Then there\u2019s Vivek Ramaswamy,<\/strong> who at Wednesday night\u2019s debate, bizarrely suggested the January 6 attack was an \u201cinside job\u201d while pushing<\/a> the \u201cgreat replacement theory.\u201d This racist theory that white Americans are being intentionally \u201creplaced\u201d would\u2019ve seemed inconceivable for a mainstream political party to<\/a> embrace<\/a> prior to Trump\u2019s rise in 2016.<\/p>\n On the same stage, you had one Republican, Chris Christie,<\/strong> who didn\u2019t dismiss Trump\u2019s rhetoric. \u201cDo I think he was kidding when he said he was a dictator? All you have to do is look at the history, and that\u2019s why failing to speak out against him, making excuses for him, pretending that somehow he\u2019s a victim, empowers him,\u201d Christie said<\/a>. He added, \u201cThis is an angry, bitter man who now wants to be back as president because he wants to exact retribution<\/a> on anyone who has disagreed with him, anyone who has tried to hold him to account for his own conduct.\u201d Of course, Christie isn\u2019t going to be the Republican nominee, as Trump continues to trounce him in the polls, along with the rest of the primary field.\u00a0<\/p>\n We find ourselves at a precipice. With Trump making his autocratic tendencies crystal clear, the news media needs to take him literally and seriously\u2014especially as his antidemocratic impulses have infected the rest of the party. Republicans have purged those in their ranks who have sided with democracy over Trump, like Liz Cheney,<\/strong> who is now sounding<\/a> the alarms, while elevating an election-denier<\/a> like Mike Johnson<\/strong> to Speaker of the House. It\u2019s time for the media to warn voters of the stakes of this election, one of which is whether there will still be democratic elections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n