Trump the Dictator?

 Friend Xerxes has declared Donald Trump a dictator. And he has listed eight proofs. It I a disorienting insight into the left-wing mind.

To begin with, we need to make a distinction between “dictators,” “strong leaders,” and “demagogues.” Xerxes does not. They are all “dictators.” These are three different things. For example, dictators usually come to power by military force (see the definition by Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, “a political leader who has complete power over a country, especially one who has gained it using military force.”) And coming to power by military force is more or less incompatible with being a demagogue, whose path to power will be by popular appeal. 

I also think there are examples of demagogic politicians—that is, politicians who rely on emotional appeals and anti-establishment rhetoric—who do not become dictators, nor aspire to becoming one. John Diefenbaker; I’d say Harry Truman. You might add Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Rene Levesque, or Martin Luther King Jr.

Moving on, having a “strongman” leader is not necessarily a bad thing. A tough guy may be desirable, given an emergency situation or a risk of chaos. Churchill being called in at the start of WWII is one obvious example. DeGaulle is another. Lincoln during the Civil War, FDR during the Depression, Jefferson in the early years of the American Republic, Pierre Trudeau during the national unity crisis, were all strong personalities ready to play fast and loose with established norms. That this is sometimes needed is recognized in common law: a mayor may “read the riot act,” a democracy may declare martial law. In the constitution of the Roman Republic: a “dictator” might be appointed for a six-month term. Armies are not run by popular vote.

Now, the list of characteristics Xerxes cites for “dictators”: 

1. Dictators demonize a minority. 

The left in the US has been demonizing men, “straight white men,” “the far right,” the unvaccinated, and especially working class, Southern, straight white men. These are all minorities in the US. In Canada, Justin Trudeau condemned the unvaccinated as an “unacceptable fringe” who should perhaps not be permitted to “take up space.” 

What minority group has Trump demonized? “The Deep State”? “Illegal immigrants”? But these are people guilty of crimes, and cited only on that basis. It is not demonizing a person to point out their crimes. The police are not demon hunters.

2. Dictators politicize formerly independent institutions.

This is the standard complaint from the right: that the left has, in its “long march through the institutions,” systematically subverted and politicized the media, the schools, the academy, the FBI, the IRS, and the justice system. 

This is what the right calls “Cultural Marxism.” Obama and Biden used the IRS and FBI against their political opponents. There were many dubious prosecutions of Trump, Trump associates and advisors, even Trump’s lawyers. There was the excessive treatment, the persecution, of the January 6th protesters. There was the targeting of “tea party” groups by Obama’s IRS. People have been “debanked.” There were the forged claims of Russia collusion, publicly endorsed by the CIA and the security apparatus; the bugging of Trump’s campaign headquarters; the spurious impeachments. The government pressured social media to block views the administration did not like and promote those they did—now publicly admitted by Mark Zuckerberg.

3. Dictators spread disinformation.

See the Russia collusion hoax, the “fine people on both sides” hoax, the “drink bleach” hoax, the “kids in cages” hoax, the many lies spread by the Biden (and Trudeau) regime about Covid, Covid preventative measures, the Covid vaccines. The lies by the Obama White House about what caused the attack on the American Embassy in Benghazi. Lies about being able to keep your insurance under Obamacare. Lies about Biden’s state of physical and mental health. These are grave and gravely harmful lies.

Trump exaggerates, but harmlessly, without intent to deceive.

4. Dictators seize executive power, weakening checks and balances.

This is poorly stated. The US president holds executive power; nobody who has been elected president of the US has seized executive power. 

A president can try to bully or ignore the other two branches of government. FDR, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, and Biden have been accused of this. I’d need to see examples of Trump doing the same. It seems unlikely, since his party controls all three branches of government. Why would he need to?

5. Dictators squash criticism and dissent.

This has been cited as one of the pillars of MAGA: to end the censorship, suppression of dissent, “deplatforming,” and “cancel culture” of the left; to revive free speech and open discussion. No more malicious prosecutions of peaceful protesters.  No more controlled media. No more shouting down speakers, or assaulting them, or doxxing them, or assassinating them. This is why Musk bought Twitter; this is why Trump started Truth Social.

6. Dictators scapegoat already vulnerable communities.

The scapegoating of minorities by the left has already been mentioned. Indeed, the left formulaically always scapegoats the “rich capitalists,” the “greedy corporations,” the “billionaires,” “the rich.” The left eagerly accuses “whites,” or “cis males,” or “patriarchy” or “Christian nationalists” of all manner of heinous things, of all evil—scapegoating. They have recently shown a growing tendency to antisemitism—the classic victims of scapegoating.

You will argue that these groups are not vulnerable? History shows they are. Consider the Jews in Nazi Germany; the kulaks in the Soviet Union; the whites in South Africa; Christians in revolutionary France, or Spain, or Mexico, or Nigeria today.

And no, Trump has never scapegoated any identifiable group. Not Mexicans nor Chinese nor Muslims nor blacks nor women nor gays. He has never accused any, as a group, of anything discreditable, so far as I can tell. He seems to have taken great care not to.

7. Dictators corrupt the election process.

By pushing for casually distributed mail-in ballots, voting machines, and no ID at the polls, the Democrats were obviously trying to corrupt the voting process, whether or not they succeeded. But the latter must be assumed—the more so since they sought to criminalize any suggestion that they had. Even the Democratic Party’s process of selecting their presidential nominee looks questionable.

This is what the mob was protesting on January 6th. 

8. Dictators encourage violence against a loosely labelled opposition.

Some leftists and Democrats openly call for violence against their opponents. “Punch a fascist” being a common slogan. Schumer warned that Supreme Court justices would be punished for overturning Roe v. Wade. Obama spoke of “bringing a gun to a knife fight.” Jay Jones, Virginia candidate for Attorney-General, tweets “Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, Hitler, and Pol Pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head.”  And he has not been shunned for it by his own party. The left’s rhetoric is violent, and has apparently led to recent assassination attempts and actual assassination.

Based on Xerxes’s quoted list, Trump has rescued the US from a developing dictatorship of the left.

Whether he might in turn become a dictator remains to be seen. However, Xerxes asserts that “strong men” tend to be Cluster B personalities (the “Dark Triad”). “Dark personalities tend to strive for positions of power.” All politicians strive for positions of power. Never mind Trump; it stands to reason that we are always largely ruled by ruthless men and women.

This is a strong argument for limiting the scope and power of government. As Republicans advocate; as Trump is trying to do. 

Try to find a dictator working to shrink government.  The concept is incoherent.

“Ben-Ghiat defines the tactics of authoritarian rulers as self-proclaimed saviors of a nation”

Again, all politicians make more or less this claim.

“They typically use masculinity as a symbol of strength and as a political weapon. Taking what you want, and getting away with it, becomes proof of male authority.”

Here’s a good example of scapegoating men. This equates “masculinity” with “taking what you want, and getting away with it.”

It changes nothing to falsely claim it is Trump saying this, not you. He never said this, and no one on the right would. This is entirely from the left.

Xerxes declares Trump’s economic performance “dismal.” Grok calls it “mixed.” Trump’s idea of using tariffs to improve the economy is inevitably going to cause an initial hit, even if Trump’s concept is correct; but in order to improve things in the longer term: “short term pain for long term gain.” It is obviously too soon to tell if it works. But early indications are surprisingly good: second quarter annualized growth in the US was 3.8%. Compare China at an estimated (probably inflated) 3.95%; Japan 0.9%; Canada 1%; France 0.9%; Germany 0.7%; UK 1.4%. It is hard to see this as a dismal performance.