Madden Mischief

Perhaps those who are saying Donald Trump is a fascist aren’t used to hanging around someone so freewheeling and spontaneous with speech, yet razor smart on so many subjects and a big fan of freedom and our democracy.

Those serious-looking, humorless generals who once served under the former President perhaps were unaccustomed to leaders who are creatively curious and passionate with a penchant for wordplay.

From Trump, words seem to just pop out when he’s speaking off teleprompter and performing before a cheering audience.  Some will land unexpectedly into a “garbage can” a receptacle that flew into his adlib remarks one day out of nowhere.

Hey, that’s a good word, he’ll reflect, and his audience cracks up.

Of course, Trump’s not referring to the country he loves, but to those who are treating it as if it were such a depository by allowing hordes of criminals, psychopaths and riffraff to illegally come across our border.

Fascist is a more seriously undeserving epithet.

Is the progressive Left undermining democracy by defaming and mislabeling legitimate political opposition as fascism?

“There can be few more worrying symptoms of the degradation of political discourse in the West than the hyper-inflation of the term ‘fascism,’” writes James Orr, an associate professor of philosophy of religion at the University of Cambridge in The Telegraph.

Fascism is characterized by a dictatorial leader who suppresses opposition and individual rights for the perceived good of the nation.  It’s the opposite of democracy, as it involves strong regimentation of society and the economy. In the left-right spectrum it’s the furthest right wing.

Self-confident, Trump often thinks he’s right, but he’s open to ideas from any direction on keeping America and its democracy strong and safe from such things as a much too porous border and he wants more factories and production occurring here than in authoritarian countries who are our adversaries like China.

Yet today, any challenge to progressive orthodoxy risks too quickly being labelled fascist such as questioning lax border security.

So, fellow Americans we’re all living these days through a maelstrom of charges and counter charges during a hotly contested election.  This may be taking our attention away from what we really should be focused on, the policies, not garbage cans and fascism. 

Yet, getting us angry and fired up by hurling epithets like fascist seems to be the gameplan in this boisterously strident battle for those most precious results in a democracy, our votes.   So, let us stay focused on policies, not empty epithets.

Tom Madden is CEO of the international public relations firm TransMedia Group’ He’s a guy calls it the way he sees it, and today he is seeing too much name calling from both sides of the political spectrum.  An author of many articles, blogs and book, such as his latest Planetary Lifeguard, he feels a need to keep reminding everyone that no matter who wins, we’re all in this great country together and we must remain not the Ignited, but United States of America.