Howard Dean has a very interesting take on the situation the GOP has created for themselves. Chris Hayes plays the devil’s advocate, just a little bit, and it helps to pin down exactly what Howard Dean means in his assessment of the GOP as they react to their leading republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump. The GOP is “terrified” that if Trump wins Florida in March, a “winner takes all” state, he may actually win the republican presidential nomination and most likely lose the general election.
That is only one of the points Howard Dean brings up in this conversation with Chris Hayes. Trump’s popularity with the republican electorate is exposing the truly foul authoritarian nature of the GOP and with it the hypocrisy in the fascist accusation aimed at taking down Trump
Republicans deploy the F-word on Donald TrumpAll In with Chris Hayes 11/25/15
Trump's comments in the wake of the Paris attacks seem to have crossed a line in the eyes of some GOP elites, who are now openly calling him a fascist
x Embedded Content@ minute 6:22 (short ad — sorry)
Chris Hayes:
“what do you make of all this?
Howard Dean:
“I make two things of this, 1) republicans are now in full terror mode that Trump is going to get the nomination, they think he can’t win, and 2) this is very interesting watching all these people, that are authoritarians themselves, call Donald Trump a fascist, The republican party is an authoritarian party. If you believe..”
Chris Hayes:
..”well let me just say, they would argue that we’re [they’re] the opposite; that they believe in limited government and strict restrictions on what the government can do..”
Dean:
“Well they do and they don’t. They also believe in restricting the right to vote, and any party which, as a party, and this one is a party that has done this, which restricts the right to vote, is a party that places their own authority above the authority of the people and above the value of democracy. So I’ve never thought ..”
Hayes:
“So you’re saying that efforts by republicans particularly at the state level to restrict the franchise, voter ID, all sorts of things, show a kind of anti-democratic impulse in the modern republican party”
Dean:
“Absolutely. And it’s not only that, we're talking about taking away people's rights. What about the republican party taking away women's right to decide their own reproductive future.
“This is a party that has a strong authoritarian bent. It has for a very long time. And claiming that Donald Trump is a fascist?...”
Hayes:
“...But there is a difference. There is a difference between ah, peoples position, say, on abortion , right, and the ah the idea of Muslims registering on some special database..”
Dean:
“Okay, so their view is it's okay to take away peoples rights to vote if they happen to be poor or black or elderly, but it's not okay to put people on a registration.. look I don’t think either one is okay..we’re talking about grades of authoritarianism here.”
skipping ahead a bit
Dean:
“The other thing is, we also know that the republicans have been dog-whistling stuff for a long time..Look at Romney saying I'll veto the Dream Act if it gets to my desk"
[...]
Dean:
“the [republican] policy positions are dog-whistling to the same people who are enthusiastic about Donald Trump. That’s the point I’m trying to make. And what’s happening is, the quote un-quote respectable wing of the republicans party has now seen the naked results of what happens when somebody lays it all out there’’
Hayes:
“So you’re case is that what was essentially done is by nudge & wink..and dog-whistle..”
Dean:
“Exactly. That’s exactly right. Trump is hanging it all out there and it’s scaring the living Hell out of the republicans, because the republicans knew that their view was never going to be successful anyway in front of a general electorate. And it hasn’t for quite some time.
“What they're now afraid of;..here's a guy, out there just laying it all out. Laying their case [agenda] out in a language that everybody can understand, and they're not going to like that, and they don’t like it and they’re scared to death of Donald Trump.”
Hayes:
”..the first thing you said about the desperation, It does strike me you can feel a little panic right now..”
Dean:
“I have never seen anybody called a fascist, let alone the leading candidate of the party,
[...]
“these guys are terrified, ...because there’s a winning path for Donald Trump to win and we’re going to know what it is on the 15th of March in Florida, the first winner-take-all state. If Donald Trump takes Florida not only is Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush dead, they’re all dead because it’s a winner-take-all state and they know it”
Hayes:
“And Donald Trump. It’s important that you say March 15th. let’s just remember that is Florida it is winner-take-all with a huge amount of delegates and it also the state where Donald Trumps polling has from the beginning been perhaps the most dominant."
Dean:
“I agree. It's absolutely critical. This is do-or-die time. We're seeing this now [the hypocritical fascist labeling of Trump and the GOP effort to take him down] because they now realize that not only is Donald Trump the real thing [Trump mirrors much of the GOP agenda and says it out loud] he's the odds on favorite to win the nomination"
Next up is Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast and Josh Barrow of the Upshot @ NYT’s for some very insightful analysis on the previous Howard Dean discussion and more on today’s politics.
I’m not familiar with Betsy Woodruff but she’s spot on — very smart and very funny — imo -- in her telling of fascism and Robert Paxton’s work on it.
— also; I’d love to see an endorsement from Dean for the candidate I’m pulling for
— time to turn in — hope this was interesting — thanks for stopping by :)