By Jeffrey T. Kuhner
The Boston Globe just hit a new low. Its recent fake front page allegedly demonstrating the violence, riots and chaos a Donald Trump presidency would unleash is more than gutter journalism. It is pure hysteria and fear mongering.
The phony Globe front page in the Editorial section published multiple false stories about an America three months under a President Trump. The implication was clear: Trump is a fascist, who will destroy our democracy and impose a brutal dictatorship. The made-up stories detail supposed horrors to come—mass deportations of illegal aliens sparking riots in cities, martial law, tanks on the streets to quell growing disorder, international trade wars, China pulling out all of its foreign investment from the United States, a collapsing American (and global) economy, the military in open rebellion against Trump’s call to target some family members of the Islamic State, journalists being sued under a draconian new libel law and the crushing of press freedoms. In short, the Globe is portraying Trump as a new Mussolini.
“The rise of demagogic strongmen is an all too common phenomenon on our small planet,” says the paper in an official editorial, defending the use of false stories on its mock front page. “And what marks each of those dark episodes is a failure to fathom where a leader’s vision leads, to carry rhetoric to its logical conclusion. The satirical front page of this section attempts to do just that, to envision what America looks like with Trump in the White House.”
This reads more like a bad college newspaper than a serious major metropolitan daily. Yet, the question arises: Why does Trump so frighten the media class? The answer is a simple one: he is a nationalist-populist who poses a mortal threat to our corrupt, leftist and globalist establishment.
For progressive liberals (and Beltway Republicans), patriotism equals fascism. It is the great myth of our time: that nationalism is a malignant force, eventually leading to Nazism or right-wing authoritarianism. The very opposite is true. The greatest dictators of the past century—Lenin, Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, Mao and Castro—despised nation-states and popular democracy; rather, they were all radical socialists who championed internationalism, revolution and empire. For fascists, it was a new global order based on racial supremacy and imperial militarism. Marxists sought—and many leftists, such as George Soros and Hillary Clinton, still do—a society marked by one-party rule and the eventual destruction of national borders, capitalism, Christianity and the family.
This is why Trump is being vilified. He is an old-fashioned patriot—someone who, on trade, immigration and foreign policy, wants to put America first. Think about this: He is being demonized as a 21st century fascist simply because he is calling for our immigration laws to be enforced. Congress has twice—twice!—passed legislation mandating that a fence be built along most of our porous southern border. The money has been allocated. The fence, however, has still not been built. By the standards of the Globe, Congress is a collection of crypto-Nazis.
Trump’s crime is that he is speaking for Middle America, the countless law-abiding, hard-working citizens who have been deliberately ignored by our political elites. In the face of an invasion by illegal immigrants—whether it be economic migrants stealing U.S. jobs, driving down wages and bleeding taxpayers by collecting lavish welfare benefits or violent criminals, rapists, drug traffickers and gang members pouring into our country—Trump has simply decided to call Congress’ bluff: instead of a fence, let’s do it right and build a wall. In other words, he truly petrifies the political and media class because he means what he says. His America first patriotism isn’t a cynical ploy to get votes; it’s for real.
The Globe and its allies have now shown their true colors. They are demanding that GOP elites do everything in their power—including stealing the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland—to stop Trump. And for them, this means installing men of “honor,” such as Mitt Romney or House Speaker Paul Ryan, through a corrupt backroom deal to become the Republican nominee. In 2012, the leftists at the Globe peddled the Democratic smear that Romney was a vulture capitalist, an extreme right-winger and a murderer, while Ryan was a budget cutting, Social Security-slashing Neanderthal who wanted to push granny off a cliff—making them unfit to occupy the White House. Now, in Orwellian fashion, they have been transformed into supposed statesmen of high “principle” and moral integrity. Liberals are not just pernicious liars, who invent claims about RINOs when it suits the Democrats’ agenda. They are willing—even eager—to subvert democracy and disenfranchise voters to maintain their grip on power. For the Left, the ends justify the means.
Yet, what is most remarkable is that, amidst all of the hysteria and cries of Trump being an authoritarian thug, America has already fallen to the rule of a demagogic strongman: President Obama. Nearly every charge leveled by the Globe at Trump has become reality under Obama. He has dismantled our constitutional system and erected a soft tyranny. He rammed Obamacare down the throats of the American people, and then has unilaterally—and illegally—rewritten the law nearly 30 times. He has passed countless unconstitutional executive orders, deliberately usurping the powers and prerogatives of Congress—the most obvious being his executive amnesties for illegal immigrants. His war in Libya was illegal and criminal, never authorized by Congress. He deliberately manipulated the intelligence and covered-up the terrorist murder of four Americans in Benghazi—including Ambassador Chris Stevens. His administration sanctioned mass spying on millions of citizens through the National Security Agency. His regime has repeatedly spied on and intimidated numerous journalists. He has dangerously divided our nation along racial lines, openly praising a militant anti-cop, anti-white movement, such as Black Lives Matter. And every step of the way, Obama’s socialist takeover has been aided and abetted by a complicit media—the Globe being the biggest cheerleader of all.
The hatred for Trump has nothing to do with legitimate concerns about democracy or the fate of our republic. If it did, the fury would be directed against Obama and his henchmen. Rather, it is based on something more visceral and ignoble: Trump Derangement Syndrome—an irrational fear of Middle America, the people reasserting their control over our borders, sovereignty and country. The elites have had their way for too long; it’s time they be taught a lesson. Here, the people rule.
-Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at The Boston Broadside and the host of “The Kuhner Report” weekdays 12-3 pm EST on WRKO AM-680 in Boston.
