America’s Flirtation With Fascism

Our coun­try is in grow­ing dan­ger, and not just from the real threat of ter­ror­ist attacks. We are in jeop­ardy now from the inter­nal fear that cap­i­tal­izes on America’s worst instincts. Caution can be a pos­i­tive thing in response to seri­ous dan­gers, but pan­ic and fear can be very dan­ger­ous impuls­es, espe­cial­ly when they are used to incite the hatred of oth­ers by false lead­ers who pro­claim their own “strength” — peo­ple like Donald Trump.

Hatred of “the oth­er” because of fear has cre­at­ed some of the most dan­ger­ous move­ments in human his­to­ry. Donald Trump is appeal­ing to racial and reli­gious fear and hate in order to advance his own suc­cess. But an even greater dan­ger than Trump is the grow­ing pop­u­lar response to him, the stand­ing ova­tions to his most vicious attacks on racial minori­ties, immi­grants, and now all the mem­bers of a world reli­gion. Because of his noto­ri­ety and the rat­ings it gar­ners, the media grants Trump cred­i­bil­i­ty and con­stant cov­er­age of his con­tin­ued false­hoods and ugly assaults against those whom he has named as ene­mies — who are most­ly peo­ple of color.

For many years Trump has sought to por­tray the first black pres­i­dent of the United States as a for­eign­er and not “one of us.” Trump’s demo­niza­tion of immi­grants, in sharp con­trast to the facts, has changed the con­ver­sa­tion in America. After lying about Muslim reac­tions to ⁹⁄₁₁, Trump is now call­ing America to “com­plete­ly shut down” all Muslims from enter­ing the coun­try. In oth­er words, he is call­ing for an unprece­dent­ed, uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, and un-American test tar­get­ing peo­ple based on their faith.

Donald Trump is strate­gi­cal­ly stok­ing the racial fears and hate of a sol­id seg­ment of white America that fun­da­men­tal­ly rejects a diverse American future. The real mean­ing of his famous “Make America Great Again” mot­to is “Make America White Again.” And with their fears trumped up, his fol­low­ing is itself a dan­ger­ous threat to America. Since ⁹⁄₁₁, more Americans in the United States have been killed by white extrem­ists than by mil­i­tant jihadists.

Stopping this hate­ful spread of Islamophobia and racism must become a bipar­ti­san and trans-par­ti­san issue — because it is now a moral ques­tion. Leaders from both polit­i­cal par­ties must denounce Donald Trump’s state­ments and dis­tance them­selves from his dan­ger­ous ide­ol­o­gy. Journalism must return to the val­ues of truth­ful­ness, free­dom, integri­ty, equal­i­ty under the law, and reli­gious lib­er­ty in its cov­er­age. His tox­ic mes­sage is becom­ing a dan­ger­ous threat to our most basic American val­ues, and it should be treat­ed accordingly.

From a reli­gious per­spec­tive, Trump’s “strength” is a false­hood. Arrogance, lies, greed, the will to pow­er, and the manip­u­la­tion of racial prej­u­dice and xeno­pho­bia are not strengths to us, but are con­trary to all of our faith tra­di­tions. As faith lead­ers, it is time to call upon our con­stituen­cies to reject these false idols of pow­er and division.

It’s time to name Trump’s dan­ger­ous rhetoric for what it is. It is not only racist, but also fas­cist, with all the dan­gers that ide­ol­o­gy implies. And it’s time for American polit­i­cal lead­ers, and also for American reli­gious lead­ers, to denounce Donald Trump’s appeal to our worst instincts of fear and hate. We must act before his move­ment grows to become even more dan­ger­ous. The truth is that we have seen this before. And it’s time to tell the truth.

Jim Wallis is pres­i­dent of Sojourners. His book, America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America, will be released in January.
Story orig­i­nat­ed here : America’s Flirtation With Fascism