Comedian and Daily Show guest host Jon Stewart is calling foul on fascism. Or more aptly, he’s calling foul on Democrats whose broad criticism of President Donald Trump has been reduced to the whining, ineffective, singular cry that “he’s a fascist.”
Stewart offers two general objections to the Democratic strategy of trying to take down Trump with accusations of authoritarianism:
- Relentlessly calling Trump a “threat to democracy” did nothing to keep him from winning the election in November.
- The flurry of actions Trump has taken since regaining the Oval Office have been approved by Congress and therefore are part of a democratic, not autocratic, process.
[NOTE: Stewart doesn’t address Trump’s firings of more than a dozen inspectors general, which may not have been legal, and some other moves that toe the legal lines, but his chief point is that the democratic electoral process gave Trump the power he’s using — so it’s “our fault” he says to those who don’t agree with Trump’s moves.]
On the subject of having been legitimately granted the power he’s using, Stewart says the result has been a Trump who is “so emboldened” that he “wants to start deporting people from other people’s countries.” It’s a reference to Trump’s suggestion that Gaza be “cleaned out” and its residents relocated to other Arab countries like Jordan and Egypt.
Instead of complaining about how Trump is using power, Stewart suggests that Democrats watch and learn from it. “How would you use this power?” Stewart tells Democrats to ask themselves — and then reveal the answer to their constituents. “Tell people what you would do.”
