This is the first in a series examining the facts and misconceptions of the extreme elements of both parties.
Donald Trump never misses a chance to criticize Democrats, and his November opponent, Joe Biden. Using the most extreme views of the left, Trump exaggerates the policies of the left to scare voters into believing the worst of the opposition.
He claims the Democratic Party is comprised of anarchists, Marxists, looters and agitators. He has asserted that they will take away your guns, abolish the police, open the borders and even abolish religion. He clumps the radical left into a single entity called Antifa. In an effort to spark fear in his supporters, Trump has linked the Antifa groups to neo-Nazis and the Black Lives Matter movement as a means of defaming both the left and minorities.
All of these are obvious scare tactics aimed at delighting his base.
So, who are the “radical left”?
For one thing, they are not the blood-thirsty, cannibalistic cabal of pedophile Satan worshippers that Q Anon is portraying. Instead, this group, known collectively as the Progressive Wing, seeks to ensure Medicare for All, free college tuition and environmental protections called the Green New Deal. They want the government to live up to the promises made in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address of a government “of the people, by the people and for the people”.
Progressives see government as a servant of the people where everyone should be allowed to achieve their best. Programs such as Social Security and Medicare are ones that Progressives want to preserve and even expand by returning the tax rate to that prior to the taxation rates that were slashed by Ronald Reagan. This is the in line with the mantra echoed by Progressive stalwart Bernie Sanders.
Those on the right are screaming “Socialism!”, claiming it goes contrary to the will of the Founding Fathers. This is despite the fact the United States ranks far below most industrialized countries in both healthcare and education. These are the very areas Progressives aim to improve, yet they are also the areas that the right criticizes as an overreach of government authority.
Of course, Trump and his followers are attempting to link Joe Biden with the most outlandish elements of the radical left, similar to the smear tactics used in 2016 against Hillary Clinton. They are being assisted in their efforts on social media by Russian agents with the aim of again disrupting American elections. They claim the anarchy and chaos currently occurring under Trump are actually an image of “Biden’s America”.
So, while the right seeks to create an image of a radical left that is out to destroy America, the facts are that even the furthest of the Progressive movement ideas doesn’t come close to matching the image of the “radical left” being spread by Donald Trump and his network of conspiracy theorists.
This is something to be taken into account when you go to the voting booth in November.
November 3.