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My Point of View by Brad Kramer

As the Secret Service started to lead President Trump away from a failed assassination attempt, Trump took a moment to address the nation, defiantly throwing his fist in the air as he yelled, “fight, fight, fight!”

This attempted assassination came after politicians like Nancy Pelosi and President Biden, and the mainstream media outlets like CNN and MSNBC, have continually used false and irresponsible language to disparage President Trump and his supporters. While the far-left continually screams about the force and violence of words, they are not shy about shouting down others and yelling that not using someone’s chosen pronouns is violence, while ridiculously calling Trump and conservatives fascists and neo-Nazis, words that have real meaning and implications. President Biden recently said, “It’s time to put Trump in the bullseye.” These incidents highlight a troubling trend where words intended to incite fear and division are weaponized against political opponents.

The mainstream media’s handling of the assassination attempt was particularly concerning. Rather than accurately reporting the incident, outlets downplayed it or mischaracterized it as a minor disturbance. This biased reporting not only undermines trust in journalistic integrity but also diminishes the seriousness of such threats to national security. A misleading CNN headline, for example, was “Secret Service rushes Trump offstage after he falls at rally.” The White House classified it as an “incident,” while President Biden took over an hour to respond, refusing to call it an attempted assassination.

According to Merriam-Webster, fascism is a political philosophy, movement or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition, or a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control. According to the same source, a neo-Nazi is a member of a group espousing the programs and policies of Hitler’s Nazis.

Trump was president for four years. These labels, once reserved for regimes of severe oppression and totalitarianism, are now casually thrown around without regard for their historical context. President Trump’s tenure, marked by efforts to decentralize federal power and foster international peace through initiatives like the Abraham Accords, contradicts these baseless accusations. During his first four-year term, President Trump:

• Reduced the control of the federal government, returning power to the states, which is the opposite of fascist centralized, autocratic government.

• Is the first president since Carter to not get us into new wars while backing us out of many military engagements as Democrats claimed he was going to start a world war. Trump did the opposite of what fascists and dictators do.

• Was responsible for the Abraham Accords, doing more to bring peace to the Middle East than any president in decades. You can’t call someone a Nazi (who by definition wants to exterminate Jews) when that president has done more than any other world leader to bring peace to the Middle East.

• Did not use the courts to go after his political opponents. President Biden and far-left judges and prosecutors have weaponized the courts to go after President Trump. The appellate courts are striking down those rulings, as Americans learn about the corruption of those involved. It is obvious the Democrats are using the courts to stifle their opponents, like dictators in a banana republic.

• Never spoke about rounding people up for camps. Fascists, dictators and Nazis like to use “camps.” Like the gulag, concentration camps and re-education camps … re-education camps that people on the far-left were calling to send conservatives to who did not agree to get vaccinated during COVID.

The hypocrisy of labeling conservatives as fascists while condoning actual fascist tactics by groups like Antifa is glaring. Antifa’s tactics of intimidation, violence and censorship mirror historical fascist regimes’ methods, yet they hypocritically accuse others of the same authoritarianism they practice.

While I abhor the name-calling and rhetoric that our political atmosphere is leading to, and I have unfortunately gotten in the mud to sling insults as well, it’s time we hold politicians and media accountable when they misuse words like “fascist,” “dictator,” and “neo-Nazi,” while lecturing Americans that a candidate is a threat to democracy and must not be allowed to be president. That extremism led to an assassination attempt on our former (and future) president. President Trump’s resilience in the face of adversity and his continued popularity among voters reflect a growing disillusionment with current leadership. It is time to prioritize factual reporting, respectful discourse and accountability in our political discourse.

President Trump is gaining ground at every step as Americans tire of this current failed president and those that prop him up like a bad reboot of Weekend at Bernie’s.

Brad Kramer is a member of the Freeborn County GOP Party.