Just a little over a week ago, I wrote this:
Biden Needs to Say That Trump Wants to be a Dictator.
Apparently, Liz Cheney heard me. Because here she is out there now (”Liz Cheney warns Trump will never leave office if he's elected president again”), saying the blunt, blatantly obvious things that Joe Biden and the Democrats need to be getting on TV and saying every week:
The U.S. could become a dictatorship (!!!) if Trump is re-elected, Cheney warned.
[Emphasis mine.]
Cheney used the d-word. D-I-C-T-A-T-O-R. That is the word that scares people. And fear is what we need now. Instilling fear in the voters, and converting it into electoral support, is appropriate. As I said in my post, Americans are not nearly scared enough yet of the possibility we could fall under a dictator.
What does that fear look like? How does one effectively communicate it to the voters?
“A vote for Donald Trump may mean the last election that you ever get to vote in," she warned.
That’s how.
Cheney also helpfully reminds the voters of the danger of a Republican(!)-controlled House that will cave to Trump, as they demonstrated they would do in 2020/’21:
Cheney suggested it would be safer for the country for Democrats to take control of the House, saying emphatically that Johnson and the Republicans currently serving there cannot be in the majority in 2025, especially if it has to determine the outcome of the presidential election.
"I think what we have seen is that you cannot count on this group of elected Republicans to uphold their oath," she said.
What more do you want.
Democrats need to learn to talk about Trump’s and the Republican Party’s threat to our democracy and our freedom the way Liz Cheney does.
UPDATE 12/6/23
As we hit Wednesday after Cheney’s interview came out, I am seeing news coverage of Trump that uses the d-word, DICTATOR.
www.usatoday.com/…
There was a question to Trump from the media, about his authoritarian intentions. It is not clear if the question was from Sean Hannity, or another member of the media.
Donald Trump mocked questions about authoritarianism on Tuesday, saying he would be a dictator only on "day one," and then he's going to close the border and get to drilling.
"After that, I'm not a dictator, OK?" the Republican presidential frontrunner told Fox News host Sean Hannity before a very friendly crowd in Davenport, Iowa.
Also covered at DailyKos here.
There is other media coverage on this topic as well that I have not yet read. But perhaps this is what Markos described last night, a shift in media coverage. It seems clear that Cheney’s comments in her interview helped light a spark.
I hope this is the moment when American citizens begin to confront with clarity the risk of falling under a dictator.
