If a job candidate who was interviewing for a job as an accountant said, “I won’t embezzle, except on the first day!” What are the odds that the job candidate would get the job?
If an applicant at McDonald’s said, “Don’t worry, I won’t spit in the food, except on day one!” Would they get the job?
If a young man, upon meeting the parents of a young lady he was taking on a date, said, “Don’t worry! I won’t rape her, except on the first date!” Would he be going on that date?
If when a parent went to choose a preschool the potential teacher said to the parent, “Don’t worry! I won’t beat your child, except on day one!” Would that parent choose that preschool?
If the persons in these scenarios immediately followed up their statements with “just joking!” it would hardly erase the horrible nature of the utterances in question. Some things are not joked about in a given context. Even if it was believed that these were just horribly unfunny jokes the attempts at that type of humor in those contexts would raise serious doubts about the character, mental state, and basic judgment of the persons in question.
Saying awful things is still awful, even if it is asserted that the awful thing is “just a joke.” And when a person is willing to say something awful, yet claims it is a joke (or, if others try and dismiss bad behavior by asserting that, well, it must have been a joke) it is not unreasonable to assume that no, it really wasn’t a joke, and, moreover, attempts to classify it as a joke is an attempt to obfuscate.
Worse than the “just joking” defense, what if the persons about did not offer that defense, but others did it for them? (Don’t worry, Mom, the rape thing was just a joke. Isn’t he hilarious?).
Donald Trump said (more than once), the following:
In a recent interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity…he would be a dictator for only “Day One”: “I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill. … We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”
I put that in the same category as my examples above. It is a gross, problematic, and utterly unseemly* thing to say if one is running for president. It is, in my view, disqualifying. Even as a joke it is wildly inappropriate.
And let me note that I cannot find Trump saying he was joking, even if I have seen news outlets (including CNN, Donald Trump jokes about acting like a ‘dictator’, and the USAT column linked above, treating it like a joke) and his co-partisans treating like a joke.
“It’s entertainment,” said Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas. “You know, we’ve been around him long enough. It’s entertaining.”
“I think it was a joke,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
(Source: USAT).
Yes, Representative McCaul, nothing is more entertaining than a presidential candidate talking about dictatorship! And man, Senator Graham, you think it was a joke? I feel better already.
Plus, we cannot ignore the context.
For example, via Politico, One year of Trump’s praise for authoritarians. The piece has seven very specific examples.
Via NY1: Trump shares word cloud linking potential second term with ‘revenge’ and ‘dictatorship’.
Last March (via the Texas Tribune) Trump vows retribution at Waco rally: “I am your warrior, I am your justice”.
“I am your warrior, I am your justice,” Trump said in a nearly 90-minute speech, most of it focused on perceived political enemies and slights. “For those who have been wronged and betrayed … I am your retribution.”
You know, the healthy rhetoric of a man dedicated to democracy.
Via the AP: On Jan. 6 many Republicans blamed Trump for the Capitol riot. Now they endorse his presidential bid.
Steven Levitsky write about three rules that political partiesmust follow: accept the results of fair elections, reject the use of violence to gain power and break ties to extremists.
In the aftermath of the 2020 election, they write, only one U.S. political party “violated all three.”
[…]
Trump opened his first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign with a popular recordingof the J6 Prison Choir — riot defendants singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” recorded over a phone line from jail, interspersed with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
More than 1,200 people have been charged in the riot, with nearly 900 convicted, including leaders of the extremist groups the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who are serving lengthy terms for seditious conspiracy.
Trump has called Jan. 6 defendants “hostages” and said there was so much love at the “Stop the Steal” rally he held near the White House that day before he encouraged the mob to march down Pennsylvania Avenue, assuring he would be with them at the Capitol, though he never did join.
But, sure, we should take quips about dictatorship as mere joking.
Asked about Trump’s second-term agenda, GOP lawmakers brushed off his admission that he would be a dictator on “day one.”
“He’s joking,” said Trump ally Byron Donalds, R-Fla.
“Just bravado,” said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn. “There’s still checks and balances.”
The answer from Burchett is chilling, as he is taking Trump seriously but trying to reassure us because we have checks and balances! That’s pretty damn stunning and not reassuring in the least.
There are also statements like this that echo fascist authoritarians:
“We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections,” Trump said toward the end of his speech, repeating his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. “They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American Dream.”
Supporters can try and rationalize all of this away if they like (or they can embrace it wholly) but when a person tries to tell you who they are, you should listen.
I could go on and on and on, but will stop here for now. But I will note that part of what is truly chilling here is that there are many Trump supporters for whom this is a feature and not a bug that has to be rationalized away by calling classifying as jokes.
*It is also a borderline non sequitur, but that’s it own problem and not an unusual feature of Trumpian rhetoric.
