David Pakman

America's tolerance for open bigotry when it comes from the right wing is really something to behold.

And this is a party that once claimed to be the party of family values and now they are cheering dehumanizing propaganda.

So it's not fringe.

They've mainstreamed it in their movement.

It's coming from Donald Trump's official spokesperson.

Now it's a calculated attempt.

to define Democrats, not as fellow citizens, but as enemies.

Those of you who understand the process of othering know exactly what the point is here.

If Trump cracks down on dissent, it's more justified in the minds

of others if these are barely humans and definitely our enemies.

And for a Fox News gives people like Caroline Leavitt a platform to inject this into mainstream right wing discourse, knowing that it moves the Overton window of how it's okay to talk about our political adversaries towards the direction of hate.

The party whose leader tried to overthrow the government is now calling Democrats terrorists.

The people who chanted lock her up and storm the Capitol are saying there's violent criminals out there somewhere in the Democratic Party.

It's projection on steroids.

And this now gets us more broadly to how authoritarians use this type of language strategically, whether they realize it or not.

labeling entire groups of Americans as terrorists and criminals.

Of course it's ugly and of course it's untrue, but it is conditioning the public to see political opponents as enemies of the state.

If the Democrats aren't

people like us, they're made up of terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.

We don't really need to worry about whether they're allowed to vote because at the end of the day, they shouldn't be allowed to vote if they are that which Caroline Levitt says they are.