philip_cardella, 25 days ago

Why?

First and most importantly, because it's accurate.

But nearly as important is the recognition that a huge part of the Spanish speaking community is more interested in Spanish speaking dictators than ones who speak Russian, Hungarian or even German.

And the GOP knows this! The GOP has successfully convinced a lot of people that the Democrats are the ones like Castro and Chavez. Many people here lived nightmares under these men and the GOP constantly tells them the Democrats are them.

Lyle, 25 days ago

@philip_cardella this is confusing to me because we have had some violent Spanish speaking fascists. Trujillo and Pinochet were not exactly angels

tkinias, 25 days ago

@philip_cardella
Honestly, I think it’s not a very accurate comparison because left-wing and right-wing dictatorships aren’t the same—not that I’d want to live under either, of course, but it’s important not to conflate them.

That said, the Democrats need to be prepared to fight dirty to defeat fascism, and if that means painting Trump—somewhat disingenuously—as being akin to left-wing dictators when talking to conservative Latine voters, then so be it.

philip_cardella, 25 days ago

@tkinias while I hear you on the variations of authoritarianism, at the end of the day both right ring and left wing authoritarians are bad.

A friend of mine escaped the Chavez regime and got here and was told that the Democrats were communists just like Chavez and to be feared and hated.

But as she and her mom listened to Trump they said, "wait a minute, he sounds exactly like what we escaped!"

They've tried to warn fellow Venezuelan expats to no effect.

philip_cardella, 25 days ago

*as a scholar on here pointed out Left Wing authoritarians and Right Wing ones are demonstrably different. A Communist dictator is not the same as a fascist one.

Trump is absolutely a fascist/neofascist type of would be dictator. There is a difference between what his dictatorship will look like and what Castro and Chavez's looked like.

That said, there are a number of similarities as well that can be summed up as they're both awful.

What's more, the Democrats are NOT a far left party.

philip_cardella, 25 days ago

I'd argue the Democrats as a whole are actually a right of center party, not a liberal or progressive one.

The new Landslide podcast on NPR lays out how this came to be and nevermind the publisher, it's a great listen. Highly recommended.

But no matter how progressive Bernie claims to be and AOC claims to be and no matter that they're definitely to the left, no elected Federal official I'm aware of is far left in the United States.

And Bernie, if he was, isn't even a Democrat anyway.

TonyStark, 25 days ago

@philip_cardella There are a whole lot of similarities.