Bret Stephens, in a New York Times column analyzing possible reasons Kamala Harris would lose, blames her supporters for the “politics of name-calling, which happens every time Trump’s voters are told they are racists, misogynists, weird, phobic, low-information or, most recently, supporters of a fascist — and, by implication, fascists themselves.”
Put aside Stephens’s strange concern that name-calling by Trump opponents is a reason Trump might win (which seems about as plausible as suggesting Harris might lose because she plays too much golf). Consider his claim that calling Trump a fascist is an insult to Trump voters.
Here, Stephens is echoing what has become a popular new concern on the right. “Are tens of millions of Americans really falling for a fascist takeover?” asks The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page incredulously. In his interview with Harris, Bret Baier seized upon Harris’s harsh critique of Trump as dangerous and unfit as a slap in the face to the great and good American people who plan to vote for him. “If that’s the case, why is half the country supporting him?” he scolded. “Why is he beating you in a lot of swing states? Why, if he’s as bad as you say, that half of this country is now supporting this person, who could be the 47th president of the United States? Why is........