In his State of The Union Address, President Trump rolled out a “new” 2020 campaign theme that in actuality is a very old campaign theme that the GOP has been using in campaigns since the 1936 election — that Democrats are “socialists” (this is in response to self-described Democratic Socialists like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez).
Keep in mind this is coming from the political party which has abandoned traditional Republican values and transformed itself into an authoritarian personality cult of Donald Trump, and which has openly embraced all the early warning signs of fascism. Donald Trump is a Russian asset and puppet of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accurately diagnosed, Donald Trump engages in psychological projection. Trumpism, the new American fascism is the genuine threat to America.
Franklin D. Roosevelt ran on traditional economics in 1932, the New Deal only emerged during his first term. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Socialist or “Champion of Freedom”?:
The use of such tactics to discredit those who believe in government intervention in the economy is not new, of course. Franklin Roosevelt faced similar charges when he ran for re-election in 1936. Like President Obama and those in Congress who favor government programs to put people to work and ensure that all Americans can enjoy a healthy and productive life, FDR’s New Deal — including his passage of unemployment insurance and Social Security — was attacked as “undisguised state socialism” by one senator. Others went so far as to insist that FDR was a communist, including FDR’s erstwhile colleague Al Smith, who, as one of the founders of the right-wing American Liberty League, warned in the 1936 election that “the people could either breathe the clear fresh air of America, or the foul breath of Soviet Russia.”
