We Americans love to label things, no doubt. And labeling things can be important in politics. Labels can give us a shorthand, and they can serve as rallying cries. At this point, we can’t for instance any longer avoid calling what Trump and Company are doing a form of fascism. And that label is a shorthand, because it can be backed up by thoughtful, knowing analysis – as I think some of the posts on this blog show.

Sometimes, though, labels cannot be backed up by any genuine claim to reality; sometimes labels are applied without any effort to justify them. They are, simply, lies. In those cases, labels are usually meant to do only two things: (1) generate division, fear, and hate, and (2) demonize opposition.

In the past few days, Mike Johnson and other Republican leaders have gone to significant lengths to label the October 18 No Kings rallies as “Hate America rallies.” Here is what Johnson said: “They have a ‘Hate America’ rally that’s scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It’s all the pro-Hamas wing and the antifa people, they’re all coming out.” Tom Emmer followed up by saying that the Democrats in Congress are refusing to fund the government “to score political points with the terrorist wing of their party.” (Video on both here.)

This is of course complete demagoguery and unsupportable by any facts on the ground. Indeed, it’s hard to see how one could even go about trying to justify such absurd claims. But, the Trump-Republican-Lie-Machine has been in full mode for quite some time now. So, as absurd as this demagoguery is, it is important to respond to it: to set the record straight, to bolster the morale of the millions of patriotic Americans who will stand up and speak out on Saturday, and to ensure that we do not ever give up on the idea that truth is worth seeking and advocating.

Thankfully, people are speaking up. Robert Reich asks, why are the Trumpists going to such lengths, and answers: they are afraid of the size of the rally, and “Trump’s power depends on maintaining the illusion that he’s all-powerful, and that most Americans . . . adore him.”

So let’s shatter the illusion.

Historian Tim Snyder – featured more than once here – has an excellent, brief video response: https://snyder.substack.com/p/no-kings-freedom-video?utm_source=podcast-email&publication_id=310897&post_id=175874642&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_content=watch_now_button&r=fznxv&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

And so does Bernie Sanders:

So, participate in NO KINGS on Saturday. The more we do, the more we expose the lie.