Why are so many unable to see it when Trump does it?
Imagine for a moment that Justin Trudeau was promising to shut down news networks because of coverage he didn’t like.
Imagine for a moment that Justin Trudeau was calling his opponents “the enemy within.”
Imagine for a moment that Justin Trudeau was openly musing about using the military against those who disagree with him.
What would people on the right be saying?
They would be calling him a dangerous authoritarian threat.
And they would be right.
In fact, Trudeau has shown a marked hostility to his critics in the independent media.
He treated Freedom Convoy protesters like ‘the enemy within’ when he used the Emergencies Act.
And some Liberal Ministers even ‘joked’ about using tanks against protesters during the pandemic.
People on the right denounced Trudeau for this, and correctly pointed out how it showed his government to be far more authoritarian than ‘liberal.’
Yet, many of those same Trudeau critics now give a free pass to Donald Trump for deeply authoritarian rhetoric. Many of those critics give Trump & JD Vance a pass for their connections to politicians like Viktor Orban in Hungary who are deeply hostile to individual rights and hostile to the free world. After all, Orban has allowed Communist China’s police to patrol the streets in Hungary and has consistently taken a pro-Russia stance that is incompatible with a belief in freedom and justice.
Many of those same critics overlook the disturbing extent to which Russian propaganda has infused the thinking of some of their fellow right-wingers, even as they accurately criticize Justin Trudeau’s connections to China and his willingness to turn a blind eye to China’s foreign interference.
Of course, Trudeau’s supporters do the opposite, seeing the authoritarian danger outside their party while denying it when it comes from Trudeau.
This is the danger of allowing partisanship to overwhelm everything else (something I’ve certainly done in the past).
When you view everything as ‘your team’ vs the ‘other team,’ it’s easy to go along with statements and actions that are contrary to who you are as a person. Do this long enough, and you could find yourself in a cult, justifying actions and statements from your Leader that you wouldn’t put up with from anyone else.
And so, as difficult as it may be, I encourage you to have the courage to resist partisan pressure and instead remain true to your values and your belief in freedom. And that means calling out authoritarian rhetoric and actions whether it comes from someone like Justin Trudeau, or someone like Donald Trump.
Spencer Fernando