JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Democrats are tagging their Republican opponents with extreme labels ahead of the midterm elections and linking the party to violence, fascism and Nazis.
They have been employing the tactic in tandem with President Biden, who will deliver a prime-time speech Thursday to call the Republican Party a threat to democracy and a threat to “the soul of America.”
Democratic lawmakers are far ahead of Mr. Biden when it comes to tagging Republicans with extreme labels. They have been making the case all summer that the Republican Party is steering the country toward violence, fascism and the resurgence of the Nazi flag.
One leading target is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Democrats say the Republican is an authoritarian and a fascist who has encouraged dangerous fringe groups to emerge in his state.
They have gone so far as to tie Mr. DeSantis to the sporadic appearances in Florida of a small group of men waving Nazi flags and signs.
Mr. DeSantis is running for a second term as governor and is leading in most polls after signing legislation banning “woke” school instruction, blocking COVID-19 mandates and enforcing voting regulations. He has angered Democrats along the way, most acutely with a ban on abortion after 15 weeks and a prohibition on LGBTQ topics in elementary school classrooms.
SEE ALSO: Biden rips GOP support for police, calls for increased funding for cops
Democrats are eager to block Mr. DeSantis’ bid for reelection to also weaken his chances in 2024, when he stands to pose an even bigger political threat as a leading Republican candidate for president.
Top elected state Democrats, including Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, said Mr. DeSantis was to blame for the appearance of a group of people waving a Nazi flag over a bridge in the Tampa area this month.
“White Supremacists and Nazis have no place in Florida,” Ms. Fried, a former Democratic candidate for governor, said in a tweet that accompanied a video of the group. “@RonDeSantisFL must stop creating an atmosphere where they feel comfortable to walk on our streets.”
Mr. DeSantis’ Democratic opponent in November, Rep. Charlie Crist, stopped short of calling Mr. DeSantis an authoritarian when asked about the label on CNN. Instead, Mr. Crist called the governor “an autocrat who clearly wants to tell everybody what to do, including women.”
Daniel Uhlfelder, a Democrat who recently lost the party’s primary for Florida attorney general, called Mr. DeSantis “an incompetent fascist” and predicted that Mr. DeSantis would get “100% of the Nazi vote in November.”
On Sunday, the Seminole County Republican Party headquarters was spray-painted with the message “Eat S—t fascists.”
No arrests have been made.
Republicans say the extreme messaging is aimed at deflecting attention from rising inflation and other economic problems that are making voters unhappy with Democratic governance.
“From Joe Biden to [New York Gov.] Kathy Hochul to Charlie Crist, you see Democrats with nothing to run on but vilifying their opponents and stoking division and misinformation in the hopes of distracting voters from the record-high costs of living their failed, reckless policies have created,” said Joanna Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the Republican Governors Association.
House Democrats, threatened with losing their majority in the November elections, are working to define Republicans as downright dangerous.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, California Democrat, posted a series of tweets Tuesday describing a disturbing phone call to his district office. He said the caller, who identified himself as a gay man, threatened to bring his AR-15 rifle to Swalwell’s office and kill him.
In an earlier tweet, Mr. Swalwell blamed Republican “fascists” for trying to overthrow the government and force women to have babies.
“I hesitate to share this,” Mr. Swalwell tweeted to his 1.4 million followers, “but how else do I tell you we are in violent times & the architects are Trump & McCarthy. Bloodshed is coming.”
A spokesman for Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, did not respond to a request for a response to Mr. Swalwell’s accusation.
Mr. Biden will deliver his speech a week after telling a crowd in Rockville, Maryland, that the Republican Party had begun to embrace “semi-fascism.” Mr. Biden said those who support former President Donald Trump and his agenda “don’t just threaten our personal rights and economic security, they’re a threat to our very democracy” and “embrace political violence.”
Republicans have slung negative labels at Democrats too, with some success.
They frequently accuse Democrats of embracing socialist policies, which likely helped defeat some swing-state Democrats in the 2020 elections. Republicans decried the COVID-19 mandates imposed by the Biden administration and local governments as forms of authoritarian control. Republicans have tied the Democratic Party to Antifa, a far-left group that claims to be anti-fascist and has staged violent protests throughout the country.
Towson University professor Richard Vatz, who wrote a book about political spin, said the tactic of labeling the Republican Party as a fascist group may backfire.
He compared it to Hillary Clinton’s disastrous 2016 presidential campaign speech in which she said half of Mr. Trump’s supporters belong in “a basket of deplorables.”
“Politics is historically filled with name-calling,” Mr. Vatz said. “What it is not filled with is taking large swaths of the population and trying to discredit them with name-calling. The reason it’s not done is not because of the ethics of the politicians. Usually, it’s not done because it’s not very successful.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.