I am not a threat

President Donald Trump with Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr., during a meeting with inner city pastors at the White House in 2018. (Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump with Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr., during a meeting with inner city pastors at the White House in 2018. (Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

Alveda King, PhD
Thursday, September 22, 2022

Recently, President Biden escalated the inflammatory rhetoric that inundates American politics to a whole new level. In prepared remarks, President Biden referred to President Trump’s voters as “MAGA Republicans” and called the America First movement “semi-fascism,” in effect smearing the good character of almost half the country and demonizing his political opponents.

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Mr. President, while I am a “MAGA” supporter, I am by no means a fascist or a threat to this nation. I am a Fredrick Douglass Republican, I am a friend of President Trump, and I am a prayerful American Christian woman working to unite humanity as the one blood human race.

As an American, my goal is that everyone gets to live out the American dream, regardless of race, age, faith, or creed—and yes, that includes those still in the womb. I want to see America return to the days when we were a nation that placed our trust in God; and I pray every day that our people be safe and blessed. Nothing about this makes me a threat. 

Mr. President, your rhetoric is harmful and irresponsible, and it is only serving to further divide this nation, despite your promises of unity.

Of course, this is not the first time political rhetoric has been used to make the “other side” seem less than human. In our very own nation, Blacks were once viewed as “sub-human” for centuries in order to justify the travesty known as slavery.

Because the “other” was not deemed to be a full human being, the logic went, therefore they did not possess the rights or dignity inherent to human beings. As such, the “other” could be enslaved, beaten, brutalized, and even killed—all because they were labeled as less than a full human being made in God’s own image and likeness.

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This strategy of demonization is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes, and it has precipitated some of the greatest atrocities in world history. In Adolf Hitler’s Germany, Jews were seen as subhuman, depicted as “rats” and vermin to be exterminated. We all know how that ended. Six million Jews were brutally slaughtered in the Holocaust, and the world was torn apart by World War II.

In the Soviet Union, “kulaks” were dehumanized, arrested, deported, starved, and executed on a mass scale. In the Rwandan genocide, Hutus labeled Tutsis as “cockroaches.” In America, Blacks, Asian and Native Americans were once denied human dignity because of ethnicity.

The list goes on, but it has a common theme: the demonization of enemies makes them seem “subhuman,” therefore providing the justification for atrocity against the other group.

History doesn’t repeat itself, the saying goes, but it often rhymes—and yet we must learn from our past mistakes so that we don’t repeat them in the present.

That’s why it is so concerning to see this dehumanizing rhetoric continue to this day. To the far left, a living, breathing baby in the womb is not a person. It is just a “fetus” or “clump of cells,” and therefore it can be killed without repercussion.

Now, President Biden is extending this standard of demonization even further to include his political opponents as well. Language like this precipitates conflict, internal fracture, and if left unchecked, possibly even civil war.

When half the country is labeled as “semi-fascist,” things can get drastic quickly—because in the name of opposing fascism, any sort of violence can be justified.

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President Biden, I’m not a fascist. I’m simply an American grandmother who just wants her homes, neighborhoods, and communities to be safe for American families.

Mr. President, your rhetoric is harmful and irresponsible, and it is only serving to further divide this nation, despite your promises of unity.

Of course, this is not the first time political rhetoric has been used to make the “other side” seem less than human. In our very own nation, Blacks were once viewed as “sub-human” for centuries in order to justify the travesty known as slavery.

Because the “other” was not deemed to be a full human being, the logic went, therefore they did not possess the rights or dignity inherent to human beings. As such, the “other” could be enslaved, beaten, brutalized, and even killed—all because they were labeled as less than a full human being made in God’s own image and likeness.

This strategy of demonization is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes, and it has precipitated some of the greatest atrocities in world history. In Adolf Hitler’s Germany, Jews were seen as subhuman, depicted as “rats” and vermin to be exterminated. We all know how that ended. Six million Jews were brutally slaughtered in the Holocaust, and the world was torn apart by World War II.

In the Soviet Union, “kulaks” were dehumanized, arrested, deported, starved, and executed on a mass scale. In the Rwandan genocide, Hutus labeled Tutsis as “cockroaches.” In America, Blacks, Asian and Native Americans were once denied human dignity because of ethnicity.

The list goes on, but it has a common theme: the demonization of enemies makes them seem “subhuman,” therefore providing the justification for atrocity against the other group.

History doesn’t repeat itself, the saying goes, but it often rhymes—and yet we must learn from our past mistakes so that we don’t repeat them in the present.

That’s why it is so concerning to see this dehumanizing rhetoric continue to this day. To the far left, a living, breathing baby in the womb is not a person. It is just a “fetus” or “clump of cells,” and therefore it can be killed without repercussion.

Now, President Biden is extending this standard of demonization even further to include his political opponents as well. Language like this precipitates conflict, internal fracture, and if left unchecked, possibly even civil war.

When half the country is labeled as “semi-fascist,” things can get drastic quickly—because in the name of opposing fascism, any sort of violence can be justified.

President Biden, I’m not a fascist. I’m simply an American grandmother who just wants her homes, neighborhoods, and communities to be safe for American families.

I’m not a threat, and neither are the tens of millions of other Americans like me. All we want is to live, love, work and worship as we choose; in an America where people don’t demonize each other; in an America that doesn’t inject inflammatory rhetoric into our political debates; and in an America that doesn’t label any “other side” as less than human.

President Biden, I want to help to build an America that cherishes life and respects the inherent value in all people—from the womb to the tomb; into eternity. And there’s nothing extreme about that.

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