{"id":2695830,"date":"2026-11-02T15:36:01","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T20:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-media-whip-up-another-round-of-fascism-fears-for-the-midterms\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T15:48:44","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T20:48:44","slug":"the-media-whip-up-another-round-of-fascism-fears-for-the-midterms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-media-whip-up-another-round-of-fascism-fears-for-the-midterms\/","title":{"rendered":"The Media Whip Up Another Round of \u2018Fascism\u2019 Fears for the Midterms"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-media-whip-up-another-round-of-fascism-fears-for-the-midterms%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2695830&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The piece argues that mainstream coverage has ramped up apocalyptic warnings ahead of the midterm elections, frequently predicting that President Trump might cancel, steal, or otherwise subvert the vote and that America is sliding toward fascism or even civil war. It catalogs a string of high\u2011profile alarms &#8211; op\u2011eds, former officials urging the military to resist illegal orders, pundits likening possible actions to Nazi tactics, and polls showing some Democrats would welcome a coup to remove Trump &#8211; and notes books and essays treating a breakdown of democracy as imminent.<\/p>\n<p>But the author rejects the analogy to 1930s Germany. They say the Weimar Republic\u2019s collapse followed extreme economic distress, mass unemployment, political violence, and the suspension of civil liberties &#8211; a very different context from the U.S. in 2026. The column warns that the label \u201cfascism\u201d is now used too casually to describe many things (ICE raids, controversial court decisions, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/aoc-offers-thoughts-on-why-bidens-poll-numbers-are-dropping\/\" title=\"AOC Offers Thoughts On Why Biden...s Poll Numbers Are Dropping\">aggressive executive action<\/a>), when more precise terms like illiberalism, populism, or erosion of norms would be more accurate.<\/p>\n<p>The article criticizes prominent figures &#8211; including Art Spiegelman &#8211; for equating current U.S. politics with historical fascism and calling for radical countermeasures. It argues that such rhetoric fuels hysteria, clouds judgment, and benefits media outlets by attracting clicks: dramatic, doom\u2011laden headlines drive attention and advertising.<\/p>\n<p>Another motive suggested is political: the media might potentially be amplifying fear to mobilize voters toward a particular party,treating alarm as a tactic to convert apprehension about Trump into votes for Democrats. That approach, the author contends, is condescending to voters and risks turning civic choice into a moralized, fear\u2011driven act.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the piece maintains that while American democracy faces problems &#8211; corruption, abuses of power, and troubling policies &#8211; democracy\u2019s strength is its capacity to correct these issues. The author calls for the media to dial down alarmism, use more precise language, and trust the public and democratic institutions to respond rather than stoke panic.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-blog-post__content s-wysiwyg s-wysiwyg--blog\">\n<div style=\"margin-bottom:30px;\" id=\"elevenlabs-audionative-widget\" data-height=\"90\" data-width=\"100%\" data-frameborder=\"no\" data-scrolling=\"no\" data-publicuserid=\"cb0d9922301244fcc1aeafd0610a8e90a36a320754121ee126557a7416405662\" data-playerurl=\"https:\/\/elevenlabs.io\/player\/index.html\" >Loading the <a href=\"https:\/\/elevenlabs.io\/text-to-speech\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elevenlabs Text to Speech<\/a> AudioNative Player&#8230;<\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/elevenlabs.io\/player\/audioNativeHelper.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script>                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s the apocalypse season, when the media revs into high gear predicting the end of democracy, the outbreak of fascism, maybe a civil war, even outright Nazism. While the instant framing device is tomorrow\u2019s midterm elections, which they expect President Donald Trump to cancel, nullify, buy, or steal, the drumbeat has been steady. Because if not the midterms, it\u2019s the Reflecting Pool, or the ballroom, or the arch, or the Gulf of America. These are all used as shorthand for Hitlerian self-aggrandizement, of all that is wrong with gilt decoration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <em>New Republic<\/em> just <a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/post\/207138\/trump-coup-detat-midterm-elections\">says<\/a> plainly: \u201cTrump Is Planning a November Coup d\u2019\u00c9tat.\u201d The secretary of the Air Force under Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/01\/opinion\/air-force-military-trump.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share\">calls<\/a> for the military to disobey any crazy Trump orders ahead of the midterms. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/j-michael-luttig-warns-trump-wage-final-battle-american-democracy_n_6aa4339ae4b0b2af35a64233?ncid_tag=fcbklnkushpmg00000013&#038;utm_medium=Social&#038;utm_source=Facebook&#038;utm_campaign=us_politics&#038;d_id=12389084&#038;fbclid=IwY2xjawUdPYZwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMVliZHRESnI1U29DbU92aTVzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEerz5ZEX4xfjaDPYbMKWyiu6-LEPkHTVfSxSkAVBJkQ-Q1CnQTolVdrklTaXE_aem_mUwQOEu3R30GM2V_Q5S0LA\">\u201cconservative legal icon\u201d<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/215198\/2027-new-congress-final-battle-american-democracy\">writes<\/a> that Trump plans to \u201cwage the final battle\u201d against democracy. A lot of people seem in favor of fighting back: In a recent poll, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/09\/22\/us-news\/most-democrats-say-theyd-be-fine-with-military-coup-to-get-rid-of-trump-stunning-survey-shows\/\">59 percent<\/a> of Democratic respondents said they would feel \u201cvery positive\u201d or \u201csomewhat positive\u201d if they learned a junta removed Trump and seized control of the American government (hyped-up rhetoric can have real-world impact). The former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/10\/21\/opinion\/trump-midterms-election-threats-ice-economy.html\">warns<\/a>, \u201cPresident Trump\u2019s clearly expressed desire is to interfere with and even usurp the midterm elections. November 3 could be a defining test for the rule of law in this country, and both our democracy and our prosperity are on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More bad news as another column <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/16\/opinion\/republican-party-alt-right-neo-nazis.html?searchResultPosition=4\">declares<\/a> the Republican Party has a fascism problem in its ranks. The Nobel Prize\u2013winner Paul Krugman <a href=\"https:\/\/paulkrugman.substack.com\/p\/der-untergang\">predicts<\/a> Trump will issue a Hitlerian \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalww2museum.org\/war\/articles\/sealing-third-reichs-downfall-adolf-hitlers-nero-decree\">Nero Decree<\/a>\u201d if the Republicans lose the midterms, ordering American monuments like the Kennedy Center burned. Jittery Tom Friedman of the <em>New York Times<\/em> is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/08\/opinion\/israel-us-elections-midterms-netanyahu-trump.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share\">worried<\/a> because \u201cthe future of democracy\u201d is on the line come November 3. Friedman is still recovering from the ravages of January 6, which he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/08\/09\/opinion\/trump-beirut-politics.html\">said<\/a> reminded him of the war-torn Beirut he covered as a cub reporter. Friedman\u2019s newspaper loves to cite whatever thing is happening at the moment (ICE, some Army general fired) as a new Reichstag moment. But if you prefer your fascism night terrors as speculative fiction, two new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/08\/21\/opinion\/civil-war-novels.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share\">books<\/a> offer sketches of the coming Blue\u2013Red civil war. Meanwhile, another new book, purporting to be a straight history, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4iUzuHp\"><em>53 Days: How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy<\/em><\/a>, hits all the familiar notes, and throws in that Hitler, too, had coarse manners and sought to build a ballroom extension onto the Reichstag building itself.<\/p>\n<p>                         <!-- \/22404337467,3946880\/theamericanconservative-Leaderboard-Top -->                         <\/p>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1742316429780-0' style='min-width: 300px; min-height: 50px; max-width: 100%; '>                         <\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the really sad cases is Art Spiegelman, who of all people should know better. Spiegelman wrote the graphic novel <em>Maus<\/em> some 40 years ago, summing up his father&#8217;s recollections of the Holocaust. He portrayed the Jews as mice, the Nazis as cats, and those who collaborated as pigs. Spiegelman now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/ng-interactive\/2026\/aug\/15\/art-spiegelman-the-us-needs-a-counter-revolution\">warns<\/a> there are many touch points between what happened near the middle of the 20th century and what is happening now, citing ICE raids, for example, as evidence of creeping fascism. He claims Trump has \u201cvery effectively dismantled\u201d the country\u2019s democratic ideals. He feels the president \u201cis cutting off civil liberties and using his powers to squelch dissent\u201d and he finds himself watching in alarm as ordinary Americans suffer a \u201cnew indignity every day.\u201d He has no hesitation in describing the administration as fascist, and so demands a justified \u201ccounter revolution\u201d to take down Trump. \u201cThis is worse than most things I know,\u201d Spiegelman concludes about America. \u201cI just don\u2019t see how we get out of this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">People have become hysterical, and this hysteria clouds their judgment even as it fills their wallets. Politics today can sound like a thriller novel in which institutions collapse spectacularly on page one to set the story in motion. Every headline not supporting your own beliefs becomes evidence \u201cdemocracy is dying.\u201d It is a helluva lead-in to the midterms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So are they right? Is it 1930s Germany out there?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No. Germany in the 1930s was a very different place from America in 2026. The nation was ravaged by the First World War, the subsequent reparations, and the hyperinflation of 1923. The Great Depression brought mass unemployment, banking failures, and political paralysis. The Nazis\u2019 elevation to power was preceded by years of political violence\u2014brownshirts in the streets, busting up rival parties\u2019 meetings, and beating Jews. And Hitler was never elected \u201cdictator;\u201d he was appointed chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg after conservative politicians decided they could use him to achieve their own goals. Germany had already crossed from political crisis into systematic suspension of civil liberties and the destruction of opposition parties. Hitler, as we are famously told, dismantled the Weimar Republic in just 53 days. American journalists have now been predicting such a feat for the better part of a decade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reality aside, there is still that word, fascism, which is thrown around too casually. ICE abuse, however tragic, or a court decision you do not agree with are not the stepping-stones to fascism. People used to instead use perfectly workable terms like illiberal, populist, expansion of executive power, objectionable, or constitutionally aggressive. Today \u201cfascism\u201d is a synonym for them all; and as with all faux prophecies, everything is a sign.<\/p>\n<section class=\"c-subscribe-email\" >\n<div class=\"l-container\">\n<div class=\"c-subscribe-email__wrap\">\n<div class=\"c-subscribe-email__head\">\n<h4 class=\"c-subscribe-email__heading\">Subscribe Today<\/h4>\n<h5 class=\"c-subscribe-email__subheading\">Get daily emails in your inbox<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"c-subscribe-email__form-wrap\">      <!-- Begin Mailchimp Signup Form -->      <\/p>\n<div id=\"mc_embed_signup\">\n<form id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" class=\"validate\" action=\"https:\/\/theamericanconservative.us4.list-manage.com\/subscribe\/post?u=442e644c01f8e54e26e4ff3f8&#038;id=f7b67cac40\" method=\"post\" name=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" novalidate target=\"_blank\">\n<div id=\"mc_embed_signup_scroll\">\n<div class=\"c-subscribe-email__fields\">              <label for=\"mce-EMAIL\" class=\"u-screenreader-text\">Email Address:<\/label>              <input id=\"mce-EMAIL\" class=\"c-subscribe-email__field\" name=\"EMAIL\" type=\"email\" value=\"\" placeholder=\"Your Email\" \/>              <input id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe\" class=\"c-subscribe-email__submit o-button o-button--red-500 o-button--solid\" name=\"subscribe\" type=\"submit\" value=\"Subscribe\" \/>            <\/div>\n<div id=\"mce-responses\" class=\"clear\">\n<div id=\"mce-error-response\" class=\"response\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"mce-success-response\" class=\"response\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>              <!-- real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups-->            <\/p>\n<div class=\"u-screenreader-text\" aria-hidden=\"true\">              <input tabindex=\"-1\" name=\"b_442e644c01f8e54e26e4ff3f8_f7b67cac40\" type=\"text\" value=\"\" \/>            <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>      <!--End mc_embed_signup-->          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So what is behind the pre-midterm media juggernaut rushing to proclaim our imminent doom? To be sure, a large amount of the fear mongering is simply the economics of attention. Nazi stuff generates clicks and likes. \u201cDemocracy is dying\u201d is a shocking headline. The problem is that once you go full Nazi, there is nowhere else to go rhetorically. You end up digging in, trying to defend a bad position, knowing you can&#8217;t top yourself but still have a podcast to fill. Where once a top-line media outlet could run a balanced piece headlined something like \u201cAmerican institutions continue to function, but several norms are under pressure,\u201d it now has to do a Chicken Little routine to get anyone&#8217;s attention. The words have lost their shock value.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another possibility is that the media is using fear to motivate voters in the service of its own political agenda. While the op-eds in liberal publications often focus on Trump\u2019s slump in support, they ignore the contempt with which many voters hold the Democratic Party after the Biden years. The idea that fear or hatred of Trump will automatically translate into Democratic votes is condescending toward voters. The idea seems to be that as long as enough voters can be scared enough, they\u2019ll at least reluctantly vote Democrat. If a population can be made to believe the other side is not merely wrong but an existential threat to democracy, voting Democrat becomes a moral obligation and the voter a patriot. It is a very cynical trick being played.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are not in the early days of fascism. Democracy does not mean that politics isn\u2019t ugly, or that there aren\u2019t instances of corruption or abuses of power, or even that there aren\u2019t bad presidents. Democracy, in fact, is a system for correcting those things. The media needs to back off the scare tactics and have a little faith in the people.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The piece argues that we\u2019re in \u201capocalypse season\u201d in the media, with many outlets and commentators racing to claim that democracy is collapsing, fascism is rising, or a civil war is near-all tied to the upcoming midterms and Trump. It cites a flood of alarming predictions-from talk of a coup to warnings of a Nero Decree and the idea that a junta could seize control-while noting polls where some Democrats would even welcome such a move. Even well-known figures like Krugman and Friedman weigh in, sparking a sense that we\u2019re witnessing a Reichstag-like moment. Art Spiegelman is invoked to warn of creeping autocracy, urging action, though the article also stresses that Germany in the 1930s was different in structure and history from today\u2019s United States.<\/p>\n<p>The author argues that \u201cfascism\u201d is being used far too casually as a catch-all descriptor for any illiberal or aggressive politics, and that such hyperbole distorts analysis. The piece suggests that fear-driven framing helps attract attention and may be used to influence voting behavior, portraying the other side as an existential threat and turning voters into patriots by fear rather than persuasion. It concludes that democracy is imperfect and capable of correction, and that the media should dial back the alarmism and trust the public to respond to midterms without being manipulated by exaggerated doom narratives<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4459,"featured_media":2695831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/tac.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/GettyImages-2290480384.jpg?auto=compress&#038;crop=faces%2Centropy&#038;fit=crop&#038;fm=jpg&#038;h=630&#038;ixlib=php-3.3.1&#038;q=80&#038;w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548,33651],"tags":[87411,18344,51814,4188,7408],"class_list":["post-2695830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily","category-the-western-journal","tag-coverage-analysis","tag-fascism","tag-fear-mongering","tag-media","tag-midterms"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/tac.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/GettyImages-2290480384.jpg?auto=compress&#038;crop=faces%2Centropy&#038;fit=crop&#038;fm=jpg&#038;h=630&#038;ixlib=php-3.3.1&#038;q=80&#038;w=1200","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2695830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2695830"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2695830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2695868,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2695830\/revisions\/2695868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2695831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2695830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2695830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2695830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}