Joe Biden and the Democratic Party’s use of pejorative labeling to defile and dehumanize their political opponents is not only their “go-to” strategy of late but also a potential bellwether of more sinister intentions. Biden’s use of labels to vilify those who don’t support his agenda is heard on a nearly daily basis.
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Their apocalyptic tone makes Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment seem endearing in comparison. Whether it’s Biden referring to his political opposition as “MAGA Republicans,” “domestic terrorists,” or “threats to democracy,” his use of these categorizations is insulting at best, and, at worst, a painful reminder of similar strategies employed by his Leftist predecessors during darker periods in modern history.
Biden’s use of labels to define and target his enemies is eerily similar to that of other Progressive despots. Joseph Stalin used the term “enemies of the state,” while Mao placed those opposed to his Cultural Revolution, including “Right Wingers,” into one of five “Black Categories.” These cohorts were rounded up and sent off for political reeducation, otherwise known as torture, imprisonment or execution. Pol Pot, Che Guevara, and Kim Jong-Il – all the Leftist heavyweights, employed similar labeling tactics to coalesce their followers and marginalize and breed contempt for the non-compliant.
The historic precedent of this type of labeling leading to violence and marginalization of large subsets of a national population is, therefore, well established. The question that remains is what combination of factors escalate this from simple name-calling to actual persecution? What causes the scales of reason to tip irrevocably from political rhetoric to policy? Adolf Hitler took advantage of a horribly depressed German economy and a desperate citizenry to advance his obscene agenda. In a few short years this progressed from Anti-Semitic grumbling to the adoption of the Nuremberg Laws that robbed German Jews of citizenry and political rights, and ultimately to the grotesque atrocities of the Holocaust.
While genocidal events resulting in the slaughter of tens of millions of innocents may seem like extreme examples, they are relevant because they are emblematic of how motivated, Leftist regimes execute their strategies. The first and most important step in their process is to target a subset of their populations (the opposition) and label them as “threats” to the agenda of those in power.
This labeling creates division, and division leads to an irreparable fracture in a Nation’s foundation – a united Citizenry. Labeling is an insidious cancer used by those in power to create disharmony and contempt between brother and sister citizens. While seemingly harmless at first, labeling has a hidden superpower – an ability to rapidly metastasize and destroy its host from within. Beware the power of labels.
