The mainstream media has been calling Trump "a danger" and "fascist" for years... And now blood has been spilled

The Rwandan genocide could not have happened if the Hutu had not insisted on calling the Tutsis, the people they massacred in 1994, cockroaches. They were cockroaches, they said it in the media, polluting cockroaches, transmitters of diseases;

From Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines they cried out: "They must be destroyed, the Tutsis. They are like cockroaches. We must put an end to this plague that threatens our existence".

The Rwandan case is one of the most important illustrations in recent history of how words can spill blood. There are consequences. And the latest great illustration in our history, in that regard, occurred this past Sat. July 13, in Butler, Pa.

"Can Hitler's legacy help us understand Trump's success?" the BBC headlined in October 2016, shortly before the presidential election which Donald Trump won. The same media outlet said that Trump's campaign tone resembled Hitler's. 

Comedian Louis C.K. followed suit. In 2016 he wrote to his fans that "the guy [Trump] is Hitler. And by that I mean we're in 1930s Germany." We all remember comedian Kathy Griffin when, in 2017, she released a photo of herself holding a mask emulating a bloodied and decapitated Trump.

Glenn Beck, the former Fox News host, told ABC in 2016 that Trump was "a dangerous guy," later saying he resembled "1929 Hitler." And on The View, the panel girls claimed Trump's rise was similar to that of the German dictator. 

The attacks did not stop even though it was shown that his presidency had nothing to do with what his opponents warned. He did not persecute anyone, he did not imprison anyone nor did he try to modify the laws and the Constitution. Of course, needless to say, he did not create concentration camps nor did he massacre en masse, .

But it didn't matter. In fact, just a little over 6 months ago, in December 2023, Washington Post columnist Mike Godwin wrote an article titled "Yes, it's OK to compare Trump to Hitler. Don't let me stop you."

This past May the once-prestigious The New Republic magazine made an even more explicit comparison, releasing a cover with Donald Trump sporting a Hitler hairdo and the famous mustache. Below his face, in large letters: "American Fascism."

The New York Times has not been left behind, calling Trump "a danger to the country." And the Democratic Party has had much the same tone, especially its current candidate and president, Joe Biden. In fact, the Battle for the Soul of the Nation speech in 2022 was a milestone in this regard. In it, Biden spoke that the millions of Americans who support Donald Trump "represent an extremism that threatens the foundations of the nation."

All this rhetoric, which has accumulated as well as received the injection of millions of campaign dollars, has completely sidestepped the natural process of reflection that should have been done by the Democratic Party after the 2016 defeat. Instead, Democrats have latched on to demonizing and dehumanizing Trump and Trumpists as a tactic to defeat them, as happened in 2020. Then, they set aside the self-examination befitting a country in crisis, with an unpopular president and his highly questioned cognitive abilities. For the Democrats, the bet is that the facts will give them the truth and that Trump will finally be convicted, so that they can claim that they were always right and that they are facing a criminal. The problem is that, before he could go to jail, blood was spilled.

Hitler was worse than a cockroach. In the end, the head of the Third Reich was responsible for the murder of millions of people. In that sense, if Trump is comparable to Hitler, the logical conclusion is that any action, however radical it may seem, is legitimate to prevent a second Presidency of the Republican. 

Not much is known about the person who shot the former president, blowing off a piece of his ear, killing one Trumpist and wounding two others. The information is that Thomas Matthew Crooks was just a young man in his 20s. Whatever the motive, the bullet that nearly killed the former president went out with a momentum greater than gunpowder. It is the momentum of speech that has been piling up for nearly a decade. 

Now that blood has flowed, will the country finally reflect?