The key to populist RepublicanSpeak these days is to utter, in rapid succession, "radical leftist," or "socialist," or "Marxist." Or, if you're feeling really feisty, to throw them all together: So-and-so is a radical leftist socialist Marxist.
Never mind that the terminology is immeasurably tautological. The point is to hypnotically bamboozle the rabble and transform their eyes into dazzled pinwheels. Repeat ... after ... me: "All our opponents are radical leftist socialist Marxists." Then repeat again. And again.
It's an all-purpose mantra for any occasion. For instance, soon after dialing into an online prayer coven staged by "Pastors for Trump" yesterday, the supplicant's call was interrupted by some sort of technical malfunction. But not according to the Donald. Once reconnected, he (according to Insider) seriously ventured: "I think what happened was that the radical left was working on the phone. There is no question about it."
Most commonly these days the term, in part or in whole, is used by Republican hacks in targeting the "federal weaponization" of American justice against Trump. If the target happens to lie outside the federal arena, no problem. Just throw him into it, as Rep. Elise Stefanik did yesterday when she complained on Fox News that "radical leftist socialist" Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is a member of the anti-Trump, federal conspiracy. That Bragg is a city prosecutor was, to Stefanik, immaterial.
This week, the cardinal bugaboo among Republicans and Trumpers is, as you know, Trump's pending indictment by said district attorney. Secondary to the legal question is whether all good Trumpeteers should unite and descend with malice aforethought on the Marxist D.A.'s office building. Opinions vary.
Some, such as the president of the New York Young Republican Club, are saying that declining to "protest" — as Trump has euphemized his incitement to riot — is "a strange, cowardly and impotent position to take." It's also (in case you missed his point) "ridiculous and pathetic and nihilistic," said the club's prez, who was speaking about "peacefully protest[ing]" — which would gravely disappoint Trump.
Others, such as insurrectionist Jeffrey Clark, whom Trump almost appointed acting attorney general in the final epoch of the Dark Ages, are saying "Better to stay home." Conspiratorially minded till the last cur dies, Clark's monitory theory is that radical leftist socialists could infiltrate the virtuous Trump mob, or, as Clark put it, "rootless Antifa agitators [might] advance their Marxist agenda with violence and intimidation."
There was, however, at least one rather charming reaction to the clamorous tumult of a Trump indictment, and it came, of all people, from Gov. Ron DeSantis. "I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair," he said to reported "chuckles" from a crowd at a Panama City, Fla. event. "I can’t speak to that" — which of course he just did, while holding a bloody knife.
Naturally, irresistible to Trump was the unwise course of reacting to DeSantis's reaction. In a Truth Social post, he hinted at the governor's, shall we say, "alternative" sexuality: "Ron DeSanctimonious will probably find out about FALSE ACCUSATIONS & FAKE STORIES sometime in the future, as he gets older, wiser, and better known, when he’s unfairly and illegally attacked by a woman, even classmates that are 'underage' (or possibly a man!)."
But that, by comparison, is somewhat weak tea in the besmirching lexicon of RepublicanSpeak. We'll know that Trump is really on the warpath when he starts calling DeSantis a radical leftist socialist Marxist.