In a column penned for The Independent , an intelligence expert warned that the Republican Party is “the biggest threat the United States is facing.”
Writing under the pseudonym Paul Nailer, the intelligence community veteran began by discussing his expertise, revealing that he used to work on drafting the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), a document produced by the National Intelligence Council meant to “categorize and prioritize” the biggest national security threats the country is facing.
Although he no longer has access to confidential documents, Nailer develops his own NIE based on publicly available information. According to his analysis, the GOP tops the list of national security threats.
“The threat from the right is the first national-level ‘insider threat’ the United States has faced since the Civil War. It is insidious, asymmetric, powerful — and existential.”
The threats of climate change and nuclear war pale in comparison to the threat the GOP poses to the United States, according to the expert, given that the party has “steadily embraced authoritarianism, suspect electoral tactics, and racism more and more over the past few decades.”
“That process has been turbocharged with Trump at the helm of the party,” he said, proceeding to explain that he believes that the Republican Party is on a quest to degrade American institutions, weaken the rule of law, and continue with human rights abuses as it “explicitly” embraces white supremacy.
The intelligence expert concluded the column by writing that it is “irrational” to downplay the threat that the Republican Party represents, “even as most, including Nancy Pelosi and many Democrats, continue to do so.”
Although the president and his supporters would probably beg to differ, some agree with Nailer’s assessment.
For instance, in a 2018 interview with Democracy Now , renowned linguist and political dissident, and Institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Noam Chomsky, described the GOP as “the most dangerous organization in human history,” arguing that the party’s refusal to acknowledge the reality of climate change poses a threat to human survival.
Writing about border detention centers, Trump’s inflammatory remarks, and what he claims are the president’s authoritarian tendencies, The New York Magazin e ‘s Jonathan Chait warned in his latest column that the Trump presidency has “fascistic overtones,” concluding that Trump is “most certainly a fascist,” at least on “the rhetorical level.”
Call last night’s Trump rally what it was: fascist. https://t.co/9CYwI4PUP7
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) July 18, 2019
In the aftermath of Trump’s North Carolina rally — during which the president’s supporters chanted “send her back,” insulting Somali refugee and Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, whom Trump had previously targeted — HuffPost ‘s Christopher Mathias described the event as an “escalation in America’s slide toward fascism.”
As The Guardian reported, barring a few notable exceptions, all Republicans in office have either remained silent, or found ways to justify the president’s rhetoric.
