. . .
But the most troubling parallel is the call for purges.
Then, Mao and his allies led purges of political and military ranks, allegedly for seditious or just insufficiently loyal behavior. Today, White House officials, right-wing media hosts and federal lawmakers have called for a “cleansing” of the nation’s top law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, because the “deep state” is conspiring against the president.
“We are at risk of a coup d’état in this country if we allow an unaccountable person with no oversight to undermine the duly elected president of the United States,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said on the House floor in November, as he called for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to resign or be fired. He repeated this demand on TV last week.
Also last week, Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) called for a “purge” of both the Justice Department and FBI to remove the influence of the “deep state.”
The more you look around, the more parallels appear. It’s almost like — stick with me here! — authoritarian, anti-intellectual, expulsionist tendencies are not confined to halfway around the world, half a century ago. Political tribalism can be fed and exploited for personal gain in any society, even our shining city on a hill.
