Michael Meeropol

I have to admit, I spent the last year arguing that Trump is a fascist and no matter what, it was essential to defeat his bid for re-election. Come to find out, the majority of Americans did not think that the reason to vote for Kamala Harris was that she was not Trump.

When Donald Trump first ran for President in 2015, I said “I think he’s a fascist.” Thus began years of study and reflection about whether my instinct was correct or if it was hyperbole.

I have just returned from a trip to North Carolina where I spoke at the University in Chapel Hill. I arrived on the evening of September 29 and left the morning of October 2. While there, I gave four separate presentations --- all either directly or indirectly related to my desire to warn people of the dangers of authoritarianism posed by Trump and Trumpism. But my trip to North Carolina coincided with the terrible toll taken by Hurricane Helene in the western portion of the state. And that was the source of lots of my conversations.

In the dead of winter, 1776, the patriot pamphleteer Tom Paine issued a ringing support for his fellow revolutionaries. The first shots of the Revolution had been fired at Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775 and the Declaration of Independence had been signed in Philadelphia that summer.

When people complain that prices are too high, they are actually complaining about inflation that occurred in the recent past. When the government tries to soothe us by saying “inflation is down” please do not think that means prices have started to fall. Inflation is a general rise in prices.

On Friday, August 26, Vice President Harris spoke in North Carolina and outlined the bare bones of an economic policy agenda for her Administration. I have to say I am very impressed with it. The best part is restoring and expanding the Child Tax Credit.

It has been over five weeks since the debate between President Biden and Donald Trump. In the two commentaries I delivered after, I chose not to say a word about the implications of that debate because, to be honest, I was depressed --- depressed by the thought that Trump was about to waltz into the Presidency.

How many listeners remember the TV show “Hogan’s Heroes”? Set in a POW camp during World War II, it was, if you can believe it, a comedy about American and British POW’s running rings around bumbling Nazis at the camp. One major character was a fat German Sergeant named Shultz who when observing the shenanigans of Hogan and his heroes would loudly proclaim I KNOW NOTHING…. NOTHING!

Last month a murder suicide by gunfire occurred in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, a suburb of the city of Springfield in the Western part of the state.

Some listeners from back in 2015 and 2016 may remember that I made the following statement about Trump: “I think he’s a fascist.” I did it because to me, being brought up in what was called the “old left” --- all four of my parents were communists --- FASCIST is an extreme epithet for right-wing individuals and policies.