The Lehigh County commissioners at their Feb. 11 meeting voted 5 to 4 to pass a resolution denouncing “the rise of fascism and authoritarianism in the United States.”
Jon Irons, Zach Cole-Borghi, Geoff Brace, April Riddick and Sheila Alvarado voted yes to a motion that said the “Executive Branch of the United States has aggressively pursued an unprecedented and unconstitutional expansion of executive authority.”
It did not name President Donald Trump or the Republican Party, but let’s be honest. It’s effectively declaring President Trump and his administration and supporters are fascists. To be clear, this resolution carries no legal authority. It changes nothing in federal policy. It does nothing to improve county services, reduce taxes, enhance public safety or strengthen infrastructure.
Even more important, President Trump is not a fascist. Fascism is not simply a political insult. It describes a brutal system of governance defined by suppression of dissent, centralized control and the elimination of free elections.
Adolph Hitler is a good example of a fascist. He achieved power through deceit and terror (he was never elected to any political office). He started World War II, where 80 million died, and he brutally murdered 6 million Jews.
This accusation by the Lehigh County commissioners is dangerous.
Two weeks later, at the Feb. 25 Board of Commissioners Meeting, Joe Vichot, the top Republican in the county, said that the board’s calling President Trump and Republicans fascists was not only false but dangerous and puts Republicans in harm. He explained that he received a phone call from a very angry person who repeatedly called Vichot a Nazi.
Vichot asked the board to reconsider and change their vote. The board ignored his request. At the end of the meeting, the clerk of the board told me I could email each board member individually and ask them to change their vote.
I attended the March 11 board meeting, and asked the five commissioners who voted for the resolution to do the right thing and change their vote to reject the resolution.
It doesn’t look like that will happen, and I think I see why. If they changed their vote and voted no, readers would wonder why they were so dense in the first place, so as to try to make a blatantly false political insult into an official county resolution. But if they maintain their “yes” vote, like I believe they are trying to do, any reader with any common sense would easily know the difference between President Trump and a fascist, and would know this resolution was just a cowardly, false, political insult against the president of the United States.
However, by not answering requests for a revote after Vichot reported receiving a rather unsettling phone call, these Democratic officials are missing an opportunity to eliminate the source of potential harm to Republicans and perhaps reduce some of the divide and vitriol that the Democrats have exhibited against Republicans recently.
This is a contributed opinion column. Jack Sedovy, a former supervisor and police commissioner in Boston, New York, grew up in and now lives in Whitehall Township. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author(s), and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. For more details on commentaries, read our guide to guest opinions at themorningcall.com/opinions.