From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, America was gripped by the "Satanic Panic" -- a belief that secret satanic cults were infiltrating daycares, and using media to spread their message and abuse children. In 1988, Geraldo Rivera ran a special called "Devil Worship: Exposing Satan’s Underground" that fueled the conspiracy theories and alarm.
It turned out the "Satanic Panic" was based on claims backed by no to little evidence and in the early 1990s Kenneth Lanning and FBI analysis showed "no substantiated evidence of nationwide satanic networks, and warned about suggestive interviewing and mass-hysteria dynamic."
But the damage was done. The McMartin preschool trial spanned from 1984 to 1990, when the case was dismissed. It was the most expensive legal case of the time, and one defendant -- Ray Buckley -- spent five years in prison, pre-trial.
This is important because we're in another such period. This time, however, it's not satanic, but political.
The Left has entered a period of Fascist Panic.
For those who don’t understand the problem
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 17, 2025
ABC News: 87% of Democrats view Trump as a fascist
NPR: 47% of Democrats say the “rise of fascism” is their top political concern
Rutgers: 55% of Americans on the Left believe assassinating Trump would be “at least somewhat justified”
Ever since President Trump came down the escalator, this has been the narrative: he's a fascist. He's literally Hitler. He's an authoritarian who will cling to office like a dictator. In his first term, none of those things came to fruition. Even with the events of January 6, President Trump left office. In the four years that followed his departure, the Left kept repeating that mantra and used it as grounds for spurious legal cases against Trump. Cases they admitted were meant to stop him from running for the presidency again. In fact, several Leftists lamented that the US couldn't do what Brazil did, namely, jailing former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for 27 years for "election denialism."
It's nothing new, of course. Democrats have been calling Republicans Hitler for decades. But after each Republican leaves office and the world doesn't end, they often look back fondly on guys like Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney. In fact, many on the Left admit they longed for the days of such "decent Republicans" while casually omitting the fact that Democrats once accused Mitt Romney of giving a woman cancer and claimed that he planned to re-enslave Black Americans.
But the rhetoric, as we learned this last week, has escalated with deadly consequences. Charlie Kirk was assassinated because the Democratic Party has convinced a not insignificant portion of its base that Kirk -- and all conservatives -- are "domestic terrorists" or "White supremacists" who pose an "existential threat to democracy."
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) continued to call conservatives "extremists" and "Nazis" this week. AOC voted against a resolution to honor Kirk, writing, "We should be clear about who Charlie Kirk was: a man who believed that the Civil Rights Act that granted Black Americans the right to vote was a ‘mistake,’ who after the violent attack on Paul Pelosi claimed that ‘some amazing patriot out there’ should bail out his assailant, and accused Jews of controlling ‘not just the colleges – it’s the nonprofits, it’s the movies, it’s Hollywood, it’s all of it.'"
They see fascists everywhere, and their definition of fascism is "anything I don't like is fascism." Much like the Satanic Panic of the 40+ years ago, this fascist panic is not rooted in reality.
Donald Trump is not a fascist. His voters are not Nazis.
And Democrats need to tone down the rhetoric before someone else gets killed.