Opinion: Trump isn't Mussolini. Virtue signaling about fascism shows liberals' ignorance.

There's one problem with Donald Trump winning reelection: Now we, the nearly 73 million Americans who voted for the Republican presidential nominee, must brace ourselves for four years of fearmongering, insults and threats.

For years, I've been told that if Trump wins, he'll destroy democracy and send journalists and political dissidents to the gulag. Celebrities and other people of means have even threatened (promised?) to move to other countries.

If true, America is an awful place to live and the independent journalism that pays my bills may vanish at any moment. Please clutch your pearls as you read this. I'd appreciate it.

Will Trump throw journalists in the gulag?

Some of these concerns are based on the president-elect's own inflammatory rhetoric. Trump has said that the news media are "the enemy of the people" and that NBC News "should be investigated" for treason. His chief legal defender, Mike Davis, has said that he'd put journalists in gulags, then said he was just trolling.

Those were for sure stupid statements from Trump and his team. But we should know by now that he often doesn't mean what he says. He's full of baloney a lot of the time.

Although Trump's rhetoric is inflammatory, he rarely makes good on his threats. But he was elected to fix the things he promised to fix, and it won't take long for Americans to wonder if he was just full of hot air when he said he'd extend his tax cuts and secure the border.

I must point out, however: Why is it that when Trump campaigned on lower taxes, a secure border, orderly immigration, a peaceful geopolitical climate and a stronger economy, most of the legacy news media and Democrats scoffed?

Then when Trump makes an admittedly stupid crack about the media's bias or getting revenge on political opponents, his words are taken as literal promises?

Opinion: Voters strongly rebuke Democrats by electing Trump. But will progressives listen?

News organizations have picked up on Trump's rhetoric and spun tales themselves. A Politico headline on Wednesday reads, "Trump promised to get revenge. Here are his targets." A Freedom of the Press Foundation headline says, "Limit Trump's power to destroy the press − before it's too late."

For journalists and others to perpetuate the idea that Trump will ship his critics to a gulag is asinine. The checks and balances that exist in the courts, in law enforcement and in other flawed but functional institutions would stop him from violating the Constitution − and most Americans, including those who voted for Trump this week, understand that.

Is Trump a fascist?

There's another extreme claim Democrats have made about Trump. On Wednesday, The New Republic published this headline, "Americans Just Elected a Fascist to the White House."

Mother Jones framed Trump's presidency as scary, too, saying now "America Meets Its Judgment Day." The subhead read: "Trump’s victory signals a national embrace of the politics of hate and a possible fascist future."

On MSNBC, host Joy Reid said on election night that Florida is an "extremist right-wing fascist type of government." This must be startling news to all of the people moving there.

The mainstream news media had a meltdown after Trump won. There's no other word for it.

It seems like a lot of people in the news business don't know the definition of fascism. If Trump were actually a fascist, why didn't he act like it when he previously was the commander in chief? Trump often behaved in a way that was unbecoming of a world leader − it's why I hesitated to vote for him − but he was no fascist.

Opinion: I don't like Trump, but I'm voting for him. Here's why many Americans will, too.

If Trump really was a fascist, much of what we witnessed this week would not have happened: About 68 million people exercised the freedom to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. And much of the mainstream media and countless celebrities were outspoken in their support for Harris without serious fear of retribution.

The riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was a horrible incident, and as I have written before, Trump was terribly wrong for his part in encouraging the violence. But he did leave office two weeks later, and I'm certain he will leave office again when his second term ends.

If Trump were a fascist, he would have halted presidential elections when he was in the White House the first time. That's kind of how the whole "fascism" thing works. But he didn't then, and he won't now.

Opinion newsletter: Sign up for our newsletter on conservative values, family and religion from columnist Nicole Russell. Get it delivered to your inbox.

Fascism is an extreme form of government responsible for the murder of millions of innocent people. Trump is no Benito Mussolini, and the United States is not Italy in the 1930s. It's a gross insult to both to the victims of fascism and to the 73 million Americans who exercised their right to elect Trump this week to so carelessly throw around such language.

Claiming on social media that Trump is Hitler while sipping a latte at Starbucks sounds a lot like virtue signaling, not a true belief.

Does Trump's win portend the apocalypse?

The real reason why Democrats are trying to turn the outcome of a free and fair election into a sign of the apocalypse is important to understand. They hate the idea of Trump implementing conservative policies, even if those initiatives help working-class people. White voters with no college degree voted for Trump by 34 percentage points.

In some cases, the people who are now melting down don't respect anyone who voted for Trump. Like President Joe Biden, they think of their fellow citizens as "garbage." Like 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, they think of Americans who vote for Republicans as "deplorable."

Calling Trump, and by default Trump voters, fascist doesn't just sound ignorant, it also shows progressives' seething contempt masked underneath a layer of fear and wrapped in a web of anger.

No, Trump's win does not portend the rise of fascism, the opening of gulags or the advent of the apocalypse. Instead, it marks the end of thinking that far-left ideas are a reasonable solution to America's problems.

Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.This article was updated to add a new video.

You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opinion: Is Trump a fascist? Come on, liberals. Get a grip