Comparisons between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler are fast becoming a mainstream media meme.
Just this week
Representative John Garamendi (D-CA), a seasoned member of the Armed Services Committee, voiced concerns on Wednesday’s edition of CNN’s The Situation Room about Trump “using Nazi tactics” – like demonizing the press;- The former British ambassador to the United States, Sir Peter Westmacott, compared Trump’s improbable rise to Hitler’s, warning in the August 23 edition of the Huffington Post of “shades of 1933 Germany”; and
- The cover of the current issue of Stern, a highly respected German magazine, crystallized this meme by featuring Trump giving a Nazi salute with the American flag draped over him – like a KKK robe.
But some of us were drawing these foreboding comparisons long before Trump became president. Here, for example, is what I wrote in “Republicans Bewailing Trump as Their Nominee; Democrats Hailing Hillary as Theirs,” June 8, 2016.
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[Republicans] spent the nominating process accusing Trump of displaying all kinds of disqualifying traits, notably those of a ‘racist [and] Islamophobe,’ a ‘pathological liar,’ a ‘con artist,’ a ‘dangerous narcissist,’ and a ‘wannabe dictator’ – who, among other things, has threatened to punish his media critics if he’s elected president. …
Except that their hatred of Hillary is such that – as soon as plainly uninformed and gullible voters elected him the nominee of their party – these same leaders turned on a dime and endorsed Trump, love of country be damned. …
But Republican leaders would do well to remember that Nazi leaders endorsed Adolf Hitler in the early 1930s, notwithstanding his disqualifying traits – notably those of a genocidal anti-Semite. We all know how that turned out and, more to the point, how history judged those leaders. These Republican leaders are sheepishly running the risk of being judged in similar fashion.
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But, thanks to the lessons of history, I am convinced that Trump will end up like Nixon long before the shades of Nazism he’s casting over America become the dark clouds Hitler visited upon Germany. I foreshadowed this in “Channeling Nixon, Trump Fires FBI Director,” May 9, 2017
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Only one other president in US history had the authoritarian gall to fire the public officials investigating his alleged high crimes and misdemeanors. That president, of course, was Richard M. Nixon – who infamously justified his authoritarian behavior as follows:
Well, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.
(Frost/Nixon Interview, May 1977)
Alas, brazen lies, contradictions, and hypocrisies have become routine features of [Trump’s] presidency – just as they were of his campaign. Indeed, firing Director Comey to restore public confidence in the FBI, as Trump claims, is every bit as Orwellian as throwing journalists in jail to protect the freedom of the press.
This is why I can only reiterate my forlorn hope that Republican politicians will stand up to Trump (beginning with a clarion call for a special prosecutor) – just as they stood up to Nixon, and thereby precipitated his downfall.
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Sure enough, less than 10 days later, on May 17, Trump’s own Justice Department appointed a special prosecutor. I duly hailed this silver lining in “Special Prosecutor Appointed to Investigate Trump-Russia Ties. Checkmate!” May 18, 2017.
Stay tuned.
Related commentaries:
Republicans bewailing…
Channeling Nixon…
Special prosecutor…