Chomsky: Trump Rising in Polls for Same Reasons Germany Embraced Hitler
“It’s interesting to compare the situation in the ‘30s, which I’m old enough to remember. Objectively, poverty and suffering were far greater. But even among poor working people and the unemployed, there was a sense of hope that is lacking now, in large part because of the growth of a militant labor movement and also the existence of political organizations outside the mainstream.”
Such comparisons are certainly debatable. The world is a very different place than it was in the time of Hitler’s rise. It is always tempting to draw parallels like this when it is difficult to see what is really happening.
It is difficult to see what is really happening and the election is making that true among many other things.
This election is raising issues like none other during my eighty years on the planet. certainly see many paradoxes that are not easy to resolve.
One paradox is that between the polls that say people are fed up with their elected representatives and the ease at which these people or their chosen replacements get reelected. Part of the answer lies in the large number of people that do not vote. But there has to be more.
Couple that with the fact that the support for Sanders and Trump is clearly anti-establishment. It seems to be true that those supporting Trump are voters while significant numbers of those supporting Sanders are not.
What happened in the 1930s was not quite the same. Hitler’s opposition was the old guard left and could be isolated as it was. Today we have no left to speak of. Bernie is bring people to a new realization of politics and it is a fresh start. What it will mean in elections is to be seen. What it will mean as a counter-force to rising Fascism is another story.
Finally there is the paradox of Trump himself. Once a self proclaimed pro choice liberal and always an opportunist. He has a keen sense of our system and how to work it. He has found strengths for his quest in its weaknesses.
To the extent that we know almost too much about who Bernie is and what he is trying to do we have no such clear picture about Trump. If ever the rhetoric made the choice a clear one between Love and Hate it is now.
he old curse: May you live in interesting times is upon us like never before. It just gets curiouser and curiouser.