Alternet published a review written by Stephen Rosenfeld of When at Times the Mob Is Swayed: A Citizen’s Guide to Defending Our Republic, by civil rights lawyer Burt Neuborne.
Here’s an excerpt:
Why does an ignorant, narcissistic buffoon like Trump trigger such anxiety? Why do so many Americans feel it existentially (not just politically) important to resist our forty-fifth president?” he writes. “Partly it’s just aesthetics. Trump is such a coarse and appalling man that it’s hard to stomach his presence in Abraham Lincoln’s house. But that’s not enough to explain the intensity of my dread. LBJ was coarse. Gerald Ford and George W. Bush were dumb as rocks. Richard Nixon was an anti-Semite. Bill Clinton’s mistreatment of women dishonored his office. Ronald Reagan was a dangerous ideologue. I opposed each of them when they appeared to exceed their constitutional powers. But I never felt a sense of existential dread. I never sensed that the very existence of a tolerant democracy was in play.”
Here are 20 serious points of comparison between the early Hitler and Trump.
1. Neither was elected by a majority.
2. Both found direct communication channels to their base.
3. Both blame others and divide on racial lines.
4. Both relentlessly demonize opponents.
5. They unceasingly attack objective truth.
6. They relentlessly attack mainstream media.
7. Their attacks on truth include science.
8. Their lies blur reality—and supporters spread them.
9. Both orchestrated mass rallies to show status.
10. They embrace extreme nationalism.
11. Both made closing borders a centerpiece.
12. They embraced mass detention and deportations.
13. Both used borders to protect selected industries.
14. They cemented their rule by enriching elites.
15. Both rejected international norms.
16. They attack domestic democratic processes.
17. Both attack the judiciary and rule of law.
18. Both glorify the military and demand loyalty oaths.
19. They proclaim unchecked power.
20. Both relegate women to subordinate roles
My thoughts:
I have said many times that when we compare Trump to Hitler we have to remember that Hitler’s rise to power was slow and systematic. It took him about a decade. Of course Trump ascendancy to the presidency was meteoric in comparison and the result of a perfect storm of factors.
I am a Jew. I do not believe these comparisons diminish the Holocaust. I believe that the statement “never again” doesn’t just apply to allowing a despot to engage in systemic extermination of a group of people he and his willing executioners (to use another catchphrase). It can apply to someone who is operating with the same lack of conscience and sadism and desire to “purify” the nation who only has the limited resources of ICE and the Justice Department. They don’t have unfettered power, at least not yet.