Now that the 80th anniversary of D-Day is over. Let’s remember the refrain that every country said at the end of WW2. “NEVER AGAIN”!
With the far right rising all over the world, it looks like democracy in many places, particularly the US, is in grave danger.
Antisemitism and the use of hate as an organizing tool is fast rising everywhere including right here in Canada. Where are the voices that warn the world of what happens when hatred is used as a primary organizing tool to gain power?
No dictator has ever come to power all by themselves. They always have a lot of help from true believers. So, it is with Trump, Republicans at every level are systematically dismantling democracy. They are making it much harder to vote, changing district boundaries and doing everything they can to change the rules to help Trump. Historically, dictators have employed the use of thugs and threats of violence to come to power. Clearly, Trump is doing that too.
Why does half the US believe so fervently in Trump? They have been conned by a master of mob psychology. Like 1930’s Germany, the US is largely a nation of working poor. Compounding this situation is that due to a very poor education system, Americans suffer from ignorance. They are also victims of one of human nature’s strongest drives which is to belong. Human nature’s wish for a savior when suffering is also overwhelming. Taken all together this has made the US vulnerable to a demagogue like Trump who ticks all the boxes of a personality cult:
1. The group is focused on a living leader, usually a self-proclaimed chosen one.
2. Members display excessively zealous, unquestioning loyalty.
3. The leader and group are preoccupied with bringing in new members.
4. Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged and punished.
5. The leader continuously fleeces his flock for money.
This is Trump’s successful con-job on the middle and Working classes. Be warned, Poilievre is attempting the same con job on the working class here, with his chameleon show hiding his true colors. This is not the primary reason Trump came to power and not the only reason he may gain power again.
There are some very disturbing similarities between Hitlers rise to power as a dictator and Trump’s rise to power. Hitler came to power and stayed in power because of the support of wealthy industrialists. The Nazis paid oh, so well, companies that made gigantic fortunes from the Nazis and literally made a killing still exist today. Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Siemens and others. They could have stopped Hitler in a heartbeat.
Billionaires, and their corporations greatly contributed to Trump’s first term as president and he paid them off with a trillion dollars in tax cuts. Trump has just announced more massive tax cuts for the wealthy and their corporations likely costing another trillion dollars. The uber wealthy could swat Trump like a fly and stop him if they wanted to but will not, for obvious reasons. This is the primary reason for Trump’s rise to power.
Trump has great affection for and is on the record praising strongman dictators and wants to be one. He has praised both Hitler and Putin. Trump clearly intends to be dictator and the Republicans are doing everything they can to help him. Why? Because it is very profitable. As we saw in Nazi Germany, the most extreme form of capitalism is fascism.
Trump and the Republicans are very obviously following the Nazi playbook.
Hitler repeatedly said “I will make Germany great again.”
Trump has repeatedly said and continues to repeat, “I will make America great again.”
Hitler called the Media “der luggen press,”, the lying press.
Trump calls the media “fake news.”
Both pander to the Christian far-right. The evidence that Hitler was a staunch Christian is overwhelming. The Christian far-right has demonstrated complete control of the Republican party. Christian nationalists are calling to make America a Christian state with no separation between church and state
With their continuous attacks on women, gay and trans rights, an emblem of far–right politics, you may as well call them The American Taliban.
The Nazi technique of repetition, of repeating big lies over and over again until they are deeply believed, is exactly what Trump and the Republicans are using very effectively. Repeated lying is a main feature of dictatorships.
Sociopaths like Hitler and Trump, cannot live without spinning a web of lies, they are extremely convincing. Hitler, like Trump, had a messiah complex believing he was the chosen one and only he could save Germany. On August 21, 2019 Trump went on the public record Stating he was the “chosen one.” Previously on July 22, 2016 at the Republican National Convention he stated “I alone can fix America.” These are not the only similarities
Hitler was motivated by hate but primarily motivated by revenge for the Versailles Treaty. This is Trumps motivation, he continually promises revenge on his enemies and for the 2020 election and anyone who criticizes him. His Republican loyalists will likely help him do that.
Hitler tried to overthrow the government by force in the famous Munich beer hall putsch and failed. He learned he could not overthrow the government by force and must do that from within. Trump tried to overthrow the government on January 6, 2021 and likely learned the same lesson.
The Nazi’s famously burned books whose ideas they didn’t like. The Republicans and their Christian nationalist allies are pulling books they don’t like off library shelves.
Last August Trump called for the suspension of the Constitution and Republicans remained silent. On Remembrance Day last year, speaking to a packed crowd inside Stevens High School auditorium in Claremont, New Hampshire, using Nazi language, Trump said:
“We will put America first and today, especially in honor of our great veterans on Veterans Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country”.
When Trump is elected, which now looks to be certain, just like Hitler did, Trump will very likely declare an emergency, suspend the constitution and with the help of his loyal Republicans try to arrest and imprison his enemies, undesirables, illegals and protesters. Trump has promised to do just that and put them into camps.
The working and middle classes are just pawns in Trump’s march to dismantle democracy and install himself as dictator. It is the really big money that is funding and allowing this to happen. We need to do everything we can to prepare. We must do everything we can to prevent Pierre Poilievre from ever gaining power here!
“Never again” refrain from WW2 and demands this quote.
“First, they came for the communists, and I did not speak up—because I was not a communist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up—because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak up—because I was not a Jew. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak up.”
-Pastor Martin Niemoller (1892–1984)
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