Former US President Donald Trump speaking at a podium.
US President Donald Trump speaking at a podium. Credit: Ali Shaker / VOA Credit: Ali Shaker / VOA

Looking at the news around the world every day I ask What happened to “never again”. The wave of antisemitism, and nationalism is once again rising around the globe using hatred and fear as organizing tools. Anti-gay and anti-trans also figures very prominently, as does racism and white supremacy. Why have conservatives embraced this ideology worldwide including here in Canada? Most concerning is the rise of fascism in our US neighbour, promoted by Trump and the Republican party. Why does half the US believe so fervently in Trump?

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 natures strongest drives which is to belong, making them willfully ignore the facts. Taken altogether this has made the US very fertile ground for a demagogue like Trump and explains why half the country believes so fervently in 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 seem to 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.

It is now impossible not to notice the many similarities there are in techniques, ideology and language used by Hitler, the Nazi party in the 1930s in Germany and the language used now by Trump and the Republican party. One has to conclude they studied the Nazi’s closely and are now implementing what they learned. The following are the comparisons.

Hitler repeatedly said “I will make Germany great again “.

Trump has repeatedly said and continues to say, “I will make America great again”

The Nazi technique of repetition, of repeating big lies over and over again until they are deeply believed, is the exact same technique Trump and the Republicans are using very effectively.

 Repeated lying is a main feature of fascism and also a main feature of sociopathy.

Sociopaths like Hitler and Trump cannot live without spinning a web of lies, creating a complex artificial reality. Sociopaths can give famous authors a run for their money in their ability to create stories. They have no problem lying cooly and easily in the eyes or even under oath. They have great difficulty distinguishing facts from fiction. It is almost impossible for them to be truthful on a consistent basis. Talented actors can create and manipulate others to get caught up in their artificial reality with their realistic but invented details of their biography and abilities. They are extremely convincing and able to pass lie detector tests since they believe their own lies. 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.”

Sociopathy is one of the main features of cult leaders. Both Trump and Hitler were and are charismatic geniuses of mob psychology and both created personality cults. The creation of loyal followers was and is the main goal of both.

Hitler called the Media “der luggen press”, the lying press.

Trump calls the media “fake news.”

Both let nothing stand in their way and the end always justifies the means.

Both were and are extreme racists. Both use hatred and fear as organizing tools. 

Propaganda and misinformation are very big tools for both.

Both pander to the Christian far-right. The evidence that Hitler was a staunch Christian is overwhelming. He banned secular education in Germany on the basis that Christian religious instruction is essential to moral development.

Trump’s famous holding up of a bible was pandering to the completely invented doctrine of the far-right Christians now in complete control of the Republican Party there; just witness the stance on abortion and gay marriage by the Republicans.

Nationalism is used by both as an organizing tool. Witness the invented Christian nationalism in the US now demanding no separation between church and state.

Unfortunately, this invented form of Christianity is a very effective tool to gain power and control.

Both Hitler and Trump promote violence to achieve their ends. Both used and are using thugs to achieve their main goal of power. The Nazi’s the Brown shirts, Trump the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and numerous militia groups.

The Christian nationalists and these groups are the main source of very fast rising, antisemitism, islamophobia, gay and trans hatred, with hatred as their main organizing tool. 

At both the state and national level, the Republican party is systematically dismantling democracy and the rule of law while demonizing the Democrats and anyone else who dares to oppose them in exactly the same way the Nazi party did in Germany. 

Trump has called for the suspension of the constitution and Republicans have remained silent. Trump wants to remove constitutional rights just like the Nazi party did with the Reichstag Fire decree which suspended safeguards of individual rights and the due process of law. The decree restricted the right to assembly,

The decree also removed the right to free speech and freedom of the press. It also removed all restraints on police investigations. With the decree in place The Nazi’s did exactly what Trump wants to do and recently announced that he is going to do: Arrest and incarcerate political enemies or anyone deemed undesirable without specific charge. He will also dissolve political organizations and suppress publications. 

The Reichstag Fire Decree also gave the government the authority to overrule state and local government. This law that Trump wants to emulate was a permanent feature of the Nazi police state and played an indispensable part in the terror of the Third Reich, arresting and incarcerating hundreds of thousands of men women, political opponents, racial aliens and anyone deemed a social outsider.

Upon being elected Chancellor in 1933 Hitler had about 70 prison camps established immediately in any convenient structure that could hold prisoners, including vacant factories, existing prisons, country estates, schools, workhouses and castles. 

There was no national system at first. Camps were run by local police, the SS and SA, state interior ministries or a combination of all. There were mass arrests of anyone considered a political opponent of the Nazi party or anyone deemed undesirable.   

Using the language of the Nazi’s Trump just called his political opponents’ vermin and vowed to root them out.  

On Remembrance Day this year, speaking to a packed crowd inside Stevens High School auditorium in Claremont, New Hampshire, Trump, who is seeking a second term in the White House, 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.”

These are clearly the signs of the rise of fascism in the US.  This is why there is no mystery why so many millions fervently believe in Trump and will not ever be dissuaded by the facts. The question is now how will these millions be deprogrammed?

We are not immune here in Canada. Action 4 Canada, a Canadian heritage group promoting whiteness is operating right in the open, harassing libraries, teachers and others about materials they don’t like.

WE must speak up and denounce this ideology right now before the infection spreads. The consequences for Canada in the future could be very severe. If this trend isn’t stopped and reversed, the question has to be: Who’s next? What’s the next community to be considered undesirables?  Be warned, US far right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones outed Pierre Poilievre by calling him “The new superhero of the right.”

This famous historical quote demands to be repeated.

“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;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak up for me.”

Pastor Martin Niemoller (1892–1984)

He spoke these words after the Second World War describing how people did nothing to stop the Nazi’s wrongful imprisonment and execution of German citizens.