Before Trump, there was this guy:

[dixiegrrrrl]

Link to tweet

[empedocles]

1. History repeats

[Turbineguy]

2. Ah yes.

But trump supporters would not be able to digest those Big Words, so they would have never read the book.

[apcalc]

3. Fabulous post. Thanks!

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. When you go back and read the early muckrakers, like Lewis, like Ida turnball

you realize how many years We the People have had to face down would be tyrants. Trump is more glorified because of the available media.

[gulliver]

5. Fallows did a hit piece on Gore in the Atlantic before the 2000 election.

I still remember the cover, a picture of Gore with fangs. Fallows should do a piece about a journalist who helps other pseudo-clever journalists cut down a good (if a bit cloying sometimes) leader over trivia. A louse is elected. He creates catastrophes. His Party inverts reality (so they don't have to know how badly they screwed up). A nasty clown crawls out of the gutter...It would be a good story.

[Grokenstein]

6. Glad someone remembers

People can change over the years; some wise up. But until they demonstrate that they've legitimately pulled their head out of their ass--and aren't just playing the other side of the aisle for the moment--there should be no trust.

[red dog 1]

8. Fallows isn't the only one writing about "It Can't Happen Here"

On January 17, 2017, Beverly Cage wrote an essay for the New York Times titled:
"Reading the Classic Novel That Predicted Trump"

(Sorry, I was unable to post a link to this 2017 NYT essay by Beverly cage)

[red dog 1]

7. From the 1935 Sinclair Lewis novel:

"Windrip loves big, passionate rallies and rails against the 'lies' of the mainstream press.
His supporters embrace this message, lashing out against the "highbrow intellectuality" of editors and professors and policy elites.
With Windrip's encouragement, they also take out their frustrations on blacks and Jews."

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Didja know, thre was yet another Trump like leader back in the day?

One of Germany's Kaisers..I wanna say Wilhelm, but could be wrong, but around that era...
Had most of Trump's infantile dishonest qualities....very autocratic, very temperamental, wayyyy beyond the level of most regal heads of the day.
Sorry I can't recall the article, it was a few months ago.

Actually, compared to Trump, few autocrats DO seem that kooky.
Vlad...maybe vlad....

[red dog 1]

10. I think you're referring to Kaiser Wilhelm ll (1859-1941), Emperor of Germany,

and King of Prussia from 1888 to 1918.

History.com mentions one definite similarity between Kaiser Wilhelm ll & Trump.
"He meddled in German foreign policy on the basis of his emotions, resulting in incoherence and inconsistency in German relations with other countries."

Wilhelm's mother was Princess Victoria (1840-1901), the oldest daughter of Queen Victoria of England.

By November, 1918, Germany's political leaders and leaders of the Army forced him to abdicate power, so he took a train across the border into the Netherlands, where he eventually bought a manor house in Doorm, and remained there for the rest of his life.

(Maybe Trump could be forced to "abdicate power" and go live in another country...Russia perhaps?)

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. Thank you for brushing the dust bunnies from my brain.

yeah, that's the guy.

Hmmmm...German. Who else do we know who is nuts and has a German heritage? Hmmmmm.