Book Review - In ‘Hitler,’ an Ascent From ‘Dunderhead’ to Demagogue - Timely!

[TomCADem]

Today, many Americans still tend to normalize or minimize the danger of Donald Trump content that our Nation's checks and balances will keep from abusing his power. Likewise, many Republicans think that they can control or limit his excesses while benefiting from his appeals to racism and religious intolerance.



http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/books/hitler-ascent-volker-ullrich.html

• Hitler was often described as an egomaniac who “only loved himself” — a narcissist with a taste for self-dramatization and what Mr. Ullrich calls a “characteristic fondness for superlatives.” His manic speeches and penchant for taking all-or-nothing risks raised questions about his capacity for self-control, even his sanity. But Mr. Ullrich underscores Hitler’s shrewdness as a politician — with a “keen eye for the strengths and weaknesses of other people” and an ability to “instantaneously analyze and exploit situations.”

• Hitler was known, among colleagues, for a “bottomless mendacity” that would later be magnified by a slick propaganda machine that used the latest technology (radio, gramophone records, film) to spread his message. A former finance minister wrote that Hitler “was so thoroughly untruthful that he could no longer recognize the difference between lies and truth” and editors of one edition of “Mein Kampf” described it as a “swamp of lies, distortions, innuendoes, half-truths and real facts.”

• Hitler was an effective orator and actor, Mr. Ullrich reminds readers, adept at assuming various masks and feeding off the energy of his audiences. Although he concealed his anti-Semitism beneath a “mask of moderation” when trying to win the support of the socially liberal middle classes, he specialized in big, theatrical rallies staged with spectacular elements borrowed from the circus. Here, “Hitler adapted the content of his speeches to suit the tastes of his lower-middle-class, nationalist-conservative, ethnic-chauvinist and anti-Semitic listeners,” Mr. Ullrich writes. He peppered his speeches with coarse phrases and put-downs of hecklers. Even as he fomented chaos by playing to crowds’ fears and resentments, he offered himself as the visionary leader who could restore law and order.

• Hitler increasingly presented himself in messianic terms, promising “to lead Germany to a new era of national greatness,” though he was typically vague about his actual plans. He often harked back to a golden age for the country, Mr. Ullrich says, the better “to paint the present day in hues that were all the darker. Everywhere you looked now, there was only decline and decay.”

[TomCADem]

1. WP - Republicans want to tame Trump, but he may be their doom

Those who don't know history risk repeating it...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-want-to-tame-trump-but-he-may-be-their-doom/2016/09/28/1d61e7b0-859e-11e6-ac72-a29979381495_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-e%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.e622250440b1

Unfortunately, the Never Trumpers are a minority on the right. More typical are House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), the most prominent among the GOP contortionists who are hedging their bets.

They send signals that they know how ridiculous and bigoted Trump is, calling out this or that statement when it’s convenient to do so. But they endorse him anyway to save their down-ticket candidates while hoping that, should he lose, they can curry favor with the now-large Trump wing of the party after November.

They have made another bet as well: They believe Trump has so little interest in policy that if he were to win he would sign whatever bills a conservative Congress put before him. Trump, they hope, would be quite content just occupying a nice piece of real estate on Pennsylvania Avenue to go with the one, as he mentioned on Monday, that he’s presiding over just down the street.

Trump has encouraged this view. He may be unpresidential but he is conversant in making deals and finding the other side’s weak spot. He knows the only thing many conservative politicians and interest groups truly care about are big tax cuts for the rich. So he let supply-side conservatives write him a tax plan. Buying the White House by giving away future federal revenues is classic Trump: using other people’s money to secure his own ends. Besides, he’s now told us he thinks it’s “smart” for wealthy people like him not to pay taxes.

[rusty quoin]

2. Human folly is the game here.

That thing about history repeats itself...I didn't believe it 10 or more years ago, but I didn't think so much about the big picture as I thought I did.

[erpowers]

3. Too Close

Oh Lord! Donald Trump acts way too much like Adolf Hitler. Donald Trump is doing too many of the same things Adolf Hitler did during his time in Germany. After reading the information in the OP I am far more concerned about the fact that Trump supposedly slept with a book of Hitler's speeches next to his bed. I now think the media needs to look more closely into the Trump/Hitler connection. The only difference between Trump and Hitler was the fact that Hitler was a good speaker and a good actor while Trump is not a good speaker, or actor.