Trump: The Politics of the Past
This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by MineralMan (a host of the 2016 Postmortem forum).
Just as Hitler took advantage of a long history of anti-Semitism to rise to power in Germany, Donald Trump is taking advantage of a long history of anti-immigrant feelings that have been openly part of the American culture since we formed this nation. The similarities between then and now are striking and no less dangerous today than they were back in Hitler’s day.
I know that comparing modern day figures to the German Nazis is a popular meme and in most cases, without validity, but that doesn’t preclude the comparison from ever being apt. Occasionally, we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past when we forget those lessons or enough time has passed that we simply cannot see those lessons as relevant to our modern society. What doesn’t change over that period of time is human nature. We are more or less the same people we were less than a century ago. We have prejudices, fears, and are not above blaming others for our problems.
Hitler characterized the Jews in Europe as diseased criminals responsible for all of Germany’s problems. He exaggerated and exploited isolated instances of crime or immoral behavior just like Trump exaggerates and exploits isolated instances of undocumented immigrant crimes. The truth is that the 500,000 Jews in Germany in the 1930’s were almost indistinguishable from the rest of the German population. They were middle class, academics, professionals, and mostly lived in urban centers. The truth of undocumented immigrants in this country is that they are less likely to commit crimes than the population as a whole while working hard at low-wage jobs, without benefits, and always in danger of being deported. They are not more likely to come here carrying diseases, or commit murders, or rape as Donald Trump has repeatedly characterized them.
Hitler also threatened his European neighbors and eventually invaded them. Trump has openly accused the Mexican Government of sending these immigrants across the border and has also said that they are sending the worst elements of Mexican society north. Hitler’s Nazi Party drew their support not from the intellectuals of German society but largely from the uneducated, unemployed, disaffected Germans that had experienced the crushing poverty that resulted from Germany’s WWI reparation payments. Trump’s supporters are a disaffected segment of American society that already fear immigrants, thrive on low-information cable news programs, and are for the most part, older white Americans that have suffered financially from the Great Recession.
The term “scapegoating” is often associated with Hitler’s treatment of the European Jewish population. Is there really any difference between Donald Trump’s treatment of the Mexican undocumented population in this country and the treatment Hitler rained down on the European Jewish population prior to and during WWII? Is Trump’s rhetoric any less inflammatory than Hitler’s was? Isn’t the goal in both cases the leadership of the most powerful military nation on the planet? The human race simply can’t abide another charismatic leader willing to say anything to achieve ultimate power.
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