Before the 2016 election, some historians and journalists compared Trump\u2019s ascension with Hitler\u2019s rise to power in Germany before World War II. Now that Trump has been elected, it is important to critically assess these comparisons in more detail.<\/p>\n
First, any comparison to Hitler and Nazism must begin with a couple of significant distinctions. Hitler and the Nazis considered anyone of Jewish heritage to be part of a despicable \u201crace.\u201d The pseudo-science of eugenics, which the Nazis promoted, played a major role in their expulsion and slaughtering of Jewish people. Moreover, although the KKK and other racist organizations support Trump, we have not heard him express outright hatred of any particular minority.<\/p>\n
That being said, there are a number of parallels between Hitler in the 1920s and 30s and Trump today. Like Hitler, Trump has developed a cult-of-personality. He has done this by using the same tricks Hitler did. In this post, I detail some parallels between Hitler\u2019s tactics during his rise to power, and Trump\u2019s today, and I suggest a few steps we must take now to preserve our freedom.<\/p>\n
Before his rise to power, Hitler was not a professional politician. He was an \u201coutsider\u201d like Trump (although he was unemployed and no businessman). But Hitler had a great deal of charisma, a sense of what people feared, and a grasp of what they wanted to hear. Trump has similar traits. He must have been a careful student of Hitler\u2019s rise to power, because he uses many of the same tactics Hitler used. For example:<\/p>\n
Hitler said, \u201cThe receptivity of the masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points, and you must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has followed Hitler\u2019s advice. He, like Hitler, is a showman who knows how to appeal to emotions by using and repeating simple words with loaded meanings: \u201cMake America Great Again!\u201d\u00a0 \u201cBuild that wall!\u201d\u00a0 \u201cLock her up!\u201d<\/p>\n
Hitler said, \u201c\u201cI use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few.\u201d\u00a0For two years before Germany invaded Poland and started World War II, Britain was convinced Hitler wanted peace, because that\u2019s what he kept telling their envoys. But for years before 1937, Hitler had been rebuilding his military, and from 1936 on, he was supplying his powerful new weapons to the rising dictator of Spain. He was preaching his peacefulness to the British at the very time when his new bombers were leveling the first non-military city in history: Guernica.<\/p>\n
Trump is equally capable of talking out of both sides of his mouth and does it frequently. He constantly says the mainstream media is \u201cdishonest,\u201d but he glibly calls The<\/em> New York Times<\/em> \u201ca jewel\u201d when speaking directly to its publisher and reporters. He calls climate change \u201ca hoax\u201d and appoints a man who agrees with him to head the EPA; but when speaking to knowledgeable people, he leaves them thinking they had a productive discussion, and he understands there is \u201csomething to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Hitler said, \u201cThe victor will never be asked if he told the truth.\u201d\u00a0Lies were second nature to Hitler, just as they are to Trump. Hitler told lies so sincerely and so often that people either believed they were true or stopped caring (as long as they didn\u2019t directly hurt them.)<\/p>\n One of his biggest, most often-told lies was that the Jews caused Germany to lose World War I. In reality, Jewish men fought and died for Germany in the same proportions as everyone else. (In 1916, Germany conducted a study to prove that the country was losing the war, because Jewish men weren\u2019t fighting on the front lines. The facts showed that proportionately more Jews were on the front lines than non-Jews, so the government buried the results.)<\/p>\n To Donald Trump, as to Hitler, winning is all, and lying is second nature. There is little point in enumerating his many lies. Google \u201cfact-checking Trump\u201d for all the examples. (Oddly, he even lies about doing something everyone can still see, such as mocking a disabled reporter.)<\/p>\n Hitler gave the public specific, carefully selected scapegoats to blame for his country\u2019s problems, and so does Trump. Hitler\u2019s main scapegoat was the Jews, the traditional European scapegoats for over a thousand years. Jews were a very small minority in Germany (under 1% in 1933). Eugenics, the popular scientific theory of the day, taught that Jews were a race, not a religion. Since no one could opt out of his or her race, people of Jewish heritage who practiced no faith, as well as Jewish converts to Christianity, were targeted. Most Germans didn\u2019t personally know Jews, so the Nazis could easily reinforce long-existing negative stereotypes and fears through their propaganda.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s primary chosen scapegoats are Muslims, who practice Islam. Of course, eugenics theory has been debunked now, so Trump can\u2019t classify Islam as a race. But he has said that hatred of the West is \u201cinnate\u201d in Islam. And he has called for a blanket ban on Muslims, \u201cwho are pouring into our country.\u201d (Another lie. According to the Pew Research Center, Muslims were about 1% of the U.S. population in 2015 and are projected to be 2% in 2050.)<\/p>\n Hitler also targeted immigrants as scapegoats. Among his first scapegoats were thousands of people, mostly Jewish, who had come to Germany after 1914. Hitler referred to these immigrants as unpatriotic \u201cinvaders\u201d and \u201cforeign elements\u201d who distorted the true German spirit. See Fraenkel, Max, \u201cAn Exclusive Interview with Germany\u2019s Fascist Chieftain.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Trump is targeting several groups of immigrants, whom he calls \u201caliens,\u201d a word chosen to underscore his \u201cus\u201d versus \u201cthem\u201d mentality. To him \u201caliens\u201d are all refugees from Syria, most Mexicans (to be walled out at their expense), and all immigrants from \u201cterror countries\u201d (undefined, because \u201call you have to do is look!\u201d).<\/p>\n Hitler and his followers regularly used violence and the threat of violence to quell opposition. Hitler said, \u201cThe very first essential for success is the perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.\u201d\u00a0The Nazis encouraged their followers to threaten and physically attack dissenters attending Hitler\u2019s rallies and speeches. From 1922 on, Nazis assaulted people at meetings of opposing parties. After taking power, they assaulted people for no reason to show power. They also beat people to silence opposition.<\/p>\n Donald Trump has also used violence as a tool. He has encouraged followers to assault protesters at his rallies and has said he would like to hit them himself. He has regularly belittled journalists and other critics in the social media, prompting his followers to follow up with further abuse, including death threats. Trump has fomented so much hatred, fear, and distrust among people that we now hear daily about rants and assaults of Trump\u2019s opponents and his chosen scapegoats in schools, on airplanes, in subways, and in malls. Hate crimes have been increasing every week since Trump was elected.<\/p>\n Trump is using Twitter the way that Hitler used the radio. The Nazis gave away thousands of radios, so people everywhere would hear Hitler\u2019s messages, which sounded much like Trump\u2019s. Hitler gave passionate, emotional speeches whose content was remarkably similar to Trump\u2019s: dark visions of his country\u2019s decay due to inept leadership and bad deals with other countries; heartfelt assertions of his people\u2019s innate superiority and their God-given right to lead the world; emotional promises to make the country great again; and calls to rid the country of social unrest by getting rid of those he blames for causing it.<\/p>\n\u00a0Lying is fine as long as you win<\/h3>\n
People need scapegoats, so blame minorities they already fear<\/h3>\n
Violence is essential for success<\/h3>\n
Make excellent use of propaganda, and avoid the mainstream media.<\/h3>\n