Many people have been comparing Donald Trump (R-N.Y.) and his rhetoric to the rise of Adolf Hitler. First off, according to Merriam-Webster, fascism is,
“…A way of organizing a society in which a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people and in which people are not allowed to disagree with the government.”
One historian, Roger Griffin, said that Trump is not a fascist, but he is really splitting hairs:
“As long as Trump does not advocate the abolition of America’s democratic institutions, and their replacement by some sort of post-liberal new order, he’s not technically a fascist.”
Another historian, Robert Paxton, said:
“First of all, there are the kinds of themes Trump uses. The use of ethnic stereotypes and exploitation of fear of foreigners is directly out of a fascist’s recipe book.”
There are many similarities between Donald Trump and Adolph Hitler. Hitler even used the slogan, “Make Germany Great Again,” so it’s easy to see Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan for what it is.
Hitler crafted the idea of a “healthy Germany” by discriminating against:
“…the Jews, gypsies, and LGBT people (transgender people were also murdered by the Nazis)…”
Trump is following this same path with discriminating against Muslims and the LGBT community and women. Trump has even proposed that Muslims wear special badges in the same ways Hitler made Jewish people wear yellow Stars of David.
Hitler painted Jewish people as untrustworthy, job-stealers, and ethnically inferior. Donald Trump is doing the same thing with Mexicans and Muslims. He has called undocumented Mexicans rapists, among other things.
Rachel Maddow has the right idea. She says she is studying Hitler to prepare for dealing with Trump should he be elected as president. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she said:
“They had 330 million people to choose from, and they’ve decided that he is the best one to be the standard-bearer of one of the two major parties of the greatest nation on Earth. Like, talk to me, Republican voters! What’s the worst-case scenario for America if he wins? It can be pretty bad. You don’t have to go back far in history to get to almost apocalyptic scenarios.”
We need to do everything in our power to keep this man out of the White House. He wants to turn us into some kind of dictatorship.
Check out Rachael Maddow’s take on Donald Trump’s fascist ways, and the similarities to a previous fascist GOP campaign:
Check out this video of Trevor Noah from the Daily Show, and his take on Trump’s flirtation with fascism.
Featured Image By Cordelia Persen Via Flickr/CC by ND-2.0
