Donald Trump could have been a Nazi leader, you know, the ones that commanded sections of concentration camps or were in charge of removing the "enemies of the state" to those camps. He does not have the abilities of a military or political leader of the regime, but, his gifts for resentment, vengeance, self-righteousness, and hatred for anyone he believes inferior (just about everyone else) would have made him a perfect man for such a post.
His charismatic bullying style and bent for cruelty would have endeared him to those in power. They would have given him free hand to do whatever he liked to those under his control and I have no doubt he would have used that power. The objects of his wrath would have suffered tremendously as long as Mr. Trump received good food and a beautiful place to live.
Having no moral compass, I suspect nothing would have been off-limits to him. That, is, if he didn't have to actually perform the cruel acts himself and could blame it on his underlings or the victims. "They did it" or "They made me do it."
Mr. Trump's ability to be manipulated by anyone in his circle would be of great benefit to the other Nazi leaders. They would be certain that he would do what was "necessary" to get the last drop of life out of the powerless he supervised. Those pathetic souls would declare how much they loved him and wanted to serve in their pathetic inadequate way, under threat of death, of course.
It is impossible to have watched Mr. Trump for the past few years and not notice his cruelty, his inability to accept responsibility for anything he says or does, his inability to judge people on anything beyond their loyalty to himself. His racist statements, even about the President of the United States show there are no limits to what he will say or do to promote whiteness as the superior attribute of a human being, a perfect Nazi leadership stance.
And, Mr. Trump's got the lying knack down pat. His ability for stirring up a crowd while spewing insults and lies to their faces is astounding. Then, he repeats the lies and false claims over and over to make them true.
For example, his idea of deportation is telling poor people of color they would be going back to a place where they will be with people of their own kind who will appreciate them, while sending them to a gang-torn impoverished land where their lives will be at risk from the moment they step off the plane. There are definite similarities with the holocaust boxcar stories, if not the actual horrific conditions of the journey. Death often comes at the end of both, though.
This man was elected president of the United States by an outdated, racist structure, the Electoral College. He has no mandate to be doing the things he is doing to the people of this country just as Hitler and his cronies had no mandate in 1933 when they took power. As with the German government in 1933, the Republicans and other conservatives are bowing to Mr. Trump's wishes for the win, even if they have only a slight inkling what he is demanding. If Mr. Trump could, I suspect he would order all kinds of despicable actions on behalf of his racist, sexist, homophobic agenda. He already started the process by ordering Muslim bans, deporting undocumented parents of American children, ending the "Dream Act," and trying to ban transgender people from the military.
At least this is still America and we have laws to stop him, but the bowers and scrapers reside in our Congress and could make some of his cruelties law, and how likely is it that our highest court would stop them? We really haven't seen the Court in action yet to have any real sense of it.
Having read Michael Wolff's book, Fire and Fury, you may note that Mr. Trump surrounds himself with family members and sycophants who either don't know or don't care what America stands for. It's about power and who has it. We already know Mr. Trump agrees with the last person who spoke to him, unless they disagree with his basic beliefs of white male superiority.
Mr. Trump surrounds himself with people who know how to get him to do and say what matters to them, so, the next steps could be dangerous to many people in this country. As long as the lower level Nazi leaders produced the desired outcomes, their superiors didn't care much how it happened. What a scary thought that the far right haters could get their "leader," Mr. Trump, to do their bidding. Their goal is a hierarchy of white men on top and everyone else to serve them. Too many women or people of color around? Get rid of them! put them in their place!
The parallels are strong with this one.
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