[William A. Baurle]

Originally Posted by Roger Slater

Read the article I linked to. I don't think it's at all premature to take note of the history of Hitler's rise to power and to note troubling parallels in the rise of Trump. It's better to be premature than too late, in any event. If we insist that Hitler was a unique, non-replicable historical phenomenon and therefore do not worry about it happening again, we are committing a grave error. Again, read the article. I am certainly not claiming it is a certainty that Trump can or will succeed in become the next Hitler, but I am utterly convinced that he would if he could and that we should not let delicacy or denial keep us from the sort of vigilance that cannot be maintained if we exclude that possibility.

Roger, I agree with you. Let's all watch, and be on guard, very closely.

I read the article you linked to just now, and I decided to isolate these two bits just so you know I did read it, and because I think they're important:

If I say the government is one party and the press is the opposition, then I talk about an authoritarian state. This is regime change. - SZ article

Trump has unleashed public racism of a kind we have not seen for decades. - ibid

The second quote agrees with what I've said in other threads. Racists feel that they now have free rein to come into the open. I have co-workers and even family members who are throwing the N word around as if it's funny, the trendy thing to do. I have to be careful at work because my department supervisor is an outspoken Trump supporter, while my executive director is a strong "Oregon/Washington State liberal" (her words). If I lose my job due to pissing the wrong person off, I'm toast.

Back to Hitler. Bear in mind, Mein Kampf was published in 1925, long before his rise to power. In that book - which I haven't read because I refuse to read it - Hitler wrote, according to historian Ian Kershaw:

"...the nationalization of our masses will succeed only when, aside from all the positive struggle for the soul of our people, their international poisoners are exterminated."[11] - Wikipedia

When I say "premature", I mean just that. I don't mean, "incorrect", or anything else. Note the word, "exterminated". Trump has not used this kind of language.

Also, it seems to me that Hitler was far more intelligent than Trump. I might be wrong, but Trump seems a wee tad dim, if I may say so gently. Hitler wasn't dim, unfortunately for millions of people. Evil requires intelligence. It requires intellection, calculation, premeditation, and discipline. Stupidity and ignorance will get in the way of any wanna-be tyrant eventually, at least in the US. Hopefully! I pray I'm right. I could be wrong.

"Mine is the right to be wrong" - Ian Anderson, from "A Passion Play".

I don't want to sound isolationist. I know how precarious the situation is. I've jokingly (sort of) referred to the US as Rome in many posts. I believe we are vulnerable for lots of reasons. One being the too-comfy, hedonistic, pleasure-seeking attitude so many of us Romans...er...I mean Americans have. Another is the silly idea that "it can't happen here."

The Romans thought the same thing.

Have you read the New Yorker article Gregory P linked to? It's a good one. I'll add a quote from that:

By most accounts, the rioters were not part of the campus community and thus Berkeley was, as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education noted, now being chastised for the behavior of people with whom it had no relationship and whom it had little capacity to control. - New Yorker article.

"Inept rogues" about sums up my feelings, though I should add, Jelani Cobb and I disagree on certain things.

More later.