re-post from retired page
Rethinking the Analogy
A recent re-post of mine on Facebook talked, prior to the election, about Trump being a Nazi. I still believe that but now the difference from then and now is that I used to associate Trump with Hitler. Now I do not. As crazy as he was, he was focused in his terrible and vicious goals. Trump is no where near that focused. While there is a superiority supporting racism, misogyny, and xenophobia there also seems to be a large case amount of misdirection, misinformation, alteration of direction, and just plain lack of focus on Trump’s part.
Looking at the historical Nazi’s and Trump’s actual actions I now have to rethink my opinion of who he most emulates. I now think he is more of a Rudolf Hess than a Adolf Hitler. Rudolf Hess was disillusion and certifiably crazy – need I say more. Think Rudolf Hess with Adolf Hitler’s position – Donald Trump.
just how close every country is
I love history. I should have realized just how close every country is to having such a change in leadership. Throughout history we see people feeling that they are not being properly represented by the leadership that they currently have. Often they are justified, sometimes they are not. Often they are repressed. Sometimes, they are in the minority because their ideas and ideals are not the norm.
In any event, they will navigate to anyone who will take up their cause; saying they will represent them. In some of the more positive cases, such as the Second Continental Congress it works out rather well. Generally thought it does not. I think of such situations as fomented by Oliver Cromwell, Vladimir Lenin (et. al.), and Adolf Hitler to name a few.
In all of the cases described above, there were real issues and real problems. In the negative situations cited above, the solution was as bad, if now worse, than the problem.
It always seems that people on the bottom of the social-economic and education level find it easier to blame others for their problem and navigate to any leadership that will blame the same “other” for the problem, saying that the elimination of that “other” will solve their problem. Cromwell had the British Crown, Lenin had the Russian Crown, and Hitler had the Jews.
Trump has Illegal Immigrants and Terrorists (a.k.a., Muslim [a.k.a., brown-skins]).
just how close america has been
The catalyst
I love this country. Despite the issues still outstanding, I am proud of the gains in areas of civil rights and poverty that we have done as a country in my lifetime. I agree that it is not enough simply because these issues are not behind us. But based upon where they were when I was a child, it is a different world.
I was proud of the day that we elected a Black President. And not because he was Black but because he was the most qualified for the job. I knew that there would be a backlash. I was not prepared for the backlash that I saw.
I saw attempts to make him unqualified by saying he was not born in America. He even had to interrupt his campaign to prove he was born in America. The irony was that his opponent was born in Panama and no one said a damned thing about it. It was an attempt to make him an “other”.
Then they called him a Muslim, as if that would disqualify him. When he stated that, IF he were a Muslim it would not disqualify him, his detractors published that without the “IF”. Once again making him an “other”.
Anything to make sure you knew he was Black. As if you could forget. This created the catalyst that allowed someone to come in a attract the disenfranchised.
The Disenfranchised
In reality, we can all discuss how the election ended up the way it did. I know I have written about incessantly as I have been trying to come to grips with how this could have happened. But what I, and I believe others, seem to forget is that while it is true that the stray votes that allowed Trump to get elected, he would not have been in the position to take advantage of those votes if it were not for the core disenfranchised.
(Note: I know I am about to stereotype here but the reason for stereotyping is that it has a basis in truth.)
The core constituency are generally rural, of lower economic, and have lower education. What ills they experience has to be the fault of “others”.
The core constituency are people who think that the government has gone too far in supporting immigrants, illegal or otherwise. They believe that the Latin Americans are all on welfare and are bringing their kids up here to get free education and medical care. They think that the Blacks are all on welfare, are criminals, and would not get take all of the good jobs because of affirmative action. They think that we are letting terrorists into America because we are letting Muslims into our Christian Country.
Think I am exaggerating. Bullshit. Maybe some of them only believe one or two of those ideas, but most of them believe them all. Why? Because of exaggerations in the news of some of the issues. Because of historical prejudices. Because of personal negative experiences that cause them to extrapolate it into the whole.
What gets lost in out pride in the change that America has gone through over the has half of a century or so is that we did not change everyone’s opinion. It is a result of the majority of people willing the change and not changing minds. The people who were biased and prejudiced before, if alive, are still biased and prejudiced. Maybe a little quieter.
Given a chance they would like to go back to the “good old days”. We had this happen once before. Just look at the post-Reconstruction / Jim Crow era of the South. Given half a chance every attempt to go back will be embraced.
So when a rich person (Donald Trump) self-finance a national racist, misogynist, xenophobic campaign it resonated with them. He had is core. When they were called “Deplorables”, they embraced that title. They knew in their hearts that were out of the mainstream but they “knew they were right” just like their forefathers did.
So Donald Trump had a receptive audience for his sick, venal, terrible, nasty ideas. Without his core, he would not have become president.
