I have been concerned for the last few years over what seemed to be fairly clear parallels between what was happening in the United States under Donald Trump’s presidency and what I knew from history of Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. Those concerns were frequently poo-poohed and I was told I was over-reacting.
I don’t think so. Let’s take a look:
| Hitler | Trump |
| Legally elected | Legally elected |
| Surrounded himself with “yes” men | Surrounds himself with “yes” men |
| Anyone who disagreed was seen as disloyal | Anyone who disagrees is seen as disloyal |
| Attacked the media – “lying press” and “fake news” | Attacks the media – “lying press” and “fake news” |
| Anyone who was “other” (i.e., not Aryan) was seen as “less than” and subject to being locked up for minimal (or no) reasons | Anyone who is not white American (i.e., immigrants, refugees, African-Americans) is seen as “less than” and frequently subject to being locked up or imprisoned for minimal reasons |
| Used the police and military to enforce his desires | Encourages the police to enforce his desires |
| Demonized his political opponents | Demonizes his political opponents |
| Derided science | Derides science |
| Purged voter roles and challenged integrity of the electoral process | Encouraged purging of voter roles and challenged integrity of the electoral process |
I am not saying that everyone who has supported Trump is a Nazi…but they are supporting someone whose policies line up with those of the Nazis.
And what happened on January 6, 2021, in the United States Capitol was nothing less than an attempted coup, similar to Hitler’s beer hall putsch on November 8, 1923–an attempt to overthrow a legitimate government. It failed–as did Hitler’s initial putsch. But it should be seen as a warning.
We are also still dealing with the fall-out from the American Civil War–and the “Lost Cause” narrative. That mythology has several aspects (as noted here):
- That cultural and constitutional differences—not a singular interest in preserving slavery—forced the slaveholding states to secede. While denying the centrality of slavery to secession, Lost Cause authors consistently described slavery as a benevolent institution in which white and black southerners engaged in a reciprocal relationship that secured a domestic peace that abolitionists threatened.
- That Confederate armies—composed uniformly of gallant men and brilliant leaders—succumbed not because of poor leadership, sub-par military performance, or battlefield losses, but to overwhelming United States resources. In fact, a veritable religious cult developed around the Confederate pantheon of President Jefferson Davis and Generals Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and Robert E. Lee.
- It regarded Confederate women as sanctified by wartime sacrifice and identified, in them, perfect examples of gender conformity.
- Though ex-Confederates accepted the end of slavery, the Lost Cause maintained that because slavery had been beneficial to black and white people alike, emancipation had been a grave mistake. Further, it maintained that Reconstruction had been driven by a vindictive desire to impose a dangerous racial equality on a prostrate white South, and that the “redemption” of the South by Klan violence and electoral fraud had been a heroic moment in southern history.
And under Trump, all these myths and stories have been given legitimacy, legitimacy which culminated in the mob attack on the Capitol by individuals wearing clothing and waving flags expressing support for the Nazi and Confederate causes.
This is not who we are. This must not be who we are.
Preacher's Kid 