Nobody cares what Hitler’s followers’ grievances were, or whether they were legitimate; history only remembers his crimes, and that his supporters made them possible.
Fast forward to January 2021, the day after Trump incited a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to foil his election loss, and his supporters are in a similar position.
Trump isn’t Hitler; he’s only a small selfish man who overplayed his hand and in the process unleashed a violent mob. Looking back over his meteoric political career, such an ending was predictable.
This isn’t remotely about big vs. small government, balanced budgets vs. deficits, business vs. labor, or other policy issues. It’s about Trump’s behavior, which has crowded out everything else. He’s a poisonous demagogue who pitted American against American, attacked judges and journalists, promoted lies and conspiracy theories, and sought to tear down our institutions, culminating in his dogged attempts to overthrow the voters’ choice in the 2020 election. That was a frontal assault on our right to choose our nation’s leader.
He didn’t do this alone. Nearly the entire Republican Party backed him, protected him, and defended him, or looked the other way. His supporters are a motley crowd that includes both traditional conservative voters and blue collars who formerly voted Democratic until they were left behind by a changing economy and then wanted a savior. What binds them all together under the “MAGA” banner is White Supremacy. Trumpism is racism’s last hurrah.
I appreciate that by 2016 many Americans were stressed-out and frustrated, and their strong desire for change put Trump in office in 2016. But he wasn’t the change agent they believed in; they — and the rest of America — got a nihilist. Trump didn’t just institute different policies; he set about tearing down the basic structure of our society, including its values.
Meanwhile, his supporters believed lies, embraced conspiracy theories, and took racism mainstream again. They closed their minds to facts and reason, and retreated into a shell of selfishness, uncaring for the rest of us. Some openly talked about “civil war” if they didn’t get their way, amounting to tearing up the social contract that has made us a successful nation. They prattled about “freedom,” but bricked themselves into a prison of their own making, away from their fellow citizens.
It’s not possible to engage with such people. There’s no conversation we can have with them. How do discuss issues with people who brandish guns and nooses?
Years from now, future generations won’t remember the struggles in their lives that drove them to this. History will only remember they followed Trump and made his rampage possible.
Photos: Germans in 1935 (top); Trump supporters in 2021 (below)
Related article: Former Bill Clinton staffer says January 6, 2021, will “live in infamy” and Trump supporters’ descendants “will hang their heads in shame” (read his op-ed here).
