Recycling history

I never thought I would hear these words coming from an American citizen, much less a presidential candidate for the United States of America.

Can it possibly be true?

Let's try this simple quiz:

1.  Who said, "I will get rid of the communist 'vermin'?"

   a) Donald Trump

   b) Adolf Hitler

   c) All of the above.

The correct answer is C, all of the above.

 

2. Who said, "I will take care of the 'enemy within'?"

   a) Donald Trump

   b) Adolf Hitler

   c) All of the above.

The correct answer is C, all  of the above.

 

3. Who said, "Migrants are poisoning the blood of our country?"

    a) Donald Trump

    b)  Adolf Hitler

    c) All  of the above.

The correct answer is C, all of the above. Well, actually, Hitler said "Jews and migrants are poisoning Ayran blood," but that seems to be a difference without distinction between the two.

4. Who said, "One people, one family, one glorious nation?"

   a) Donald Trump

   b) Adolf Hitler

   c) All of the above.

The correct answer is C, all of the above. And again, there is a slight difference without distinction when Hitler said, "One people, one realm, one leader."

Shockingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, Donald Trump uttered the first two of those nearly identical-to-Hitler verbatim comments during a Veteran's Day speech on Nov. 11 at a rally in Claremont, N.H. The other two came from Trump at various speeches across the country over the past few years. These are astonishing words coming from the Republican presidential candidate who is seeking a second term in office.

In my mind, they represent some of the most unAmerican rhetoric I've ever heard from an American politician.

I know, I know. How can I legitimately compare Trump to Hitler? After all, Trump has not practiced genocide like the Nazi leader, who exterminated six million Jews and another five million "undesirables" during his fascistic reign of terror in the 1930s and 1940s.

But, right now, the danger remains in the rhetoric. Hitler's ideology, memorialized in his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle), unveiled his blueprints for world domination. And we saw the results: concentration camps, book bannings, deportations, secret police.

When people tell you who they are, believe them.

Trump is already paving the road for his retribution ideology should he win a second term next November. He's already made clear he is prepared to round up undocumented persons and detain them in holding camps across the country. He's already attempting to break down our institutions, especially the rule of law that defines our democracy. Yet for now, it all remains mostly rhetoric.

Who's to say that if camps like this ever became an American reality, when do political opponents become incarcerated along with the immigrants? When do executions begin under the premise of journalists committing treason?

Learn from history, people. It's happening before your very eyes. The danger is there, camouflaged as political rhetoric.

But the rhetoric can easily become the reality for a duped and desensitized electorate.

Just like Hitler.

(For a deeper view of the Trump-Hitler similarities, see here.)