History is a cyclical thing, whether you’re speaking of stock market prices or hemlines. Things go up and down with surprising regularity. Fascism is also a form of government that shows up and threatens to topple democracy and that, too, happens with regularity. Right now we live at a time in history where we have seen a frightening populist take control of a South American country, Javier Milei, in Argentina. The self-proclaimed “anarcho-capitalist” who was elected last month, unveiled deep spending cuts and a sharp devaluation of Argentina’s currency, carrying the struggling nation of 46 million into a stretch of austerity that he said would bring even more economic pain. Milei will bring his people plenty of pain before it’s all said and done.
We would be wise to keep an eye on Milei and see what he does with the levers of power in his country. He’s flying blind and the Argentines are in for some ride. As are Americans, if Donald Trump ends up anywhere near the White House in 2024. The following two clips you’re about to read are taken from a March, 1932 article in The Atlantic and shared in Ron Filipkowski’s Twitter/X feed. They will shock you with their stark simplicity and their accuracy in describing not only Adolf Hitler but Donald Trump as well.
That is Hitler in a nutshell. That is demagoguery in a nutshell. And that, unfortunately for us, is the GOP candidate in 2024 in a nutshell.
The mechanisms of the demagogue are the same. That will never change because human nature will never change. A century from now, five centuries from now, there will be yet another Hitler or another Trump. That’s the way of the world. And these are the principles upon which their particular reign of terror will be based.
If we turn a blind eye to history we are doomed to repeat it. It can happen here, it did happen here and now the shreds of the Republican party have decided that they want to make it happen again, here, and bigly. And then stay that way. The 2024 election is not just the next election, it’s potentially a change of America’s system of government. The GOP is fine trading in democracy for fascism. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t have backed Trump in 2016 to begin with.
The Republicans have dallied around with a pretend primary, looking for a Trump alternative, and that farce will be coming to an end in the very near future, most likely the end of January. That’s when the big donors will decide that things are the way they are and take out the checkbooks and back Trump’s campaign.
And it should come as no shock when Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and the rest endorse Trump at the GOP convention. They already said that they would. Only Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson said that they would not vote for Trump or back him if he were the nominee. And here’s more food for thought.
Remember, the GOP is just fine with all of this. The GOP-led House is committed to a sham impeachment of Joe Biden for no other reason than that they need some headlines to distract away from Trump’s catastrophic ones.
We have reached a point in American history where fascism has arrived in America, not carrying a cross or wrapped in the flag, but seated already in the House and the Senate, just waiting for the right moment to throw the switch. Then, boom. Game over, and democracy’s a thing of the past.
I do not think this to be hyperbole. Quite the contrary, I think it’s obvious.
From Richard Evans trilogy of the Third Reich:
“25 percent of West Germans admitted to having a ‘good opinion’ of Hitler.”
I would be disappointed in cockroaches if 25% of cockroaches have a good opinion of Trump, least of all humans.
Twenty one reasons why, if they are successful, despite believing nonviolence is our ultimately our only way, since we are stuck on this planet, I will be looking to defend myself and my children with whatever means necessary. I WILL NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT NIGHTMARE!
‘fire all your guns at once…explode into space. we were born to be wild.’ Steppenwolf
My wife and I have become good friends with a lady that was in Germany as a young girl …
She has shown us the side of her that remembers all the horror Hitler caused, right through to the time he was killed in his Berlin bunker and the fear that she faced when the Russians and the Poles entered Berlin and she, with other young girls had to hide from those troops as they would abuse and kill them in retribution for Hitler’s war crimes …
She has said she is reliving her years in Berlin, going into mild shock at times because of Trump’s complete, uncaring for anyone but himself and his rhetoric and actions mime Hitler’s actions so closely …
She began her frustration with Trump as soon as he was elected, the pure freedom he enjoyed to do whatever he wanted, while the GOP was sitting on their hands supporting Trumpism’s of non-educated, stupid actions, that cost us many lives since he shut down the CDC’s Pandemic sections because Obama created them and had them well equipped and trained to do the lab work, which included a friendly direct link to China’s own labs …
Trump sat on his own obtuse ass until many people were sick with Covid 19, many began to die from ill-equipped hospitals, 1600 doctors and nurses gave their lives to fight the Pandemic while Trump was, “worried about his NUMBERS”, so he hesitated ordering up testing kits and NEVER ordered up the PPE’s the Hospitals begged for … He tried to make points by sending disabled ventilators from military set-aside stock to the hospitals, who made sure the public new how they had to work at fixing these ventilators so they could actually work as a tool to save lives …
That finally triggered Trump to declare a National action to produce new ventilators, he never knew the president could do that, of course he does not know anything about being a president, he stole a quarter million face masks from a shipment going to Germany, using FBI intelligence and ordering the highjack by them, then sat on those, thinking he could sell them to the States in a bid war … the Trump horrors have continued to this day, where he has declared Nazi functions from his WH if elected … What a guy, just boggles one’s mind, our friend has trouble sleeping at night, because Trump is playing games with her physical health …
Let’s hope that tRump follows Hitler’s escape plan in his bunker (Mar-A-Lardo) when he feels the walls closing in on him.
trump is to big of a coward to kill himself. Sadly it will take either him dying due to his health or some nutcase shooting him. I hope for the first and pray for the second.