The Reich Stuff
There’s an unwritten rule that has been understood for so long that it’s practically a written law: Thou shalt not compare anyone to Hitler. In fact, it IS written down, kind of, in something called Godwin’s Law, which states that in any online debate, sooner or later Hitler gets mentioned, with the peculiar understanding that the first person to do so loses the argument.
I sort of understand. There really should be an important reverence for the victims of the Holocaust that ought to render any gratuitous overuse of such comparisons vulgar. But what about times when it’s not being overused, when in fact it’s relevant? After all, what’s the point of a cautionary tale, particularly one as important as the Holocaust, if nobody is allowed to caution anyone with it? At what point can we say that the subject of such a discussion has, if you’ll pardon the expression, the Reich Stuff?
Moreover, who hasn’t, at least once in their lives, declared that if they were around to do anything about it they would have stopped Hitler dead in his tracks, when it was possible to do so? I’ll bet 90 percent of MAGA, the ones who don’t openly admire Hitler anyway, have said as much at some point in their lives.
The question really, it seems to me, isn’t whether or not we should ever compare someone with Hitler. The question is, which Hitler? In speaking of Donald Trump I don’t think it’s applicable to compare him with the Hitler of 1936 when he was at the height of his powers in Germany, or 1940 when he was practically master of Europe. Certainly not 1942, when Himmler’s depraved deputy was articulating the Final Solution at Wannsee.
No, if a comparison is relevant, and I think it is, Trump is the Hitler of 1932, just before he gained enough seats in the Reichstag to almost win the presidency. He was instead made Chancellor. But that office isn’t available in the US, of course. So for Trump he will either win or he will lose on a single throw of the dice, so to speak. But he is otherwise very similar to Adolf Hitler in many ways. And those ways ought to scare the living shit out of every American, and everyone else in the world.
The fact that it scares very few is what’s flabbergasting. The mainstream media is hopeless. Half the world is asleep about Trump. Just about the whole of evangelical Christianity, the ones who for centuries have described Trump to a tee in the form and person of the Antichrist, are positively gaga over their new Orange God. What the hell is going on here?
It’s easier to name the characteristics that differentiate Trump from Hitler. Hitler was only 43 years old when he came to power in January, 1933. He was not a sexual predator. He was a combat veteran covered with distinction. He came from relative poverty.
But those distinctions are not important in delineating the deadly dangers both men represent. They both share psychopathic hatred of minorities, Jews, Hispanics, Muslims, people of colour, foreigners (except foreign dictators), gays, the disabled and anyone else not white and male. Like Hitler Trump believes he and he alone is capable of adequately leading the nation. Like Hitler Trump has built an organisation capable of untold evil, headed by perfectly awful people like Stephen Miller and Steven Cheung.
Trump has already told us what he will do if he regains power. He will declare himself dictator on day one. (He says he will only keep those powers for a day, and we all know what a paragon of moderation and self-restraint Trump is). He told us he will invoke the Insurrection Act against all protesters. He told us he will use the military to murder Americans he doesn’t like. He told us he will round up, by the millions, foreign born Americans lawfully and peacefully living in the United States and expel them or put them in concentration camps. He told us he will end freedom of the press. He told us he will root out “the enemy within” and destroy them. He told us he will make abortion illegal everywhere. He told us he will give more tax breaks to the rich. He told us he will only be president for people who voted for him, and he will deny aid to people who didn’t.
Why doesn’t anyone believe him? Now that the Supremely Stupid Court has indemnified Trump against any legal consequences for “official acts,” there is nothing to stop him from carrying out these horrifying threats. And even if he is rendered incapable of carrying them out, why in the name of hell would anyone want to make such a man president of the United States? Why would we want another Hitler?
So yes, let’s sound the alarm, from one end of the nation to the other. Adolf Hitler is back. He has returned in the person of Donald Trump. Those of us who proclaimed that, if given half a chance, we would have stopped Hitler in his tracks, have now been given that chance. Let’s do it. This time, let’s save the world. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.