Dear Deluded Entertainment Seekers,
Last week, your outspoken hero came to the DCU Center and dazzled with rambling, meaningless rhetoric that was short on substance but long on chest-pounding bombast. I looked around, puzzled, and saw happy faces flushed with excitement and fervor. Trump made you laugh and, more baffling, made you proud to be an American. "USA!" you chanted, again and again.
It's time to stop the show, guys. Time to wake up and see what's happening.
I'm going to share a secret. For some time now, in private conversations, I've argued that the inexplicable rise of Trump parallels Hitler's ascent in Nazi Germany. Like Hitler, Trump is adept at whipping audiences into a nationalistic frenzy, much of it angry and defensive. Like Hitler, Trump espouses the idea that a country can be made great by demonizing people of a certain ethnicity who pose an alleged threat to safety and livelihood. Like Hitler, he sows divisiveness and fear.
I've never made these thoughts public before, because comparing a leader to Adolf Hitler is extreme and offensive. I've called out others in the past who invoked the Hitler comparison; the tactic is typically a cheap one.
But the similarities are now too blatant to ignore. Last Thursday, the Republican presidential candidate said he'd support a database that keeps track of Muslims in the United States. These are Muslims who haven't broken any laws, Muslims who are U.S. citizens. He drew back from the comments on Friday, saying the suggestion came from a reporter, but he didn't issue a complete retraction. Regardless, I don't believe his backpedaling is anything more than damage control from the backlash.
"There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases," he told NBC News on Thursday. "I would certainly implement that, absolutely."
NBC's Vaughn Hillyard asked how that plan would be different from when Nazis tracked Jewish people.
"You tell me," Trump said.
Er, what? This is a new low, even for your candidate. Last week, at a press conference, I asked Trump if he believed his rhetoric was stoking Americans' fears of immigrants. Not surprisingly, he said no. Also not surprisingly, he said things that simply aren't true. Regarding Syrian refugees, he claimed, "I don't see many woman and children ... I see men who are young and strong. They look like soldiers."
Look, I know we live in dangerous times and it's important to properly screen refugees. But of the 10,000 Syrians the United States has agreed to accept, only 2 percent are single men of fighting age. Many are elderly, or women and children. Like the Jews, they're fleeing violence and oppression; they're fleeing for their lives.
Last week, I spoke to lots of you in the DCU. Many of you are fine people who are disillusioned with politicians. Almost all of you said Trump speaks his mind, he's honest, he's a breath of fresh air and damned entertaining. I get it; I get that Trump appeals to your desire for something different.
Frankly, though, some of you scared me. You're angry, undereducated and disenfranchised, and the tough-talking candidate appeals to your basest instincts. You'll support him no matter what.
My plea is to the former group, to the otherwise good people who've been sucked in to Trump's vortex of hate. Are you truly comfortable with the undercurrent of racism and xenophobia that pervades his speeches? Would you be fine with a requirement that your Muslim friends and neighbors register in a national database? How could you look them in the eye?
The Holocaust Center notes on its website that the Nazi requirement that Jews publicly identify their faith was "one of many psychological tactics aimed at isolating and dehumanizing the Jews of Europe, directly marking them as being different (i.e., inferior) to everyone else." How is targeting Muslims any different?
I've written much, probably too much, about Trump. I've poked fun at his hair and made jokes about his oversized ego. But he's not funny anymore, not even a little bit.
Whatever talent he possesses can't obliterate the fact that the man you support is a dangerous demagogue. He peddles the politics of fear and often has no idea what he's talking about. His views are reprehensible, repugnant and counter to the values that make America great.
Our nation is better than Trump, and so are you. Nip his poisonous politics in the bud, before you regret it.
Original Source: http://www.telegram.com/article/20151122/NEWS/151129788
