Have Americans learned the lessons of history?

To The Eagle:

Adolf Hitler and the Nazis used incendiary rhetoric, lies and violence to gain power in Germany. Hitler’s primary target for rhetorical persecution was the Jews, but the list of the condemned eventually grew to include gypsies, gays, non-aryan, political critics and others, the physically disabled, and the mentally ill. Hitler called the condemned anti-German, parasites, and vermin. After gaining power through a fair election, the Nazis burned the German parliament, blamed it on the communists, and used the event as an excuse to suspend the government.

Civil servants and others were then required to pledge loyalty to the Fuhrer. Jews, gypsies, gays and others were prohibited from owning property, holding professional positions, working in the government and were required to wear identifying arm bands. The Nazis also banned books that they deemed subversive. And pictures of Adolf Hitler were required to be posted in schools and places of worship. And then there was the death camps and the crematoriums.

Donald Trump has called brown skinned people rapists, drug dealers and murders, accusing them of poisoning the blood of Americans. He has suggested that Muslims were closet terrorists, and African Americans protesting police brutality he called Antifa. Democrats and liberals, he labeled radical communists, baby killers and vermin. Borrowing a phrase used by Lenin and Stalin, Trump called the press ‘the enemy of the people,” and his rhetoric signaled approval to his supporters that it was acceptable to threaten and assault journalists, election workers, law enforcement and judges, etc. Trump’s stolen election lie was the rallying cry that inspired the January 6, 2021, insurrection; and he has openly threatened retribution against judges, prosecutors.

Finally, Trump has told us that if elected president, he will suspend the Constitution and invoke the insurrection act, allowing him to use the military as an internal police force. He said he would purge the justice department, the judiciary and initiate a nationwide round up of all undocumented aliens. And he said civil servants and the military will be required to pledge loyalty to him.

Anyone see a parallel?

Frederick Lehr

Grays River