Voters should remember the terrible consequences of placing the wrong man in power

By Chris Honoré

When Mark Twain was asked if history repeats itself, the writer and humorist answered, “No, but it sure rhymes.”

And it’s in that context that I’ve noticed commentators have wondered if Germany in the 1930s is an analog to America in 2024. And whether that period in history offers us a cautionary tale regarding what awaits our democracy should we passively choose Donald Trump for president in November.

Though it is true that no two eras are alike, we know, in retrospect, that in 1933 Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany by the aging President Paul von Hindenburg. And so began Hitler’s fascistic, nationalistic reign.

Hitler set about delegitimizing those core democratic institutions, such as the courts and the electoral process, that did not serve his political goals. He began what was referred to as a “cleansing” of the national community, intended to eliminate supposed threats to the health and unity of the nation. He targeted political opponents, the criminally inclined and those considered “asocial.”

The press was soon called the “lugenpresse,” meaning the “press of lies.” Germans thought to be racially alien and considered a threat to the purity and security of the community were identified, harassed or placed in camps.

In 1935, Hitler instituted the “Nuremberg Laws” which redefined German citizenship as excluding non-Aryans and deprived them of their property, livelihoods, education and access to public facilities. In other words, he scapegoated minorities such as the Jews (placed in death camps as part of the Nazis’ “final solution”), Romani and Communists, while perpetuating the conspiracy theory that Germany did not lose World War I but that, instead, its soldiers had been betrayed by Jews, Communists and traitors.

From podiums and at rallies, Hitler preached his version of white Christian nationalism to the people of Germany using a vitriolic, dissembling rhetoric. He claimed he and the Nazi party would rescue the fatherland, which was then suffering from 30% unemployment and was a country demoralized and fractured at the end of World War I.

To bear witness in documentary film footage to the German people’s fulsome embrace of Hitler, with raised, extended arms and chanting “Sieg Heil,” as he sent his massive armed forces into neighboring countries and over the skies of England is chilling to watch.

The above is, of course, only a cursory history of the coming to power of Hitler, culled from news articles and Wikipedia. To be sure, Donald Trump, now running for a second term as president, is no Hitler. But his outspoken, authoritarian leanings are made manifest at every MAGA rally or sit-down interview. And he has found his scapegoat, his “other”: the desperate immigrants gathered at our southern border, many with children in arms. He describes them as “animals” and “not human,” people who will poison the blood of our nation. And he has said that if elected he will set in motion a massive roundup of the undocumented, putting many in camps, followed by deportations.

He has promised (as have his enablers) to punish his political opponents. The “fake news” media will be censored. He will eliminate or transform” those institutions referred to as “the deep state.” He will pardon the “J6ers,” absolving them of any and all crimes. The Constitution will be mere parchment, and we will no longer be a nation where no man or woman is above the law. He will act with impunity, as would any monarch.

And as we watch Trump hawking his version of the King James Bible, to which he has added our Constitution, he will say with gravitas that it is time to “Make America Pray Again.”

Irony aside, is he not simply appealing to those white Christian nationalists who comprise part of his base? Know that the white Christian nationalists do not believe in the separation of church and state, nor do they believe in equality for people of color, religious minorities, the nonreligious or women. Are they not the congregation of Trump?

And he continues to justify his attempt to overturn the 2020 election (a coup) with the Big Lie Is it not evident still that he continues to travel in the vapidity of conspiracy and craziness? 

Perhaps the above sounds like hyperbole. But ultimately the coming election is not about choosing between the proposed policies of either the Republicans or the Democrats. The reality is that in this moment we have only one political party and one candidate that believe in our form of democratic governance. We stand on a precipice. May we choose wisely. Germany didn’t.

Email Ashland resident Chris Honoré at honore307@gmail.com.