I rarely refer to people I disagree with as Nazis or compare them to Adolf Hitler. Usually, those comparisons are hyperbolic and not all that analogous. Today an exception will be made: There are legitimate parallels to be drawn between Donald Trump and Hitler.
Trump has repeatedly cultivated the support of white supremacists. He re-tweets them with alarming frequency, including glaringly inaccurate crime statistics that cater to the worst prejudices of white people with a sense of victimization.
Much like Hitler, who played to nationalist sympathies promising to restore Germany to former glory, Trump is promising to "make America great again".
Trump is undoubtedly an authoritarian. He has openly advocated the commission of war crimes in debates, advocating for torture and the killing of terrorists' families. He has cheered on violence at his rallies and casually suggested that he wished he could "rough up" journalists. He has even quoted Mussolini.
For Hitler, the demonized outsiders were Jews, democratic socialists, homosexuals, communists, and the mentally retarded amongst others. For Trump, the "others" are Muslims and immigrants saying:
"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," he said. "They're sending people that have lots of problems...they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
Trump is often laughed at and not taken particularly seriously (including by myself). Here's the thing: Hitler wasn't taken very seriously either. From my Western Civilization textbook, "...To most, Hitler was simply a right-wing rabble-rouser whose views were not worth taking seriously (p924 Nobel et. al.)."
The New York Times didn't take him too seriously either, underplaying Hitler's anti-Semitism:
...But several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed that Hitler's anti-Semitism was not so genuine or as violent as it sounded, and that he was merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch masses of followers and keep them aroused, enthusiastic and in line for the time when his organization is perfected and sufficiently powerful enough to be employed effectively for political purposes.
It's not just Trump himself that is analogous to Hitler, but economic and political conditions have made our society vulnerable to extremism in much of the same way the inter-war Europe was. In the late 1920s through the 1930s, the Great Depression led to massive wealth inequality and unemployment. Although less extreme, the Great Recession spurred by the financial collapse has hurt many and the subsequent recovery has benefited those at the top of the income spectrum the most. This latest crisis is the latest bust in a series of boom and busts since free trade, privatization, and deregulation took hold of American policy makers in the 1980s. Worse than just the cycles of boom and bust, which are to be expected in a market economy, the welfare state that helped maintain a middle class and prevent bottoming out have been whittled away and workers are left increasingly vulnerable to the consequence of globalization.
Back to the Western Civilization textbook...
The economies of Germany and the states of east central Europe remained particularly vulnerable after World War I, and in the increasingly interdependent economic world, their weaknesses magnified problems that started elsewhere( p914 Nobel et. al.).
Moreover, the policymakers at the time were clueless much as ours are...
Economic policymakers based their responses on the "classical" economic model that had developed from the ideas of Adam Smith in the eighteen century. According to this model, a benign "invisible hand" ensured that a free-market price for labor, for capital, and for goods and services would produce an ongoing tendency toward economic equilibrium. A downward turn in the business cycle was a normal and necessary adjustment; government interference would only upset this self-adjusting mechanism
(p918 Nobel et. al.).
These perpetual crisis' have social consequences. For the first time, the morality rate for white non-Hispanic adults between the age of 45 and 54 has increased, while it has fallen for all other for all other demographic groups in the years 1999-2014. The prime drivers of this trend are self-induced: Suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol-related illnesses. Additionally, the rise of drug overdoses across demographics has been well documented. Let's go back in time again...
...Especially in the unsettled conditions of Weimar Germany, the anxiety of the 1920s tended to take extreme forms, from irrational activism to a preoccupation with death. Suicides among students increased dramatically (p904 Nobel et. al.).
The demographics may be different, but many of the underlying symptoms remain the same. The real question is how do people respond to this? We know how the Germans responded...
...It became clear virtually at once that the outcome of the crisis was a dramatic change of regime, the triumph of Hitler and Nazism. But though the Nazis had always wanted to destroy the Weimar Republic, they were not directly responsible for overthrowing it. The rise of Nazism was more a symptom than a cause of the crisis of Weimar democracy.
In one sense, the Weimar Republic collapsed from within, largely because the German people disagreed fundamentally about priorities after the war-and then again with the onset of the Depression...
...but the Germans voting for the Nazis were not simply those most threatened economically. Nor did the Nazi Party appeal primarily to the uneducated or socially marginal. Rather, the party served as a focus of opposition for those growing alienated from the Weimar Republic itself...
...But though Hitler was clearly anti-Weimar, anticommunist, and anti-Versailles, his positive program remained vague, so those who voted for the Nazis were not clear what they might be getting. In light of economic depression and political impasse, however, it seemed time to try something new (p926 Nobel et. al.).
It's important to mention that there are key differences between Hitler and Trump. Hitler was shaped greatly by fighting in the World War I and going to prison after a failed coup. Trump is a coddled rich kid with an ego problem and a knack for selling snake oil. Hitler and the Nazis had a dedicated para-military group subverting democracy. Trump has idiot follows who can be violent, he has an unknown level of support from white supremacists and maybe some militia members, but there is no evidence he has any kind of organized and violent support. Hitler also had a consistent ideology, something that cannot be said of Trump.
There are important differences between the Weimar Republic and America too. After the Great Recession, our government intervened incompletely and unequally, but it did prevent a crisis on a much larger scale. After World War I, Germany lost territory, experienced hyperinflation, and famine. The Great Depression further decimated Germany after loans made by American banks were withdrawn following the stock market crash. The American economy for all its faults has fared comparatively well. The German economy of the 1920s and 1930s was amongst the worst in the world.
Things may turn out differently even if Trump were to be elected. I have no special insight into the psyche of Trump maybe he'd just be a buffoonish leader like Berlusconi or a lesser authoritarian like Putin. Conversely, just because Trump loses the election doesn't mean the problem goes away. Real reforms are needed to avoid extremism. Neoliberal economics and a government that is completely unresponsive to the needs of its people; is a status quo that cannot be maintained much longer.
Furthermore, Trump supporters are a significant portion of the Republican base. Since Nixon developed the "southern strategy", the Republican Party has relied heavily on the bigoted to continue winning national elections. It is telling that so-called "moderates" like John Kasich praised the late segregationist Strom Thurmond in a Republican debate and even though Kasich's PAC basically called Trump a Nazi, he'll still endorse him if he wins the nomination.
The United States came close to authoritarianism in the 1930s. There were plenty of people in the US who thought that Hitler was making Germany great again. Some disagree, but there are many historians who believe that Roosevelt and the New Deal saved America from the fate of the Axis powers or Stalinist Russia. I agree with them.
Nothing is inevitable, but we must remain vigilant against extremism and the underlying causes that create it. This means doing whatever legally possible, to stop this man from becoming president. If you have to hold your nose and vote for someone you wouldn't otherwise support, do it. Apathy is as dangerous as support for fascism.
Citations:
Donald Trump defends calling Mexican immigrants "rapists"
New Popular Idol Rises in Bavaria. New York Times Nov. 20th, 1922
Increases in Drug and Opioid Overdose Deaths — United States, 2000–2014
Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century
Trump Quotes Mussolini (UPDATED)
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