What a D!ck

 

From the man who built his life sucking on the teat of government, who wants to cut social security but spent his formative years collecting survivor benefits, wants to continue his assault on people who work for a living.  Speaker of the House and Alfred E. Neuman look-alike Paul Ryan has voiced his opposition to the Obama Administration's expansion of overtime raising the cap from $23,660 to $47,476 for those who work more than 40 hours a week.

On Occasion, the Hitler Comparisons are Valid

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.)."

David Brooks' Fantasyland

David Brooks via Wikimedia Commons

New York Times columnist David Brooks lives in a fantasyland.  Brooks, like most, is a product of his environment.  He's hobnobbed with the conservative elite of New York and Washington DC like the late William F. Buckley for years.  I would suggest that the circles Mr. Brooks inhabits has perhaps left him out of touch with the day-to-day reality most people face.  This has been clear for a while and is particularly evident this Friday as he writes in puzzlement on the millennial embrace of Bernie Sanders.  From his NYT column:

...Sanders would weaken the ability of members of the middle class to make choices about their own lives. He would raise taxes on the rich, but there is only so much money you can squeeze out of such a small group of people...

I'm not sure if Brooks realizes this, but the middle class has all but vanished thanks to many of the policies embraced by Brooks and those of similar ilk.  You know what hampers choice?  Relying on your employer to provide benefits that are universally guaranteed in other developed nations.  While it is true there is only so much money to be squeezed from the wealthiest among us, they are the ones who can afford to chip in a bit more for the system that has helped them amass such a level of wealth.