Have we become worse than 1932 Germany?

[BadDog40]

Regardless if one believes Trump is Hitler 2.0 or not, he resonates the same hateful energy. Contrary to what some believe, Hitler did not win his election and and secured 36% of the German vote, whereas Trump most likely will receive at least 40% of the American vote.

It's sad as hell Trump is even close to where he is.

[RKP5637]

1. It's a sad commentary on what type of people about 1/2 of the US consists of. I find it

truly frightening for the future of the US. It will persist. Their goal is to bring down the US, the republicans have been at it for years. They want a dictatorship.

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. We have a 2 party system...40% is his floor

It's shocking that he's polling beneath 40% in some national polls. That's actually a catastrophic performance for a major party candidate.

The NSDAP got 36% in a competitive multi-party environment where they were in fact a radical party. It would be more akin to Johnson or Stein polling in the mid-20's

[unblock]

3. let this be a lesson that it *can* happen here. also remember, hitler failed his first time out.

not saying that trump himself will get another chance, but the forces behind trump will not go quietly. they were pissed at having to put up with a black president for 8 years, and a woman president for (at least) 4 more will do nothing but make them even angrier.

we are far from finished fighting fascism.

[TrekLuver]

4. No we have not become worse than Germany..nor would the American people allow that to happen.

[TheDebbieDee]

5. Half of the US is totally oblivious to history...

And that is why we may be repeating it...

History textbooks have been so white-washed that young people have little knowledge of the details. I'm sure they read that the Trail of Tears was a forced migration
Or they've read that slaves in the US was were merely unpaid laborers.

Little info is given about how these people were actually treated...

[LanternWaste]

6. I don't see anything close to the Enabling Act being considered as a constitutional amendment

I don't see anything close to the Enabling Act being considered as a constitutional amendment, let alone voted on. Nor are we close to Article 48 giving the president the power to take any measure necessary to protect public safety without the consent of the congress.

We the people are far too invested in netflix, console games and porn to affect any great social changes which would limit our access to them.

[thucythucy]

7. For those of you saying "it can't happen here," consider this:

Hitler came to power in Germany after Germany had:

lost a world war; during which it had suffered millions of deaths, including many thousands of children who died during the Allies' "Starvation Blockade" which was continued even AFTER the Armistice so as to get better terms at Versailles;

had suffered hyper-inflation that wiped out most peoples' savings and pensions;

was suffering an economic depression that was substantially worse than that experienced in the US, including more than a third unemployed;

had a media that had, for more than a decade, drummed the idea that Germany had been "stabbed in the back" by liberals, leftists, elites.

Now remember how freaked out this country was after 9-11? Remember the Patriot Act, Freedom Fries, WMDs in Iraq?

Imagine what the US would have been like after a hundred or a thousand 9-11s. That was Germany in 1932.

By comparison, the USA today--as President Obama keeps trying to tell us--is in pretty good shape. No major existential threat to our way of life (well, climate change, but that's not why people are voting for Trump). And somehow, millions of Americans have been brought to believe that only Trump can save the nation.

So can you honestly believe--given the evidence of the past eighteen months--that a turn to out and out fascism wouldn't, couldn't happen, especially if the US was to suffer the sort of massive shocks Germany suffered 1914 to 1933?

I'm so grateful not to have lived through those times. And also, grateful that at certain crucial points in American history--the civil war, the Great Depression, World War II, the Banking Meltdown--the US had leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and Barack Obama. Thus far we've been lucky.

Let's hope our luck continues to hold.

As to whether as a society we're actually worse than Germany 1932--check with me after next Tuesday.

[Rocknrule]

8. Trumpanzees after 2 years of him as president:

"Oh come on, he's only nuked a couple countries and killed a few hundred thousand people, we can't compare him to Hitler yet. And besides, we all saw the tweets, they had it coming."