US editor of Israel's Haaretz: Thanks to Trump, We Can Better Understand How Hitler Was Possible

[highplainsdem]

From Chemi Shalev, an Israeli journalist who's the US editor of Haaretz, Israel's oldest newspaperr:

http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/1.749153

Thanks to Trump, We Can Better Understand How Hitler Was Possible
Chemi Shalev Oct 28, 2016 11:15 AM


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This is not to say that comparisons between the rise of Donald Trump and the ascent of Adolf Hitler are inappropriate. On the contrary: Such analogies may be light years from perfect, but they are hardly misplaced. It just seems to me that the emergence of the specifically German word Lügenpresse provided a convenient peg for some in the media to remake a connection that they have otherwise been shying away from in recent months, either because they are wary of the expected pushback or because, as Americans, they would prefer not to believe that America in 2016 bears any resemblance whatsoever to Germany of the 1920’s or 1930’s.

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Or Richard Evans, writing in The Coming of the Third Reich: “He gained much of his oratorical success by telling his audiences what they wanted to hear. He used simple, straightforward language that ordinary people could understand, short sentences, powerful emotive slogans...There were no qualifications in what he said; everything was absolute, uncompromising, irrevocable, undeviating, unalterable, final. He seemed, as many who listened to his early speeches testified, to speak straight from the heart, and to express their deepest fears and desires. Increasingly, too, he exuded self-confidence, aggression, belief in the ultimate triumph of his party, even a sense of destiny.”

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In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt writes that initial successes of the Nazis and other totalitarian movements in the 1920’s and 1930’s stemmed from their reliance on hitherto politically uninvolved masses desperate for economic and social relief. Their success proved “that democratic government had rested as much on the silent approbation and tolerance of the indifferent and inarticulate sections of the people as on the articulate and visible institutions and organizations of the country.” Having been detached from political discourse and ignorant of recent history, Arendt writes, these masses were willing to accept bold lies and bald assertions as fact and to adopt the fantastical depictions of reality made by their leaders. And this was before the age of the Internet and social media, when the so-called Lügenpresse could still dictate the public’s agenda.

For me, at least, the rise of Donald Trump has been an eye-opener. Watching so many Americans fall under his spell has provided a prism to the hypnotic influence that Hitler had on Germans close to a century ago. How justified grievances and genuine economic plight, the disintegration of classes in society and the formation of others in their stead could combine with resentment, racism and downright ignorance to bring a patently unqualified and dangerous person so close to a position of so much power. How masses of Germans were willing to accept and support the litany of lies, the fountains of fabrications and dangerous delusions offered by Hitler. How hatred toward foreigners and those perceived as foreigners can burst out from the underground and then be drummed up to fever pitch. How the established leadership of a country, like that of a political party, can find itself weak and paralyzed even when faced with such an existential danger. How a politician more disciplined, more focused, more knowledgeable and more persuasive than Trump – but with the same dangerous ideas – might have easily made up the 5-10 percent of popular support that Trump seems to be missing.

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