Something struck me last night while watching Spanky......

[donkeypoofed]

That watching him.on t.v. last night I realized he was stoking and firing up the crowd of his knuckle-dragging base, and he was eerily similar to Hitler and his speeches, with the crowds applauding!. It struck me really hard and I was sitting down with my mouth wide open. It was very frightening to me. I hardly slept. What has happened ?

[dalton99a]

1. He is very good at hate mongering and demagoguery

[FakeNoose]

2. We've had many posts to that effect on DU

Yes you're correct, he is doing this on purpose. Maybe he's not smart enough to figure this out himself, it's possible he's being directed by someone else. But it's all carefully calculated, and the results are chilling.

[mopinko]

7. i dont think it is calculated. i think it is how a sociopath's brain works.

it is all just instinct.

[bdamomma]

9. Miller and Bannon

especially Miller he has to gooooooooooooooo

[WhiteTara]

10. His bedside book was Mein Kampf.

I think it's on purpose and he hopes that this will stop him from prison. I hope it doesn't.

But I do see some small changes here in the heartland that are encouraging.

[FakeNoose]

13. "Mein Kampf" itself is strangely filled with lunatic rants

I tried reading it (English translation) and I couldn't. Or rather, I realized that I didn't want to.

[WhiteTara]

14. Looking at the cover has been enough for me

I don't want to put any of that in my mind. I lived in Austria after the war and my mother hired women in the Displaced Persons camps so we went back and forth there a lot. One day, mother told me I couldn't go back because there had been another bombing there. I remember the stories (I spoke German very well - actually my first language, but now English is my only language) and I don't want to know more, they told me (really my mother) enough.

[tblue37]

15. Not "Mein Kampf," actually--but a collection of Hitler's speeches. nt

[WhiteTara]

16. That makes more sense. I wondered

how he could read a book that long. Of course, he ate up those speeches like 2 scoops of ice cream.

[jambo101]

3. Your country has been taken over by a

psychopath.. Not sure what to do but maybe you can vote that moron out of office before he destroys the world.

[Eyeball_Kid]

6. You're assuming that elections

still reflect the will of the people. It will truly be a miracle if Trumpy’s opposition takes ONE chamber of Congress. They’ve already gamed the system beyond repair IMO. Fascist courts, a fascist GOP, a fascist media, and a Russian fascist overlord are quickly cementing control. Any window to reverse the conversion to fascist authoritarian rule is closing fast.

The amazing thing about all of it is that it’s NOTHING NEW. It’s all been done before. Yet the ignorant, the gullible, and the terrified are falling for it again. Again, there will be suffering on a scale beyond anyone’s worst nightmares. For what?

[drray23]

4. I agree with you. I would add

That the only thing that is in our favor is that unlike Hitler, trump is dumb as a box of rocks and incompetent.
He is evil but not an evil genius. That will be his downfall.

[Thomas Hurt]

5. Ur-Fascism Characteristic #13

13. Ur-Fascism is based upon a selective populism, a qualitative populism, one might say. In a democracy, the citizens have individual rights, but the citizens in their entirety have a political impact only from a quantitative point of view—one follows the decisions of the majority. For Ur-Fascism, however, individuals as individuals have no rights, and the People is conceived as a quality, a monolithic entity expressing the Common Will. Since no large quantity of human beings can have a common will, the Leader pretends to be their interpreter. Having lost their power of delegation, citizens do not act; they are only called on to play the role of the People. Thus the People is only a theatrical fiction. To have a good instance of qualitative populism we no longer need the Piazza Venezia in Rome or the Nuremberg Stadium. There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.

Because of its qualitative populism Ur-Fascism must be against “rotten” parliamentary governments. One of the first sentences uttered by Mussolini in the Italian parliament was “I could have transformed this deaf and gloomy place into a bivouac for my maniples”—“maniples” being a subdivision of the traditional Roman legion. As a matter of fact, he immediately found better housing for his maniples, but a little later he liquidated the parliament. Wherever a politician casts doubt on the legitimacy of a parliament because it no longer represents the Voice of the People, we can smell Ur-Fascism.

Umberto Eco Ur-Fascism (1995)

[procon]

8. Same here.

I don't want to think how the Trump era will end. While I hope our Constitutional safeguards will eventually function as the Founding Fathers planned, the lack of ethics and integrity from Republicans in government leaves me terrified.

[peggysue2]

11. Better you than me watching/listening to the Trumpster, but . . .

I think we need to keep in mind that Trump's whole schtick is riling up and appealing to the worst instincts of his base support. The bigotry, the hate, the grievances, etc have found a home with a certain segment of Americans.

Our job is to recognize that, push against it and never allow the politics of cruelty to become normal. It is upsetting and disturbing to watch so many people getting off on this garbage. But that's on them.

What's on us? To be vocal, active and supportive of all candidates who oppose the Trumpster, and then GOTV to sweep the November elections, washing the whole lot out to sea, out where the riptide will contain and limit their damage.

[C_U_L8R]

12. He read Hitler's book

Dumbshit didn't get to the end. He might have learned something.

[lagomorph777]

17. I always mute the TV when he's on, but visually I was struck the same. Writhing, shouting frenzy...

...looked just like Hitler.

[FakeNoose]

19. I do the same

It brings more peace into my life!

[sarcasmo]

18. "Fascism will come, wrapped in a flag."

[FiveGoodMen]

20. And carrying a cross

[smirkymonkey]

21. K&R