Shortly after Trump won the 2016 presidential election, there was discussion among some that we should expect some major event that he could capitalize from. Memories of how the Bush administration quickly capitalized from the September 11th attacks were still quite fresh. And so, we were told to expect another major crisis, only this one would be outright crafted by Trump and his team, a sort of modern day Reichstag fire, from which he could seize more power.
Now, of course, suggesting such a thing is almost tantamount to making direct comparisons between Trump and Hitler. I have said in the past, and still stand by the notion that such comparisons are absurd and unwarranted. Trump is a bad person, don't get me wrong. But he did not kill literally millions of people. He did not invade literally numerous independent nation, or write a book in which he stated his desire to take over whole countries. He may seem to be racist, but he is not calling for the liquidation of a whole race of people.
In short, he is not Hitler, and thus, comparisons are ridiculous.
That said, again, Trump is bad. He has proven himself to be a ridiculous excuse for a so-called leader, seeming to focus on his petty little disputes in immature and ranting tweets to settle personal scores. He has seemingly turned every situation into a crisis, and the world has expressed outraged with numerous of his decisions and actions, from refusing to condemn Nazis by name last summer, to comments like his "shithole nations" slur against mostly poor nations in Africa and Latin America, to withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accord, to withdrawing the United States from the Iran Nuclear deal. He made home ownership more difficult for the middle class (his first action once in office), and he constructed the big tax scam that benefits the corporations and the wealthiest Americans (of course) at the expense of the rest of us.
At every turn, he has made wrong decisions, in other words.
But at the very least, there is serious and strong opposition. In fact, one of the few silver linings in the dark cloud that is the Trump presidency is that his election victory seems to have finally woken up millions of Americans who had not been paying attention to just how bad things have gotten here, and just how skewed the perspective of tens of millions of fellow Americans have gotten. When a transparently corrupt, stupid, ridiculous excuse for a man, who himself admits to being "greedy, greedy, greedy," is seen as not only a viable option as a presidential candidate, but outright wins, with some even suggesting that he was sent by God (truly, some have suggested that Trump was indeed sent by God to save this country), then it is difficult to argue with the idea that we in the United States have completely lost our way. We used to elect leaders that inspired the world. From Washington to Jefferson to Adams to Lincoln to the Roosevelts to Eisenhower to Kennedy, the world seemed outright envious of the leadership from the White House for much of history. Now, it seems like a big joke, with transparenly selfish and corrupt idiots like the Clintons, the Bushes, and now the Trumps, getting their turn at the top, and clearly working hard to get a big piece of the cake, and eating it, too. And to think that some people are so brainwashed that they feel we should be thankful to Trump for saving America? What a joke!
Now, of course, suggesting such a thing is almost tantamount to making direct comparisons between Trump and Hitler. I have said in the past, and still stand by the notion that such comparisons are absurd and unwarranted. Trump is a bad person, don't get me wrong. But he did not kill literally millions of people. He did not invade literally numerous independent nation, or write a book in which he stated his desire to take over whole countries. He may seem to be racist, but he is not calling for the liquidation of a whole race of people.
In short, he is not Hitler, and thus, comparisons are ridiculous.
That said, again, Trump is bad. He has proven himself to be a ridiculous excuse for a so-called leader, seeming to focus on his petty little disputes in immature and ranting tweets to settle personal scores. He has seemingly turned every situation into a crisis, and the world has expressed outraged with numerous of his decisions and actions, from refusing to condemn Nazis by name last summer, to comments like his "shithole nations" slur against mostly poor nations in Africa and Latin America, to withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accord, to withdrawing the United States from the Iran Nuclear deal. He made home ownership more difficult for the middle class (his first action once in office), and he constructed the big tax scam that benefits the corporations and the wealthiest Americans (of course) at the expense of the rest of us.
At every turn, he has made wrong decisions, in other words.
But at the very least, there is serious and strong opposition. In fact, one of the few silver linings in the dark cloud that is the Trump presidency is that his election victory seems to have finally woken up millions of Americans who had not been paying attention to just how bad things have gotten here, and just how skewed the perspective of tens of millions of fellow Americans have gotten. When a transparently corrupt, stupid, ridiculous excuse for a man, who himself admits to being "greedy, greedy, greedy," is seen as not only a viable option as a presidential candidate, but outright wins, with some even suggesting that he was sent by God (truly, some have suggested that Trump was indeed sent by God to save this country), then it is difficult to argue with the idea that we in the United States have completely lost our way. We used to elect leaders that inspired the world. From Washington to Jefferson to Adams to Lincoln to the Roosevelts to Eisenhower to Kennedy, the world seemed outright envious of the leadership from the White House for much of history. Now, it seems like a big joke, with transparenly selfish and corrupt idiots like the Clintons, the Bushes, and now the Trumps, getting their turn at the top, and clearly working hard to get a big piece of the cake, and eating it, too. And to think that some people are so brainwashed that they feel we should be thankful to Trump for saving America? What a joke!
Again, though, at least there are millions of Americans - in fact, a solid majority, according to most polls - agree with the rest of the world that Trump is a transparently selfish and irresponsible man who never should have ever come close to being elected to the White House. And of course, despite his words to the contrary talking about how great he is and how he is or will soon be unifying the country, he has done absolutely nothing to try and bring the country together. How can he, when he stokes the flames of division and hatred at every turn? It seems he cannot even help himself from doing that, much like it appears that his most ardent, unquestioning supporters never, ever question a single thing that this man does. But the fact that there is so much opposition, and even a known liar like Trump cannot pretend that opposition does not exist or is irrelevant, is encouraging.
Which is why it becomes alarming when President Trump talks about how challenging it will be for the United States to unify without some kind of major event. Here is when all of that talk about Trump's version of a Reichstag fire starts to be alarming indeed. Here is some of what he said:
“I would love to be able to bring back our country into a great form of unity. Without a major event where people pull together, that’s hard to do. But I would like to do it without that major event because usually that major event is not a good thing.
“I want to see our country united. I want to bring our country back from a tremendous divisiveness, which has taken place not just over one year, over many years, including the Bush years, not just Obama.”
This is typical Trump style. He talks about something, some seemingly remote possibility, and talks about it in detail, seeming to flirt with how attractive it is, only going so far with that, so that he can plausibly deny it later. So often has he done this that he can rightfully tell his supporters that he was joking, and that everyone knows that he is joking, although that does not mean the suggestion is not there. Look at how he seemed so taken with the notion of being "president for life." He dismissed criticism for this, because he was "joking," but was he really? A notoriously power-hungry man with no scruples, who cannot stand opposition, simply "joking" about being appointed to the highest office for life?
And now, with these comments from earlier this year about the possibility of a major catastrophe being virtually the only way to unify the country, it can ring some alarm bells.
Then again, the election of Trump to the White House itself was more than enough, as far as alarm bells are concerned. Like Trump himself said, something has been wrong now for many years - even decades - and we should have heard the warnings long before this. But at the very least, let's make sure to pay the hell attention now, when it might matter the most!
Trump says it will be hard to unify country without a ‘major event’ by Yamiche Alcindor Jan 30, 2018:
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