By now, many of us have seen some news reports or at least parts of television shows where there are warnings abut Donald Trump and all that he stands for. We have heard experts on radio and television warn us about him, or comment in horror about this or that action that he has taken, or some ridiculous thing that he has said. We have seen his supporters feel ever more emboldened, to the point where they are increasingly taking matters into their own hand, such as when far-right white nationalists, actually white supremacists, feel more legitimized and emboldened than ever before, or how a 17-year-old kid decides to take his gun and go to the site of riots, or when a group of men calling themselves the Proud Boys takes their arms to try and intimidate anti-Trump protesters, or when a group of right-wing radicals not only concocts, but actually acts on some half-baked plans to kidnap the sitting governor, and then to take her away and try her, with the predetermined judgement being the death sentence, which they apparently meant to act out on.
One of the most informative, and frankly alarming, programs that I have seen on the current state of America right now is Frontline: America's Great Divide. It is a two-part series, and it is both incredibly depressing and terrifying regarding the direction that this country is headed in. Yet, despite it obviously being far from comfortable, it is something that I would recommend all Americans watching, if only to better understand exactly how the current polarization specifically came to materialize.
Yet, this is one of actually many programs that have been warning about the marked change in direction that the country has taken under Donald Trump. His political rise has been virtually impossible to ignore. If you live in this country, you would have to have been living in a cave not to notice just how different the country is now with him. It is a departure from conventional political norms right from the moment when Trump descended from the escalator at Trump Tower back in 2015 to announce that he was running for president. Very recently, Trump made yet another video, where once again he is descending – this time from the sky, where the symbolism of Heaven is pretty clear – onto the White House lawn, and then we watch the helicopter rise to the sky again, and we see him on an illuminated balcony during the dusk as he takes his mask off. That one reminded me, frankly, of the imagery of Hitler flying above Nuremberg, with the symbolism of him descending from the skies (from Heaven, if you will) to come down and save Germany singlehandedly.
A couple of years ago, Michael Moore also came out with an anti-Trump movie, which was a follow-up of sorts to Fahrenheit 911. This one was called Fahrenheit 11/9, and it also was revealing and alarming, with some clips that I was still surprised that Moore managed to get. Indeed, there have been plenty of movies and programs reviewing Trump and his presidency, and what this means for the country, and what kind of threat this might pose to it, and to our democratic traditions in particular.
So, it cannot be surprising that there is another one out that has made some big waves lately. I already have mentioned the name of the film in the title, but I had not yet seen it. Finally, I recently decided to go ahead and part with the $4.99 to watch the movie, which was highly recommended and which I had not heard anything bad about. It featured psychologists unapologetically examining Trump’s behavior, and outright making comparisons with some of the worst tyrants in modern history particularly the examples of Benito Mussolini and, of course, Adolf Hitler. Comparisons between Trump and Hitler, in particular, have always made me a bit uncomfortable, because it is such an extreme example. After all, such comparisons are often far too lightly made. Remember when everyone was comparing Saddam Hussein to Hitler, with a former president even suggesting that he was the next Hitler? Saddam might have been bad, but he never had anywhere near the kind of power or posed the kind of serious and immediate threat to the entire world that Hitler did. After all, Hitler’s Germany never was defeated in war within weeks, or had a No Fly Zone imposed on it.
Trump is not normal. There is, in fact, nothing normal about this MAGAlomaniac. Nothing normal about his frankly now legendary levels of narcissism, or his clearly anti-democratic leanings, or his transparent lust for power and his obvious willingness to push democratic traditions aside in order to entrench his own power. There is nothing normal about an elected leader of what still remains, for the time being, the world's leading superpower, ranting against detractors with mean-spirited tweets anytime someone displeases him, sometimes at three in the morning.
One aspect to Trump's rise that feels like it makes sense is that he was effectively a protest vote, in some respects, to the well-oiled machinery that was American politics prior to the 2016 election. That he was effectively a monkey wrench thrown into that machinery, and his rise to the Oval Office marked a clear departure from everything that came before. But one of the people in this movie sums up my own feelings about this. George Conway, the husband of Kelly Ann Conway, a prominent figure in the 2016 Trump campaign and the Trump administration, says in the movie:
"Donald Trump is like a practical joke that got out of hand."
That feels like the gospel truth. And it is this spirit, or perhaps illusion, of he and his campaign being some kind of harmless practical joke that makes him so dangerous, and a threat to democracy itself. Witness the recent incident where some rabid Trump supporters in Texas, donning pro-Trump flags, went out to a highway and tried to run a Biden campaign bus off the road. It seems like something Trump fans would enjoy, get a laugh out of. Almost like a practical joke. The tragedy of it is that this practical joke has become the normal, and this new normal has now become the most serious threat to American democracy and our very liberty and freedom that we as a nation have ever seen.
This movie should be seen by everyone before the election. That is why I feel it is such a shame that the film makers insisted on making sure everyone paid to see it. It is an important statement about just how "Unfit" Trump really is, and they should have somehow found a way to out profits aside in time to allow people to see it and get some exposure as to just how unfit Trump really is, because ultimately, American democracy should not be tripped up by some jokers with a warped sense of humor. The stakes are just too high.
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