These are troubled times. Given that face, it can be easy to overreact, to panic, to get all depressed. Admittedly, I have felt bi down, in terms of my outlook on the world and especially the United States, since early November.
However, we should also check ourselves from time to time.
Early on, after Trump won the White House the first time around, I briefly began to get caught up with the wave of people who were referring to Trump as Hitler. But those comparisons never felt comfortable to me. They just did not feel right, you know? I mean, Trump is a horrible person, and he can cause a lot of damage. But on the level of Hitler? When I remembered my visit to Auschwitz a few years earlier, and recognized the level of destruction of lives which Hitler was largely responsible for, I simply stopped making such silly comparisons.
This is not something which I say lightly. Again, Trump is a terrible person, and an even worse excuse for a leader.
But he is not Hitler, and the United States in 2025 is not Germany in 1933.
Once again, there are a lot of comparisons between Trump and Hitler, or with the United States today and Nazi Germany. But we have to guard against political manipulation, which is what I feel that is.
Yes, things are bad. And yes, I agree that the United States seems to be actively flirting with fascism now. I may not have been thrilled with some of the policies and presidents of the past, but there was nothing to even remotely compare to what we are seeing now. Indeed, it really does feel like Trump is on the cusp of becoming a dictator.
However, he is not there yet. As we are seeing, Trump is reacting strongly to judges who keep blocking his actions. He believes that as president, his power is or should be unlimited, and beyond getting checked by judges or courts. So he rants and he raves. And like with everything else, he says things which sound and, frankly, are outrageous.
Yet, it is important not to always allow ourselves to be triggered by everything that he said. After all, there would pretty much be no end to it, if we allow ourselves to go down that maddening path.
Given that, we then need to gain a little perspective here. While the changes we are witnessing are uncomfortable, even scary, But we are not a dictatorship.
At least not yet, although we may be on that path. It sure feels like we are heading in that direction.
This video below by Mallen Baker should serve as a wakeup call. Indeed, I agree with Baker that Trump is not Hitler, and that the United States is not (yet) a fully fascist country. Obviously, we can still dissent, and people like me can still publish things like this criticizing the government, particularly in this case the president. After all, I currently live in the United States but am not afraid that someone will come knocking on my door and take me away to a camp or to get shot. That's not some minor point, or a technicality. If I were living in, say, North Korea, or perhaps some other countries, and was unhappy with what the government or leaders are doing, I clearly would not have the same kind of freedom to express myself and dissent. That might change, but we still have that freedom in the United States, at least for now.
However, he also makes clear that we are clearly heading in that direction. If we should continue to go in that direction, then indeed, we might reach a point where it's no longer uncertain or debatable about whether or not we are still a democracy. If we do collectively choose to keep going this way, then perhaps we really will become an outright fascist country.
Baker makes a very valid point, however. The Trump regime really does not feel competent enough to fully implement what may indeed be their fascist designs. Just look at the recent leak by Secretary of Defense Hegseth, or how the "Department of Government Efficiency" kept firing people it scrambled to rehire almost immediately. For now, it still feels almost as chaotic as Trump's first term. Trump himself feels more like a buffoon who has no real political ideology. So long as you lick his boots, you are okay in his book, regardless of party leanings or even race, it seems. I always felt that Trump was, in fact, largely apolitical, and that what passes for his political approach is more of an extension of his malignant narcissism rather than a definitive political approach he adamantly intends to impose. In other words, he is a far cry from a Hitler who stated blatantly before obtaining power of his intention to get rid of Jews and to expand Germany's borders at the expense of other countries, particularly to the East.
Really, though, that is what I found most chilling about this video. Because the political realities in the United States presently are the worst and darkest that I have seen them. What Baker is reminding us is that as bad as this seems, it can get much, much darker still. And that indeed is a very scary thought. I remember how back in the early 2000's, I thought that George W. Bush was a terrible president, and hoped that the United States might have bottomed out with him, although I feared we had not. Then along came Trump, and I almost miss the days of W by way of comparison. The truth is that there may yet be something far worse waiting in the wings which will make Trump look like lightweight fascism by way of comparison. That is a terrible thought indeed, but we had better have the courage and conviction to face it, lest it become a reality.
Take a look at this video and see if he does not make some really solid points.
What would fascism in America REALLY look like?
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