Roger Cohen, NYT: DT is laying the groundwork for totalitarianism

[pnwmom]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/opinion/the-banal-belligerence-of-donald-trump.html?smid=fb-share

I have tried to tread carefully with analogies between the Fascist ideologies of 1930s Europe and Trump. American democracy is resilient. But the first days of the Trump presidency — whose roots of course lie in far more than the American military debacles since 9/11 — pushed me over the top. The president is playing with fire.

To say, as he did, that the elected representatives of American democracy are worthless and that the people are everything is to lay the foundations of totalitarianism. It is to say that democratic institutions are irrelevant and all that counts is the great leader and the masses he arouses. To speak of “American carnage” is to deploy the dangerous lexicon of blood, soil and nation. To boast of “a historic movement, the likes of the which the world has never seen before” is to demonstrate consuming megalomania. To declaim “America first” and again, “America first,” is to recall the darkest clarion calls of nationalist dictators. To exalt protectionism is to risk a return to a world of barriers and confrontation. To utter falsehood after falsehood, directly or through a spokesman, is to foster the disorientation that makes crowds susceptible to the delusions of strongmen.

Trump’s outrageous claims have a purpose: to destroy rational thought. When Primo Levi arrived at Auschwitz he reached, in his thirst, for an icicle outside his window but a guard snatched it away. “Warum?” Levi asked (why?). To which the guard responded, “Hier ist kein warum” (here there is no why).

As the great historian Fritz Stern observed, “This denial of ‘why’ was the authentic expression of all totalitarianism, revealing its deepest meaning, a negation of Western civilization.”

Americans are going to have to fight for their civilization and the right to ask why against the banal belligerence of Trump.

SNIP

[LisaL]

1. Well, da.

[uppityperson]

2. I've been worried for quite some time, but the speed he has proceeded at is frightening

[pnwmom]

3. It truly is. n/t

[Cha]

4. yeah, so Dems in Congress.. Please no "normalizing" and "praising" herr

drumpfuck. Instead fight like hell was raining down.. 'cause guess what?

Thank you, pnwmom

[moondust]

5. "To utter falsehood after falsehood,

directly or through a spokesman, is to foster the disorientation that makes crowds susceptible to the delusions of strongmen."

Such disorientation doesn't happen overnight. Twenty years of spin and falsehoods from Fox News and RW radio have made this possible.

K/R

[WiffenPoof]

13. Exactly!

This has been a long time in the making.

[Jim Beard]

6. I think most of us that post here suspected his personality of some of the

past leaders in Europe. The way he he intimidated fellow republicans and the bullying. He is extremely dangerous and that is why I don't talk to some old acquaintances why voted for him.

[colsohlibgal]

7. Agree Totally

The Orange Gropenfuhrer is already running with the playbook of Hitler and Mussolini.

It is chilling. Decent people unwittingly conned by Chitolini have to be realizing they have been conned....once again but with potentially much worse ramifications.

Resist!!!!

[killbotfactory]

8. It was made crystal clear at the RNC

I guess we get to see how strong our institutions are.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

9. Hugh Hewitt is singing Trump's praises on Charlie Rose.

I can barely watch. He seems to suggest religion as an answer. Charlie cut him off.

[workinclasszero]

10. Trump and the republicans/alt-right

have been using Hitlers playbook for years.

And now they have this country right where they want it.

[murielm99]

11. I have a friend who believes

that Trump is the AntiChrist. People believed that about Hitler, too.

[workinclasszero]

12. He is a tyrant

And he will bring suffering and misery to many millions of Americans.

I think some people are finally starting to wake up and get a idea of the dystopian hellscape/nightmare that Trump and the republican party are going to subject this country to in the next four years.