For decades, the Germans have been damned for allowing Hitler to come to power and to carry out the plan that he had, years before, outlined in Mein Kampf. It has been said, over and over, that the Germans were 1/3 pro-Hitler, 1/3 anti-Hitler and 1/3 indifferent. And here we are…….

I don’t say this as hyperbole. I think we are Germany of the early 1930s, with two important exceptions.

The exceptions, of course, are the lack of government sponsored antisemitism as a way to bring the rest of society together, and the absence of a private, uniformed army operating separately from the government, but able to cause mayhem without push back.

But, while Hitler brought Germans together by focusing on the Jews who were destroying German society, Trump is focusing on immigrants, who he claims are destroying American society. And while Hitler had his SS corps terrorizing Jews on the street, Trump has not authorized his Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to hunt down undocumented immigrants, and has left that job to governmental forces.

But this is all a matter of degree, not of methodology.

Prior to coming to power, Hitler had convinced the German public that the Weimar democracy was not something that favored them. It favored the elites, the city folk, the wealthy, the Jews, and everything about it conspired to keep real Germans in their place. How different is this from the MAGA position that the real Americans have been overlooked by a bi-coastal elite out only for themselves?

In other words, if you take Hitler’s antisemitism out of the picture, how different is the MAGA movement from the Nazi movement? They both want expansion, they both want to (but don’t) service the “common man”, they both strive to capture all branches of government, they both ignore the restraints of law.

We probably are not a third in favor, a third against and a third indifferent. We are probably closer to 40-40-20. We need to convince the 20.

Hitler, like Trump, engineered a successful disinformation campaign, convincing many that, no matter what you think of their own movements, the opposition is worse. And in Germany, and so far here, no sufficiently charasmatic opposition leader has emerged. If one does, will he or she be allowed to flourish, or will we have a Navalny situation on our hands? Your guess is as good as mine.

One of the characteristics of Fascist leaders is that they don’t like to lose.  We know that. And because an organized opposition has not yet fully formed, we haven’t seen yet the typical Fascist response. Doubling down, repression, attack. But there is no reason not to think it will be coming.

Have you noticed that I keep rambling on about the same things? I am sorry about that, but these are really important things. So while one part of me says “Erase this post and start again on a more entertaining subject”, another part of me won’t let me do that.