We’re back to this again: Donald Trump is a dictator and we could be heading down the same path as Nazi Germany. Former President Obama made similar references at an event at the Economic Club of Chicago this week. He said democracy is like a garden, it needs attention, and that growing complacent could quickly lead to things falling apart.
“That's what happened in Germany in the 1930s, which despite the democracy of the Weimar Republic and centuries of high-level cultural and scientific achievements, Adolph Hitler rose to dominate,” said Obama during a Q&A session. “Sixty million people died. . .So, you've got to pay attention. And vote.”
We’re not Germany. We certainly don’t have institutions as shoddy at the Weimar Republic. We don’t have successful, widespread communist and fascist movements that are tearing the country apart in the same way they did to Germany and the rest of Europe; the latter of which birthed one of the most nefarious authoritarian societies in history. These groups in America also have zero electoral success. Nazis and Communists are not being elected to legislatures en masse. The Left needs to relax.
In the media, it’s no different. Trump is angling himself to be like Franco, Hitler and Mussolini. MSNBC’s Ali Velshi made note of this when interviewing historian Michael Beschloss on Thursday:
Donald Trump has threatened to ban an entire religion from entering the country. He attacks the news institutions, which is what Franco, Hitler, Mussolini, and a whole bunch of other people did. Do you feel that our checks and balances in the Constitution and our political system will protect us against these potential violations of the Constitution?
The Free Beacon had a more thorough breakdown of this interview:
Velshi began by asking Beschloss how Trump's behavior compares to other presidents and commented how he could think of examples around the world, but they "tend to be dictators."
"How does he compare to other presidents? Can you think of other presidents who attack our institutions as much as he does? And our cultural norms?," Velshi asked. "I can think of this all over the world in other places. They tend to be dictators."
"You're right. And we're not even 11 months into this presidency," Beschloss said.
Ruhle asked Beschloss if Trump was manipulating institutions to his favor.
"It's easy for us to say sitting on a perch–we get criticized for it–that Trump doesn't understand how our political or legal institutions work. Or does he? Is he sly like a fox? Is he manipulating the system of checks and balances to work in his favor?" Ruhle asked.
"Stephanie, you've absolutely got it," Beschloss said. "You know, he certainly does not understand it in the way that most presidents have. Most presidents come in after a career in the military or political life. And most of them have a pretty good sense of history and understanding of our democracy. Almost none of that is true of Donald Trump, but that's not the reason he's doing this. He's doing this because he wants power, wants to expand presidential power, He will be pushed and he will only stop when he is stopped."
Okay—you guys just lost an election; deal with it. Donald Trump isn’t taking your crap in the media; deal with it. Journalists are not being black bagged by secret police. Car bombs aren’t going off. This isn’t North Korea, or any real nation with a totalitarian government. We’re not Oceania. Everyone needs to relax. People wanted change. They wanted someone different, and a person who isn’t a politician, and Donald Trump is that person. The press is just getting some mud thrown their way. They’re not immune from criticism. The eight-year Obama lovefest is over. Also, the Supreme Court ruled that the latest travel ban could be enforced, so let’s dial it down on the potential Constitutional violations we may or may not be facing. Then again, this is what MSNBC does; keeping liberal blood pressures at healthy levels.