It seems wise to warn for dictatorship in the US under President Trump and try to learn from situations that led to real dictatorship. But thinking Donald Trump is similar to Adolf Hitler, as is said, seems misleading and can ignite the wrong sort of counteractions.
EARLY STAGES
During the building up of dictatorship in Germany’s 1930s, Adolf Hitler was clearly the man in charge, strongly focusing on the realization of the dreams he, in all honestly, had written in his book Mein Kampf. He took full advantage of what lacked in Germany in the 1930s, a united, well-organized counter force. Hitler and his henchmen were like foxes in the chicken coop.
But had he personally been tackled in an early stage, it would have saved the world from large-scale suffering and mass murder. But as far as I know, Hitler was not even refused access to other country.
Donald Trump is declared a persona non grata by a growing number of countries. However, much as he meets with international resistance, within the US developments move in a different direction.
First of all, we may see Donald Trump as a puppet in the hands of the Republican Party. They leave him in power as long as he gathers majority votes. So, it is wiser to not focus on Trump but on the Republican Party instead. In the words of Noam Chomsky, this party the most dangerous organization in the world.
And unlike the Nazi Party in Germany coming up with Hitler, the Republican Party is not coming up along with Trump. It has, independently of Trump, a long-standing knowhow of misleading the population, keeping power and gaining more power. They cannot be tackled easily, and not at an early stage. What’s more, the US does not, as far as I can see, have a strong counter-force. There, perhaps, lies the biggest danger.
IDEOLOGY
More or less similar to Hitler and his Nazi-party, Trump and the Republican Party have developed a consistent ideology that a considerable section of Americans make say: “Yes, that’s the way we have to go.”
If that momentum expands, and opponents are effectively silenced, they will be able to alter the constitution and make any of the Republicans permanent president. Bernie Sanders is killed, Nancy Pelosi tortured into silence, and the Democratic Party dismantled.
They then silence the trade unions, schools, universities, and consumer, art and environmental organizations, or force them to embrace the Republican ideology. A secret state police will expose individual opponents and eliminate them. If they are left alive but do not comply enough, they are sent to ‘reeducation camps’. There they are so much starved, exhausted, and tortured that once they return in society, it makes others dead scared and silently comply.
TRAP AVOIDANCE
Instead of continued paying the attention to showman Donald Trump and his masterly cultivated PR traps, there should be a growing number of people using their time and energy to combat the Republicans. More and more people should raise their voice, as a start, and loudly call for a strong, united, well-organized, nation-wide counter-alliance. Only aiming at a reorganization of Democratic Party is underestimating the dangers that are looming. A viable opposition needs to unite women and men, of all classes and creeds, interest groups, private companies, non-governmental organizations, hospitals, schools and universities. By pursuing non-violent changes, such an alliance can also prevent surging riots or even a completely violent evolution.