Donald Trump has been president for 142 days since his inauguration on January 20th, 2017. Look how many opportunities the country had to stop this unfit brigand from taking office! He could have been stopped in the Republican primaries. They had the “goods” on Trump. They were well aware of his adultery, his involvements with nefarious bankers, crime syndicates, gambling interests, his bankruptcies, his vulgarities, and his contradictory statements. They could have used volumes of testimony and evidence regarding his scandals. But, they were cowed by his threat to run a third party race against their eventual nominee, assuring the election of Hillary Clinton. But, what of the Democrats? They had the same information on Trump! Did they secretly want to run against this unfit, unqualified and unhinged bounder? Yes, assuredly so! I warned people that letting this criminal anywhere near the nomination was a risk. But, the Democrats were afraid that if they went after Trump with leaks during the primary campaign, someone like Governor Kasich could win the nomination, and he could be much more difficult to defeat. They felt assured that he would be the easiest to expose, ridicule and defeat. In fact, in each of the debates, he reflected his ineptitude, his lack of knowledge, discipline and incompetence. He even could have been stopped in the Electoral College. But, as he famously stated, in probably the only true statement he has uttered in eighteen months, when he stated on January 24, 2016, “I could shoot someone and not lose any voters.”
In the same way, Hitler could have been killed at the Munich Beer Putsch in 1923, assassinated while he was in prison writing Mein Kampf, defeated in 1932 election, by a coalition of the leftist forces in Germany, or even stopped by the French numerous times up and through the Nazi invasion of Poland. How the world would be different.
But, look at what we are facing today, 142 days into the Trump Administration! Lies, more lies and more broken, empty promises. What is the historical parallel with Hitler and 150 days into his regime!
In William Shirer’s massive study of Nazi Germany, “The Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich,” on page 205, he writes, almost 150 days after Hitler assumed power on January 30, 1933, “ For (Hitler) him the Nazi socialist slogans had been merely propaganda, means of winning over the masses on his way to power. Now that he had the power he was uninterested in them. He needed time to consolidate his position and that of the country. For the moment at least the Right – business, the Army, the President (Hindenburg)-must be appeased.”
In the same vein, it seems with Trump’s healthcare initiative which will deprive 24 millions of health care coverage, his cuts in the social safety net, his deregulation efforts through executive orders, his opposition to banking and consumer regulations in the Dodd-Frank laws, his attacks on Planned Parenthood and women’s healthcare and his sponsoring of tax cuts for the rich, including his opposition to the Federal Inheritance law, are eerily similar to Nazi aims, policies and actions.
Of course, with the extreme elements on the left and the more idealist of the Nazis in Germany, embodied by Ernst Roehm, there was a call for a 2nd Revolution. For whatever he was worth, he embodied the millions of poor and disillusioned Germans who wanted reform and relief from the ravages of the past! Maybe, in the same sense, as it happened in Russia with the overthrown of Alexander Kerensky by Lenin and the Soviets, Shirer continues is narrative! Hitler made it plain in a speech to the S.A and the S.S. leaders, on July 1, 1933 approximately 150 days into his regime; the following; ‘What was needed now in Germany,’ he said, “was order.” He continued, “I will suppress every effort to disturb the existing order as ruthlessly as I will deal with the so-called second revolution, which would lead only to chaos!”
The parallels from 1933 to today are eerily and frightfully similar. He went on to offer olive branches to assure the leaders of business and the military that he was in their corner. Don’t we see that with Trump today? Eventually, almost one year to the day, on June 30, 1934, Hitler ordered and participated in the murder of his rival Ernst Roehm, as he then went on to dismantle the power of the S.A. From then on he controlled the Reichstag (their rump, Nazi-dominated Congress), the military, the secret police, the Courts, as he dismantled the press, the unions and the power of the Church. Can we afford to wait another year with Trump? I say no!