My liberal friends are completely outraged. Hell, so am I! If you aren't outraged you just aren't paying attention but it is kinda time to put our hair out and actually look around.
The will to power is the most powerful of human drives, at least in a societal setting. It far exceeds avarice or the drive for acceptance and recognition.
Before you brand me as an apologist let's be clear. Trump is employing so many of the tactics of Hitler it's almost laughable. I'm amazed there haven't been bonfires at his rallies; no torchlight parades, no giant images of his smiling, benevolent countenance. But these expressions of megalomania aren't exclusive to Hitler. The demagoguery, the self-aggrandizement, the building of a personality cult , the demands for blind allegiance above loyalty to the state are common to all tyrants. The Greeks and Romans had their men on horseback. Tyrants and Emperors respectively. The Founding Fathers railed against so much of what we are seeing because they had seen it so often in the European History of two, three and four centuries ago. It's nothing new. In fact, it's so common the bulwark they built against it has been surprisingly resilient. I don't think Trump is following some Hitlerian blueprint. I think he's living out a common neurosis just as Hitler did. I think he's bloody common in the overall scheme of things.
Nevertheless, we certainly have had our share of personality cults. The sainted Washington and Lincoln come to mind and fit the bill. Franklin Roosevelt certainly comes to mind as does Kennedy. Reagan certainly has been elevated to a status beyond any real accomplishment. Obama certainly is on his way to near cult status. It remains to be seen what the overall effect of these recent events will be on ourselves and our institutions but I think, in the end it will be minimal.
Here's why I think that. Primarily, this is not Germany in the era of the Great Depression. Our economy is strong. Our government is staffed at a deep level by well educated, dedicated professionals. Those who would pursue bad ideas, meeting that deep level of institutional knowledge and resistance have coined the derogatory term "deep state". They may have a point but not the malicious point they proffer. It's a huge institution naturally resistant to change. Our other institutions, the media, entertainment, business, political parties, education, religion are entrenched and powerful and for the most part benign. As much as we have been encouraged to believe otherwise our society and culture is not in a shambles. There is no urban mob to be motivated, inflamed and abused. There is also no urban mob to turn on it's abusers. Trump will not meet the swift fate of Robespierre but though mundane, his prospective fate looks to be tragic. Nor does there appear to be a Bonaparte in the wings or a need for one. The weight of our stable institutions will gradually reassert itself. It's important to remember tyrants and wannabes always end badly. But what of their supporters? Bonapartism did damage for over a half century.
Hillary Clinton referred to a subset of these supporters as "deplorables". She was right but not too bright to have said it out loud. You can group them together with a benign subset I think of as "lowercase americans". Those who don't understand the complexity of government and the complexity of our history. That's the problem. Those of us who actually do know everything tend to be condescending to those who merely think they know everything. That's obviously a joke but it does sum up part of the problem pretty well. People don't like to be dismissed.
You no longer hear that, "Johnny can't read." You have to be able to read to engage in the babel of social media. The debate about media and alternative facts and so on is, in the end, a good and healthy debate and every day more and more people are exposed to the debate. Good and right ideas persevere. That's not going to change and the subset of the less informed shrinks everyday, particularly the louder we debate. These "forgotten" people will fade back into forgetfulness or become better informed and better citizens.
In the meantime our culture and society are more than strong enough to withstand the debate. We are not the Germany of the '30's. We are The United States of America of the 21st Century. Put your hair out and be of good cheer but get with the program.
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