Hitler-Trump comparisons are stupidly histrionic, historically naive, and insulting to those who actually suffered under such tyranny.
You are more than correct. My mother was born in 1932 in Bavaria. She lived the entire thing being the daughter of a man who refused to join the Nazi Party and send his children to the camps. They lived on the run living with relatives in their barns and also in hay fields. At the age of 60, he was captured and subscribed into the army just a few months before the end of the war. Thankfully, he was captured by the Brits and then handed over to the Americans. Once he was determined not to be a threat, he ended u walking home from central Germany to Bavaria (Tegernsee).
She has never spoken much of the ordeals but you can tell even today it bothers her tremendously. I have learned more from her siblings.
From what I know from my relatives, Glenn Beck insults me and their ordeals under a maniac as compared to a businessman who makes his own way. To think I used to subscribe to his shows in a way has me re-assessing anything I may have agreed with him.
Without specifically referring to ANY candidate, is it ever insulting to those who suffered and died under the regime of one of the worst dictators of all time to seek to prevent such a situation from arising again?
It would be more insulting to not be open to preventing that, to NOT be cautious.
It takes more than bad seed to make a dictator, it takes fertile ground.
All the evil despots of history are known by their monstrous deeds or those they ordered in retrospect (provided their victims survive and they do not), but they almost all start somewhere more humble.
They start with either a relatively violent and sudden seizure of power (Castro) and go whole hog from day one, inherit their power along familial lines (Baby Doc, Kim Jong Il), or....
...they carefully plot their way to power, often by offering an angry and vulnerable population exactly what they want.
Yes, that occurs with a willing population.
If the population is angry enough they are easily manipulated by those who tell them what they want to hear and promise them prosperity and prestige in exchange for the power to do the job, keep them safe, rid them of evildoers and burdens on the people, and keep them employed, or for the greater glory of ____________(fill in the blank).
At one time, Hitler was even praised by people high in the US Government and celebrities of the day, for the economic marvels he had worked in Germany.
Chamberlain made a 'deal' with him and promised 'Peace in Our Time'. Catchy slogan.
Had Hitler died in 1937 or 1938 he might have been remembered as one of Germany's greatest leaders instead of the monster that developed.
But how, why, do these people come to power?
If we want to understand how such people come to power, we need look at the fertile political situations they took root in, and there are similarities in almost all of them.
Economic uncertainty (national fiscal trouble, monetary collapse)
A large portion of the population out of work
A military defeat or stagnant conflict without clear resolution.
A feeling of national resentment over international affairs, of national embarrassment.
A group to focus that general anger or blame, and be it internal or external, someone or something to focus it on--one or more scapegoats.
That anger can be harvested, nurtured, developed, and aimed and used as a tremendous weapon, and while the population is awash in it, while the blood is charging through their veins and their voices harsh from shouting out the praises of their leader, the people will give away rights they would have fought standing on bloody stumps to keep at another time.
Then the monster can arise, and, using power people have freely given him, take that which was not granted at all.
A significant portion of America got sucked into "Hope and Change" and elected Obama. While despotic in many aspects, and certainly leaning totalitarian, Obama lacks the consensus to be an effective dictator, he has never been above 40%, on racial and philosophical lines, and has alienated much of America with his 'outreach' to our enemies--including a Nazi favorite, the Muslim Brotherhood.
But he's no Hitler, and won't be.
The opposition to Obama would literally be up at arms--and it is armed. The very loyalty of the armed forces is in question should he try to use them against Americans, and even law enforcement might not enforce his edicts--at all levels.
He just doesn't have the foot troops.
He has had to settle for the Gaystapo and the Femenazis, at best a weak ersatz of the real thing, but his troops still wage war on those who blatantly oppose him. So, for the most part any dreams he may have had of being king (or dictator) have been thwarted by the forcible objections of the American People.
Still, he has emplaced tools any dictator would covet, including control over health care, the ability to exert authority over the very air we exhale (CO2), over water, over energy production, travel, and communications--(to be listened to if not shut down). He has asserted Federal land grab authority at the point of a gun, and tied up over a million more acres of resources as National Monuments, land declared henceforth unproductive.
But now, the shoe of outrage is on another foot, and the fundamental things which angered the population continue or have intensified.
Those fundamental notes of discord are present, and are fertile ground for someone effective, efficient, and who will place doing what they want above all else.
People say "It can't happen here, we have the Constitution to protect us."
But our Constitution is only as strong as our leaders are willing to follow it and we are prepared to demand they do so.
We're way behind on the latter, cards and letters, emails and phone calls nonwithstanding, and the government hasn't been doing very well on the former, and to top that off, the very body (SCOTUS) which is supposed to ensure this is compromised.
The media are no help either. They are addicted to two things:
The fundamental and very capitalist notion that their job isn't to report on the news in an unbiased fashion, but to milk controversy for the purpose of $elling airtime for adverti$ement$.
They are also addicted to access to the halls and trappings of power, the cocktail parties among reflected glory, and the power that comes from being molders of opinion, with the celebrity that entails.
Sweet gig, but a fragile one, and falling from favor and being relegated to being a 'has been' instead of a very well paid mouthpiece is to be avoided at almost all costs because your former colleagues will turn on you like chickens pecking apart the one who got hit by a car.
The media will be in the bag for whoever is in power unless they think they can defeat them in the court of public opinion, and for the first time in ages, the media are not so sure of themselves. They will chase the winner and praise him, just to ensure their own survival.
So none of the standard and assumed safeguards are in place. Not the Law, not the Media, not the courts, and not our Government which is supposed to safeguard our rights and power, not usurp them.
All that stands between America and a dictator is her people, and their level headed ability to sort out who is the criminal, the charlatan, the snake oil salesman, and or the statesman, with a calm, rational, and level head and choose appropriately for America's future--no matter how bad our present seems. It can get worse.
The stakes are high.
With the signal to noise ratio so incredibly low, even for an election year, I have less faith in that final bulwark against totalitarianism than ever before.
If we can't compare the present with the past, and act, if necessary, to prevent the outcomes of the past, we will be doomed to repeat history.
I agree with you.
The problem is that too many faux followers of Trump behave very similar to Brownshirts.
Hear me out on this note.
IMHO, somewhere between 5-40% of the posts in conservative blogs regarding the Republican candidates are being inserted by fake conservatives, with an explicit agenda to create dissension and split the conservative vote.
They are sniping between candidates and they have joined the sites since Obama came into power, but like sleeper cells have activated in part during the primaries.
Somebody is orchestrating it, perhaps from several steps removed, but it is causing utter bitter backbiting amongst many who are generally level headed.
The comment I make about Brownshirts isn’t in reference to the true conservatives. It’s complied mainly of those who are acting as provocateurs and a contagion to constructive politic.