To the Editor:
Convicted felon, adjudicated sexual abuser, and Home Alone 2 actor Donald Trump getting elected president twice while fearmongering about migrants is unsurprising in a nation that …
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To the Editor:
Convicted felon, adjudicated sexual abuser, and Home Alone 2 actor Donald Trump getting elected president twice while fearmongering about migrants is unsurprising in a nation that cannot completely shed its racist, anti-immigrant history. Not just Trump, but the worldwide rise of authoritarian, anti-democratic figures like Putin, Netanyahu, Assad, Le Pen, Orban, and Bolsonaro has me convinced of three things: (1) since the 2010s, we’ve been echoing the 1930s rise of fascism, (2) this is at least partly because living memory of the 1930s is dying out, and (3) Donald Trump is going to remain in power until he dies.
I could be wrong. I’m no expert. I’m just some random dude that writes letters to the editor. I played baseball at Saint Michael’s College and never made the Dean’s List. McGill University rejected me for grad school. I failed my grad school comps at Catholic U my first try, got lucky to pass and graduate, and never attempted a PhD. Again, I’m just some dude. I could be wrong. But I’m probably correct.
Could Trump have happened in the 2000s or 1990s or earlier? I don’t think so. Lots of people born in the 1910s and ‘20s were still around. They witnessed what happened in the Weimar Republic when a mesmerizing conman scapegoated the Jews as disease ridden vermin. They saw Italy under Mussolini’s sway, and Spain go fascist under Franco for two generations. But now, they’re all dead or extremely old. When Trump says migrants are disease infested animals, it doesn’t trigger memories. Those who came of age in the 1930s knew that a democratic government could fall to a strongman. People alive now didn’t live through fascism, and the marginal Trump voter thinks he can get cheaper eggs under Trump and send him on his way in 2028. Sincerely, I hope they’re correct.
But history shows it doesn’t work that way. If the 14th Amendment didn’t stop insurrectionist Trump from running again after his coup attempt, the 22th won’t prevent a third term, especially after his handpicked Supreme Court gave him presidential immunity. His presidency is a “get-out-of-jail-free” card and a whole lot more.
And, finally, do I think Trump is Hitler? He’s more a Mussolini or a Franco. But if he’s successful in rounding up 15 million migrants and putting them in what will become American concentration camps, then, yes, he could become another Hitler.
Sean Pidgeon
Morristown