On Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2023, the leading Republican candidate for president, Donald Trump, gave a speech in New Hampshire, where he made the following comment to an audience:
“In honor of our great veterans on Veterans Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections, and will do anything possible — they’ll do anything — whether legally or illegally, to destroy America, and to destroy the American dream … the threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within.”
You should know that the term vermin is used to demean other human beings perceived as despicable and as causing problems for the rest of society. He is basically assigning a class of people as below humanity and not worthy of existence. This language will sound familiar to anyone who has studied Nazi Germany prior to, and during, World War II.
Donald Trump continues to use the same language and playbook Adolf Hitler used in the lead up to World War II, which unleashed and cultivated a cycle of hatred. As Peter Wehner of Atlantic Magazine recently stated: “Trump’s rhetoric is a permission slip for his supporters to dehumanize others, just as he does.”
During Adolf Hitler’s rise in Germany, he was able to convince the German people that the Jewish population was responsible for the economic woes of the country, and targeted them along with others that resulted in the murder of an estimated 11 million men, women, and children, consisting of at least 6 million Jews, and 5 million non-Jews. This does not include the untold millions of civilians who died during World War II.
The dictator playbook, which Donald Trump aspires to, is as follows: 1) Tap into a grievance and demonize a class of people or religion, blaming them for your condition and fears.; 2) Purge your administration and fill it with enablers and loyalists; 3) Use the power of the government to eliminate dissent; 4) Eliminate all free media and create a state media to spread propaganda; 5) Eliminate the laws which are the basis of a democratic government.
In a speech to the Reichstag on Jan. 30, 1939, Hitler stated the following:
“In the course of my life I have very often been a prophet and have usually been ridiculed for it … If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging nations once more into world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevization of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!”
I would like to remind all voters that World War II was fought to defeat Nazism. The Allies joined forces to defeat the very concept and seeds of hate that Hitler advanced, and convinced people to follow, which resulted in untold violence, brutality, cruelty, death and extermination of classes of people. In addition, between June 1944 and May 8, 1945, U.S. forces endured 552,117 U.S. casualties in the European theater of operations, with a terrible toll of 104,812 killed in action.
Furthermore, Donald Trump has even suggested the creation of internment camps for those deemed as illegal immigrants. In a recent interview with The National Pulse, he made the following comment regarding immigrants:
“Nobody has any idea where these people are coming from, and we know they come from prisons. We know they come from mental institutions and insane asylums. We know they’re terrorists. Nobody has ever seen anything like we’re witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. It’s poisoning the blood of our country.”
I challenge all Republican voters who support Donald Trump to explain how this rhetoric is normal? Look into the eyes of your fellow citizens and explain it to us, or better yet look into the eyes of a surviving World War II veteran, and explain your reasoning. Now is not the time to look at the ground, profess sudden deafness, or throw out “whataboutism.” We should not allow what some claim as normal campaign rhetoric to disguise and mask unbridled hatred. As the French philosopher Denis Diderot stated: “From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.”
Are you going to be lured into drinking from the dark chalice of hate to satisfy his grievance, just as Hitler did with the German people?
Despite the current anti-immigration rhetoric being spewed by Donald Trump, I would like to remind our fellow citizens that a vast majority of us in this country are descendants of immigrants. The exceptions are Native Americans, whose existence preceded arrivals of people from Europe, and descendants of those who were brought here against their will, through the brutality and cruelty of slavery. When you condemn immigrants, you may want to look at your own heritage as you are likely a descendant of an immigrant.
Many in my baby boom generation, and those behind me, have a collective amnesia as to the sacrifice made in ensuring freedom and Democracy that we all enjoy. World War II veterans are dying by the day and we must not lose sight of what they accomplished for us. The brave men and women who served and died, and continue to serve, deserve better than a statement on Veterans Day by a former President that certainly echoes themes from Nazi Germany.
For those who want to continue to support and vote for Donald Trump, that is certainly your choice. But, in the end, a vote for him is an absolute insult to the many brave men and woman who gave their very lives to ensure the survival of democratic governments in Europe and in these United States. They shall not have died in vain in order for someone to be elected to the highest office of the land to institute autocracy, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, dictatorship, and unleash cruelty and retribution to classes of people, including immigrants, Jews, Muslims, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals.
Donald Trump continues to stoke fear and spread the seeds of hatred through his caustic rhetoric, and threatens revenge because he lost in a free and fair election, attempting to sell this idea of a “stolen election” in order to get re-elected, and grow his personal wealth. There is no question he won in a free and fair election in 2016, just as there is no question he lost in a free and fair election in 2020 – despite what he, his campaign, and many continue to deny. The fact remains he was overwhelmingly rejected in 2020, and will be in 2024, if he obtains the Republican candidacy.
Your vote is your voice, but there are millions of us who will rise up in 2024, and will reject him, just as we did in 2020. For millions of us value and believe in a true Democratic government, born of an ideal where all men are created equal, and not in a government of authoritarianism, born of grievance, threats, intimidation, hate, violence, and retribution.
The choice is yours.
PS: This is dedicated to my second cousin Gerald Bloomfield, who died in World War II serving in the U.S. Merchant Marine, and whose remains are at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Florida.