A Trump predictor
The saying “People get the leaders they deserve” is usually a post-mortem. It implies some form of passive, fatalistic approach. Yet we can learn from our lessons, and to this effect I suggest we not look at presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, but at Trump as the choice of a growing part of our society, and what this says about us.
Understanding Trump’s reasoning, motives, mind and ability to change is an exercise in futility. What we know is that he unites people around issues that raise alarm: fear of foreigners, disdain of international treaties, dislike for outsiders and people who are different.
These symptoms are not new. They can be found in recent history, in every fascist environment.
No, Trump is not Hitler. But America is becoming more and more like the Weimar culture, where racial prejudice united people around their hate, and where people were intoxicated with a new Germany that was not too different from what Trump envisages for America. Voting hate and dreaming greatness are predictors for disaster.
People don’t change history. The reverse is more plausible. Just like a storm picks up a wave or a cloud to destroy a city, history picks up its useful candidates to wreak havoc. The only way to protect ourselves is by fencing ourselves off from the storm’s path.
People say Trump will not be able to bypass the legislative branch. But the same people said he was a joke and wouldn’t last. He possesses a rare talent for mobilizing the public, and I can see the same when he’s in office – if he decides to enact legislation Congress won’t approve, he could get legislators’ constituents to protest until the lawmakers change their minds and vote with an intoxicated public.
I don’t know if he will learn on the job how to moderate his views or work with Congress. But the fact is, we cannot afford to speculate. We can laugh Trump off, but we can’t afford to.
People find it difficult to compare our era with that of the 1930s. They call it ridiculous, alarmist and worse. But there is one reminder from the Weimar Republic that we should put deep into our mind: People ridiculed Hitler. They thought him a fool. Yet he managed to manipulate society against its will and brought a whole nation, one of the most advanced of its time, into a frenzy.
We cannot put down our guard and let one who wants to move us against our interests and into a state of dangerous euphoria to become our new emperor – even if his capital T is made out of gold.
SOLI Y. FOGER Englewood, New Jersey
The writer “does not identify with any specific party or political agenda.”