‘Hitler’ label

Nadine Chalmers-Ross (Focus, February 5) draws parallels between President Donald Trump and the Nazis’ rise to power. She haughtily extols that ‘‘on his current trajectory I won’t be the last’’.

The idea of comparing an American president to Hitler is absurd. The American system of separated government and enumerated powers pretty much prevents ‘‘Hitlers’’ from showing up.

But a couple of things to understand about Hitler;

1. He didn’t start out just killing Jews. He started out euthanising people with special needs for the betterment of caregivers’ lives (you can decide which side of the aisle favours the extermination of ‘‘inconvenient’’ people).

2. He disarmed the population, then nationalised healthcare and education. Two out of three of those are Bernie Sanders moves, but guess what, Bernie isn’t Hitler either.

If we keep looking for Hitler in every politician we disagree with, we’re not going to recognise the real one when he actually shows up … in a different country. Max Shierlaw, Lower Hutt Perhaps Chalmers-Ross should have added a gentle reminder to Bill English of what another distinguished politician, Edmund Burke, said: ‘‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’’.

I sometimes wonder how many ‘‘good men’’ there are among either our own pollies or those in the rest of the "democratic" world. Peter Rodriguez, Whanganui