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Hitler’s rise to power being replayed with Trump; Elizabeth “Betty” Asche Douglas; Beaver County Times; December 16, 2015.
Mrs. Douglas is a local artist and, according to previous letters, “is a retired Geneva College professor.” Previous letters from Mrs. Douglas are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“Donald Trump’s dictatorial style was evident in his TV show, ‘The Apprentice.’ His current political pronouncements invite comparison to Hitler’s rise to power in Nazi Germany.
“I read translations of speeches Hitler made between 1928 and 1933 when he became Der Fuehrer. In the years following the Treaty of Versailles that ended the ‘Great War,’ Germany formed a democratic government, the Weimar Republic. Hitler undermined it by appealing to the German middle class with pronouncements now being echoed in the speeches of Donald Trump.
“He convinced the German people that he could solve the nation’s problems. He exploited fears and fueled hatred of competing political systems and non-Aryan peoples. He claimed adherence to Christian ethics and mores as he set about to destroy communism and the Jewish race.
“The issues Trump supporters find problematic are similar to those that plagued the Weimar Republic. As philosopher poet Jorge ‘George’ Santayana said, ‘Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ Trump devotees seem to have forgotten this past. Remember the Holocaust they proclaim, as they fall in line with a man who would do to Muslims what Hitler did to Jews eight decades ago.”
Here is my comment posted on the BCT website (12/17/15 @ 6:16 pm):
“Yesterday, Mrs. Douglas linked Donald Trump to Hitler; nearly three years ago her targets were the NRA, and inadvertently President Obama (‘Armed guards in schools inhuman’). That wasn’t enough for Mrs. Douglas this time, however, so she went the extra mile. When Mrs. Douglas told us Mr. Trump is ‘a man who would do to Muslims what Hitler did to Jews,’ she was saying he would slaughter approximately six million Muslims if given the opportunity.
“It never ceases to amaze me how easily images of Hitler - and Nazis in general - slip off the tongue, keyboard, or pen to describe political opponents. Regardless of ideology, it seems like someone is always claiming someone else is a Hitler or a Nazi. To do so exposes a person’s ignorance and/or is an admission he can’t successfully debate an issue. The objective is to demonize an opponent so a debate never happens. That’s what happened in this letter. Instead of identifying and debating the specific Trump policies she opposes, Mrs. Douglas chose the much easier smear route.
“Finally, invoking Hitler in this way trivializes the horrors he and his allies/supporters unleashed. Mrs. Douglas once wrote, ‘The combined total of years of successful teaching within my immediate family, including my late husband, daughters, son-in-law, sister and me, numbers nearly 200.’ She should know better.
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