Evil Dictator-ish

The United States, in 2016, is getting an interesting class in Democracy.  Lesson one: no matter how solid the footing that holds up a Democratic government, it's really a fragile system which can succumb to an evil, power hungry despot who resonates during a legitimate election cycle.

Trump is not Hitler.  Is Trump currently rounding up a religious minority, hauling them out to slave labor camps, and when he's done with them, executing them?  No.  Is he in control of a military and invading country after country on a desperate land grab?  No.  Hitler was Hitler, and like I've stated on this blog before, his name should NEVER be bandied about as a speedy way to vilify someone you don't agree with.  It WAY over criticizes your opponent, and it diminishes the true evil of Hitler, something we should never do.

One thing about Hitler people don't want to acknowledge is how he rose to power.  He lead a political party to legitimate election victories.  He didn't just show up in Bavaria and say, "Hey, I'm your next dictator!"  This is how evil begins; it rises through the established ranks, taking advantage of a disgruntled population, starting a power grab by winning fair and square.

When we look back at examples of power hungry autocrats usurping democratic systems, you see similar characteristics; hyper-nationalism, stoking the flames of fear and anger, labeling people they disagree with as their 'enemies,' and the endorsing of violence.  These are keys which propel evil tyrants to victory.  Trump is not Hitler, but he sure sounds a lot like the Hitler who rose to power in 1920's Germany.

The GOP unintentionally plowed this field.  They embraced anti-intellectuals, campaigned on ideology, and worshiped style over substance.  Their biggest mistake was not paying attention to the process.  The Republicans built this massive machine (curtailing voting, dominating media, grossly outspending their opponents, gerrymandering to obscene levels) and they would've controlled the country for decades, if they'd only seen the backdoor they left wide open.  Ron Paul, a Libertarian masquerading as a Republican, started taking control of the exposed individual state election processes beginning in 2008, and today, the Republican party is saddled with dumb, racist, wealth worshipping, anti-government xenophobes choosing their nominee.  It's like the Death Star; they build this massive weapon of destruction, but maybe they should've spent a little more time on the exhaust port design.  Now they're blowing up from the inside.  How appropriate.

Ron Paul himself plays a major role in Trump's rise.  Libertarian's are not Germany's 1940's National Socialists, but they share a common belief.  Every Libertarian or pseudo-Libertarian I've ever talked with thinks, "if only everyone did what I told them to do, the world would be a much better place."  They think they're always right, never thinking through what they've committed to, irregardless of how often reality tries to correct them.  Willing, blissful ignorance is another important step in the rise of a dictator, and as Ron Paul sailed off into the sunset, those followers morphed into Trump fans.

Before anyone starts planning their move out of the country, there are two really big hurdles preventing a fascist dictator from rising to power in America.  First, they have to win, and as much as I'm embarrassed about Trump getting the Republican nomination, the reality is too many Americans are terrified of him becoming #45.  Trump will get a shocking amount of votes in November.  In 2014, Michelle MacDonald was the Republican nominee for Minnesota Supreme Court Justice.  Immediately after winning the endorsement, it was discovered she had hid a judicial problem of her own from the party, DWI, had a disastrous State Fair appearance, and (although innocent until proven guilty) she might have been actively participating in a crime, the kidnapping of the Grazzini-Rucki kids, denying the legal, court ordered parental rights of the father, a crime allegedly perpetrated by MacDonald's client, the mother, and MacDonald's campaign manager, all while she was campaigning to serve on the highest court in Minnesota.  She still got 680,265 votes, 46.5%, but she lost.  It's enough to make you question the sanity of your fellow Minnesotans.  As knee jerk and blindly predictable as Republican voters are, Trump will still lag behind the Democratic nominee.  Without the populace handing him the keys to the kingdom, he becomes less Hitler and more George Wallace.

The other thing a US dictator wouldn't be able to attain would be an obedient military to ensure the abuses to the Constitution were carried out.  Dictators usually have a point where they abandon the people who got them there, and get into bed with military, business and political leaders who can really propel them forward, a version of The Night of The Long Knives.  I've a hard time thinking anything but a token following of military, business and political leaders would want anything to do with a Trump dictatorship.  Even if he did get into the Oval Office, he'd be stymied by too few followers.  This happened once before when JP Morgan tried to overthrow FDR after he took the country off of the gold standard.  Smedley Butler, a WWI hero who was asked to lead veterans to march on the White House, turned in the traitors, who all mysteriously became big FDR fans overnight.  A despot's personal hit squads might try to take down perceived enemies, but without powerful allies to help cover up the crimes, Trump would have to distance himself from the thuggery.

Trump is not Hitler, and my money is on Trump becoming nothing more than a footnote in history, but if you're smart, you should be scared by what he represents.  The more we dabble in the politics of the ignorant, the more dangerous the system becomes.  In a worse case scenario, if an oppressor who spewed Trump-like intolerance was to win, does anyone doubt we would begin to see laws making day to day life harder for Muslims, laws written to allow people to legally discriminate against them.  Maybe they'll make them wear a symbol, so they can be identified when they enter into businesses, or they'll have to produce their papers whenever an authority figure asks to see them.  Then they might create Muslim free zones, making rules on where Muslims can live and what they can do for a living.  Then someone floats the idea that Muslims, "for their own safety," should be rounded up and shipped out to Wyoming or Idaho, to a 'facility' which will "keep them safe," and away from the God fearing Christians.  All their possessions would be confiscated as payment for the move.  Then someone says "maybe we should have them work, so they're not moochers, covering the costs of the 'facility' they were forced to relocate to."  "It'll be good for their soul to get a little hard labor."  Then they will insist the kids work too, in jobs suited for them.  Then they start working them harder, and harder, and harder.  Then someone, pointing to the older, frail and impaired Muslims, floats the idea, "maybe we should just put them out of their misery.  It'd be the humane thing to do."

The hardest part of writing the last paragraph was realizing how, through three decades of far right based hatred, we've actually started crossing the line, straying into bigotry and discrimination based governmental policy.  We seem to be determined to discovered new ways to mistreat non-white, non-heterosexual, non-Christians; Muslims, African Americans, Latinos, Mexican-Americans, the GLBT community, Native Americans, and all others deemed enemies by the powers that be.  An unamusing, sobering class in Democracy indeed...