How many times do apathetic and oblivious Americans need to get whacked in the head with a 2 x 4 before they realize that the felonious criminal defendant is plotting fascism in plain sight? He’s advertising his intentions for all to see, much the way Adolf Hitler penned his evil predilections in “Mein Kampf.”
It’s not hyperbole to put Trump and Hitler in the same sentence. Trump’s Veterans Day rhetoric sealed that deal. First, he shared this communique via social media: “In honor of our great Veterans on Veteran’s Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, lie, steal, and cheat on Elections, and will do anything possible, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America, and the American dream.” Then he entertained his acolytes at a New Hampshire tally, promising to “root out … the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country” because “our threat is from within.”
Those of us who are even remotely knowledgeable about history (probably a minority of the populace) can easily recognize Nazi talk when it’s thrown in our faces. Fortunately for Trump, huge swaths of the American citizenry has no clue what happened a hundred years ago; as he told us in during the 2016 campaign, “I love the poorly educated.” Ignorance is fertile soil for a fascist demagogue, and he’s poised, yet again to harvest it.
For Hitler and his goons, vermin was a go-to smear word, employed most often against German Jews for the purpose of rendering them subhuman. Three examples will suffice. A 1940 Nazi “documentary,” entitled “The Eternal Jew,” described those citizens as “the vermin of the human race.” A 1933 newspaper article by a Nazi apparatchik contended that “the only way to smoke out the vermin is to expel them.” A 1927 headline in a Nazi broadsheet declared: “When the vermin are dead, the German oak will flourish once more.”
Trump’s Veterans Day message didn’t single out Jews; it was far worse than that. His reference to “Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Thugs” is quite broad. He’s basically saying that anyone who opposes him – anyone who defends free and fair elections, for instance – is vermin that needs to be rooted out. I’ve been covering national politics since 1992 and I’m aghast that it’s necessary to write sentences like these.
If we were living in normal times, Trump’s Nazi rhetoric would instantly reduce him to 1% in the Republican race and banish him to his Florida Elba. But too many Americans are too numb, or a-historically dumb, to give a sh*t. And if the New York Times doesn’t seem to care, why should they? On Saturday, Nov. 11, after Trump posted his social media message and doubled down on “vermin” in his rally, this was the Times’ headline:
“Trump Takes Veterans Day Speech in a Very Different Direction.”
Wow, what’s next? How about: “Charles Manson Takes Communes in a Very Different Direction.”
The Washington Post did better, declaring in its headline that Trump’s “vermin” references on Saturday were fascistic, and its story quoted historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who pointed out that “calling people ‘vermin’ was used effectively by Hitler and Mussolini to dehumanize people and encourage their followers to engage in violence.” But the Post was late to the story; it didn’t go online until 5:45 last night. (In the story, a Trump spokesman warned that anyone who equates Trump’s rhetoric with Hitler’s is gonna be in deep trouble: “Their entire existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House.” Spoken like a true fascist. The spokesman later clarified his comment, substituting “sad, miserable existence” for “entire existence.”)
And surely the Sunday morning talk shows flagged Trump’s Nazi talk and drilled down on it, right? Fuggetaboutit.
Nary a word about it on ABC News. It came up briefly on CNN, where Republican chairwoman Ronna McDaniel refused to engage. And it came up briefly on NBC News’ Meet the Press, in this classic exchange:
Host Kristen Welker: “Former President Trump did raise eyebrows yesterday with his Veterans Day message. I’m just going to read you part of it. He says, quote, ‘In honor of our great veterans on Veterans Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, marxists, fascists, and radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, lie, steal, and cheat on elections, and will do anything possible, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America.’ Are you comfortable with this language coming from the GOP front-runner?”
Ronna McDaniel: “I am not going to comment on candidates and their campaign messaging…”
Welker: “Thanks for being here.”
What more will it take to wake people up? Those of us who’ve been warning about Trump since 2016 -when I repeatedly called him “a clear and present danger” – are past the point of exhaustion, but his use of Nazi nomenclature to stoke hatred and violence proves anew that surrender is unthinkable. As former conservative talk show host Charlie Sykes wrote Monday, Nov. 13, “The rhetoric is escalating: The enemy is us. The ‘vermin’ are fellow Americans. And he is coming for them. So, once again, it is essential to pay attention … You can’t say we have not been warned.”
In other news, Tim Scott dropped out of the Republican presidential race. No word yet on who will inherit his voter.
Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net and is distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, December 15, 2023
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