1984

Ideally, every generation would become a bit more wise and compassionate as time progresses. And this is true in certain instances.   There are wonderful people in this country: bright, compassionate, involved, concerned, caring, and loving.  But in many instances, this is not the case. And so we have people who still follow Nazi ideals, dictates, and actions.  Unfortunately one of those people is the current president of the United States: Donald J. Trump.  Let’s examine this more closely.

• • Trump is a white supremacist. He has used his bully pulpit to open the door to white supremacist groups in this country and worldwide, paving the way for them to spread their hatred for Jews, Blacks, Moslems, Hispanics, and others. 
• • Trump, as a dysfunctional adolescent might, made fun of disabled people in public. On Twitter, he assigns immature nicknames and insults onto those who don’t fall into lockstep behind him.
• • Americans who are physically or mentally disabled often depend on government health care such as Obamacare and Medicaid to survive. Trump wants to end both programs, denying such health care to the disabled and financially disadvantaged.
• • Trump is obsessed with reversing every accomplishment that Barack Obama made during his time in office.  From his false Birther allegations to his unfounded Obamagate accusations, Trump reveals his racist nature.
• • Trump chronically blames others for the same transgressions that he is guilty of, obsessively denying any responsibility for his own behavior and their consequences. I needn’t delineate these since they occur daily in his puerile tweets and hyperbolic speeches. He is Scapegoater in Chief.
• • Trump coddles pseudo-strongmen like Putin, Kim Jong Un, Erdegan, Bolsonaro, as he weakens NATO and the protections it offers to its members. He withdraws from vital treaties, particularly ones that Obama negotiated. 
• • Trump holds his political rallies in a time of a catastrophic pandemic, putting people in great danger and harm to satisfy his own needs and purposes. 
• • The Nazis depended on fear and fake news, as does Donald Trump. Just about everything out of Trump’s mouth is a lie, and most of the news coming out of his White House and his state media enabler, Fox News, is fake and false, meant to deceive and influence a gullible public. In Nazi Germany and their occupied nations, there was no free press, thus easily manipulating the public as a leader might his cult followers. All news was propaganda designed to keep the Nazis in power and the people in a state of fear and ignorance.
• • Trump is well aware that Covid-19 is killing a greater percentage of Blacks than any other group, and is content with letting them die by denying them proper health coverage. Trump’s support of White Power and his Law and Order threats against peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters grossly portray his intensions against people who don’t think like him or who he perceives as blocking his reelection.
• • Trump’s proposed wall on our Southern border with Mexico has become an albatross around his neck, a racist symbol he continues to feed to his minions of cult supporters. 
• • Countries like Russia and England attempted to appease Hitler in an attempt at a peaceful solution.  Trump tries to appease villains like Putin and Kim Jong Un, giving them validity via flattery. In an act of possible treason, Trump knew of, and failed to act upon, Putin’s scheme of giving a bounty to the Taliban for every American soldier killed. What does Putin have on this man?
• • By saying little to restrict and prosecute fascist white supremacist and nationalist groups, Trump (and his puppet William Barr) essentially give permission to these thugs, similar to Hitler’s sadistic Brown Shirts, to intimidate and do harm to minorities, particularly Blacks and Jews.  Instead he attacks antifa, a small, decentralized left wing group which acts to oppose fascist groups when they march and demonstrate. Antifa may sometimes go too far, but they at least perform the important service of opposing these ultra right fascists, a responsibility Trump and Barr have abandoned.
• Trump, impulsive and paranoid, has control of the codes that can trigger a nuclear war.

There’s more, of course (another Supreme Court choice, a lack of sane gun control). I could write a book. As the Nazis were stopped in WWII, Trump needs to be stopped. Our democracy is at stake. Our freedoms are at stake. Our Constitution and Bill of Rights are at stake. With Trump we are headed to an authoritarian government similar to the one described in George Orwell’s prophetic novel, 1984. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, please read it. It’s still very much in print, and even more relevant today than the day it was published.