The recent “Unified Reich” ‘What’s Next’ video on Donald Trump’s website “Truth Social” is just another sign of things to come from the guy who promised to be a “dictator on Day One.”
He reminds me of a character in the great movie “Dr. Strangelove.” Peter Sellers played the title character who was a former German scientist advising the U.S. president (also played by Sellers) who flashed a Nazi salute when he got excited. He kept trying to pull down his arm but by the end of the movie he couldn’t help himself anymore.
Germany’s tragic Nazi past could be America’s dystopian future. MAGA replayed Hitler’s failed Munich beer hall putsch against the Weimar Republic on Jan. 6, 2021 when Trump supporters, egged on by the defeated president, mounted a failed coup against Joe Biden, who had already secured a big electoral and popular vote victory. Trump watched the grotesque attack on TV for more than two hours before he told his acolytes to stand down and go home.
The GOP presidential candidate just can’t stop himself from mouthing Nazi rhetoric. He has described his political opponents as “vermin,” just as Hitler did in the 1930s. He stated that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of our country. Words straight from Hitler’s playbook during the Third Reich are disturbing previews of a second term for Trump.
Hitler’s obsession was racial purity and a dominant Aryan race. There are way too many Trump supporters, older white men in particular, who seem to want the same thing.
In MAGA Land, men, women and children seeking political and economic freedom in the United States have replaced Jews in Hitler’s Third Reich as the scapegoats for the nation’s problems.
In a recent interview in Time, the former president said he wants to use the National Guard to deport undocumented immigrants. He stated that he was even open to using the military for deportations.
Trump advisers told Time that there would be mass deportations of immigrants if he wins a second term. But immigrants aren’t the only ones who should live in fear. If you’re not white, MAGA has you tabbed as second-class citizens.
Non-white Americans just got their wakeup call. Recently we celebrated the 70th anniversary of the groundbreaking Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, which declared racial school segregation a violation of the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
While others honored the birthday of racial equality and the end of Jim Crow, Justice Clarence Thomas killed the chill over the landmark ruling by noting that the Warren Court had gone too far in Brown. He indicated the decision was not consistent with the Constitution or the country’s “history or tradition.”
He was right about one thing. It wasn’t consistent with the nation’s tradition of racial inequality, which makes Brown even more momentous. But Trump wants to restore the traditions that prevented most Americans from enjoying their freedom and independence.
President Biden pointed out last week that the next president might appoint “a couple of justices” to the high court. A second Trump presidency and two more justices like Thomas and Samuel Alito would be a grave threat to democracy in America.
Ominously, the right-wing Heritage Foundation has publicized the Trump blueprint for turning back the clock on a diversified multiracial society.
The group’s Project 2025 vision for a second Trump term would eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs and turn the focus to anti-white racism. Yes, you read that correctly — anti-white racism. They failed to examine the numbers that demonstrate the advantages white Americans still have over racial minorities in income and home ownership.
Things are bad now, but things will get even worse if Trump wins. Voters should listen closely to his fascist rhetoric now and make the right decision come November.
Brad Bannon is a Democratic pollster, CEO of Bannon Communications Research and the host of the popular progressive podcast on power, politics and policy, Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon.