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| Just Another Populist - Then |
No, I'm not comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. Not full-blown Adolf Hitler anyway. Early-onset Adolf, pre-Mein Kampf Adolf, well possibly.
Hitler had buddies. Guys like Mussolini, Franco and, for a while, even Uncle Joe. Across Europe and even in the United States there were organizations that openly advocated for der Fuhrer.
Authoritarians like authoritarians. They admire each other, giggle at how much each other gets away with. It's one of the best ways to spot an authoritarian with real growth potential - other authoritarians who endorse that person.
It's all in the news today that New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, has endorsed Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. That's not to say that Christie has despotic tendencies. He's probably more of an opportunistic bozo who now is left with nothing much to do but kick at the embers of his once grand political aspirations.
That said, Trump has other admirers who should give Americans real pause. One of them is former Ku Klux Klan chief, David Duke, who came out with zingers such as "He's made it OK to talk about these incredible concerns of European Americans today," and, "Voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your heritage."
Then there's French right wingnut, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Donald Trump received a vote of confidence on Saturday from Jean-Marie Le Pen, the former leader of France’s Front National who in the past has said the Nazi occupation was not “particularly inhumane” and suggested Ebola could solve Europe’s “immigration problem”.
“If I were American, I would vote Donald Trump,”Le Pen tweeted on Saturday about the Republican frontrunner for president. “But may God protect him!”
And, of course, Trump's endorsement of Vlad Putin shows that, when it comes to fellow authoritarians, the Donald understands the importance of the occasional reach-around.
Update: Two former presidents of Mexico have voiced their own comparisons between Hitler and Trump only they're not talking early-onset Adolf.
Update: Two former presidents of Mexico have voiced their own comparisons between Hitler and Trump only they're not talking early-onset Adolf.
But for Wallis Simpson 'Dolfie would have had a buddy in the King of England too. She really oughta be thanked.
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ReplyDeleteI don't think we can, Dana. I think she's dead.
Of course she is but we honour people posthumously all the time, don't we. Think of Franco. We still honour him for staying dead.
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ReplyDeleteI have fond memories of Franco. It was my first journalism gig. Every day or two there'd be a story on the teletype machines about how his doctors had removed this or that from his body to extend his life. It just seemed to go on and on and I began to wonder how they kept finding more stuff to cut out. It seemed like the bugger was never going to die. The story somehow grew on me. It felt like there was a tiny element of bonding from it. Then the sad day rolled around and we knew there would be no more surgery for Francesco. I can still remember pondering how much of him they were going to bundle together to go in the box. Fortunately that was a "one off" experience.