Martin Dyckman
Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany amidst the anguish of the Great Depression and street violence between his Nazis and the Communists. Upon being appointed chancellor, he had his henchmen burn down the Reichstag building as a pretext to blame the Reds, arrest their representatives in Parliament, and enact a law giving him dictatorial powers that the people accepted in their last free election.
Across the ocean, another new leader was telling Americans they had “nothing to fear but fear itself.”
In Germany, though, fear conquered all.
We read history not simply for entertainment or to get a diploma but for what it says about how people are likely to react when circumstances repeat themselves.
So it’s no surprise to read of a new New York Times/CBS poll that fear of more terrorist attacks feeds a “gnawing sense of dread that has helped lift Donald J. Trump to a new high among Republican primary voters.”
“More than four in 10 Republican primary voters,” the newspaper reported, “say the most important quality in a candidate is strong leadership, which eclipses honesty, empathy, experience or electability. These voters heavily favor Mr. Trump.”
ISIL and its acolytes are a real threat, but far from the worst form of terrorism we face. There has been and remains greater danger from the sort of non-Muslim terrorists who massacre children and college students in classrooms, patrons in movie theaters and worshipers in church, and who torch and shoot up Planned Parenthood clinics. These unorganized atrocities are terrorism.
We should fear above all the fear-mongering gun lobby that makes such crimes so convenient and we should fear the despicably cowardly politicians who kowtow to them.
But it’s the radical Islamic terrorists who provide a convenient distraction for the gun lobby’s toadies and for opportunists such as Trump.
Democracies are never so fragile as in times of perceived crisis.
And it has happened here. After Pearl Harbor, even President Franklin D. Roosevelt yielded to fear and sent American citizens to concentration camps because of their Japanese ancestry. It is understood by almost everyone to be one of the most shameful chapters in our history.
But not by Trump, who invokes the disgrace with approval when he talks of banning Muslims from entering the United States, monitoring mosques, and issuing special identity cards to followers of Islam.
If he is to believed, he would also round up and deport about 11 million people, most of them Mexican, another ethnic group he demeans as readily as Hitler denounced Jews.
And he promises to resume waterboarding terrorism suspects – without even a distinction as to where they might be found – and adds, “I would approve more than that.”
Thumbscrews? The rack? Electric shocks to the genitals?
Not even Hitler said anything about torture before he had the power to use it.
It’s instructive to remember that Germany was among the most advanced, well-educated nations on Earth. Germans took pride in their high degree of kultur.
That was the problem, though. Too many Germans fancied that whatever they did, it could not be wrong because they were ubermenschen – superior to other people.
There are Americans like that, and they form the core of Trump’s support. They seem to be concentrated in – but not exclusive to – the Republican Party. The GOP has been courting them and encouraging their biases with code words and dog whistles ever since a bipartisan vote enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Trump is reaping the harvest that they sowed.
Responsible Republicans grimace at what Trump represents and fear the damage his nomination could do to their down-ballot candidates in swing districts.
But there can be no pleasure for Democrats in that. He already has done severe and lasting damage. And if he falters it may bring advantage to an already surging candidate, Ted Cruz, a doppelgänger of the late demagogue Joe McCarthy in word, deed and appearance.
After Cruz comes Marco Rubio, a mere empty suit.
The good news this week was the resounding defeat of Marine le Pen and her xenophobic, race-baiting National Front in France’s regional runoff elections. The French version of Trump lost because responsible parties joined together to defeat her. The Socialists actually withdrew some candidates to insure the Conservatives would prevail over the far right.
We’re going to need that kind of patriotic cooperation here in the United States.
It begins with what have become the two Republican parties. The good ones need to do more than simply denounce Trump in stronger language than we have so far heard. They must also coalesce around a deserving rival who has a decent chance to defeat him.
Is there, though, such a person in the race?
Jeb Bush disqualified himself when he proposed a refugee sorting preference for Christians.
Is it too late for Mitt Romney?
Or better yet, Colin Powell?
Martin Dyckman is a retired associate editor of the newspaper formerly known as the St. Petersburg Times. He lives near Asheville, North Carolina. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
