Trump: He's not Hitler, but there are similarities

Re: “Outrageous to print Hitler comparisons” (letter, 3-13).

That a comparison between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler is a stretch has merit. Certainly, Hitler stands alone in the magnitude of his atrocities, and that Trump could ever be guilty of such a genocidal undertaking is inconceivable.

Trump at times may be brash, boorish, a slick bamboozler, and even a sociopathic manipulator. But I doubt he’s a monster.

Still, there are valid similarities that should be of concern to any rational person. Consider Trump’s proposal to expel 11 million illegal immigrants.

What is that but a version of Hitler’s scapegoating of Jews and other undesirables? And what is that but an implicit blaming of the “other” for many ills besetting American society?

One can also find in Trump’s speechifying elements of bigotry, contempt, grandiosity, bluster, ignorance and outright fabrication.

Much as Hitler embodied the festering anger of aggrieved segments of German society, Trump voices the anger and frustration of our own malcontents. He has a messianic presence that beguiles and seduces them into believing that he’s there to save them from all their bugaboos, whether founded or not.

Trump is not Hitler. But many dictators got their start because less discerning individuals swallowed their claptrap. It could happen again.

This story was originally published March 16, 2016 at 11:55 AM with the headline "Trump: He's not Hitler, but there are similarities."