# 5 Ways Donald Trump Perfectly Mirrors Hitler's Rise To Power **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 2, 2015, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212 "2015-10-02T03:39:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/21 "2015-10-02T20:33:55Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Hitler had \*much \*better hair. And don’t forget the mustache! Trump’s wife is better looking, though. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/22 "2015-10-02T20:34:36Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Hitler had \*much \*better hair. Better fashion advisors overall, hairdressers being the least of it. Though you can’t belittle the actual skills of Trump’s hairdresser. Every morning she’s building a PhD project. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/23 "2015-10-02T20:36:56Z")
_“Ten things Hillary and Pol Pot have in common. You won’t BELIEVE #7!”_ ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/24 "2015-10-02T21:03:59Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Wolfpup wrote: “Comparisons with Hitler are rarely useful because they turn out to be hyperbolic and easily dismissed.” > > Right up to the moment when they’re not. > > Anybody really think that there was some element in the German people that’s missing in us that allowed Hitler to rise there but wouldn’t work here? I don’t. The element that’s missing, in my mind, is that the US’s two-party system prevents someone like Hitler from getting any traction out of 20% of the vote. As RickJay says, Hitler was never elected in something as straightforward as a US Presidential election. The Nazi party won a bunch of seats in “congress” and then he parlayed a little legitimate power and a bunch of illegitimate force into taking over everything. For all the evils and weaknesses of our current two-party system, we could do much worse. I think we’ll see that play out with Trump. At his peak, he had only about 30% of 50% of the US population’s voters, at most 15% overall. When you’re competing against 16 other people and ignoring the opposing party, you can make that look good for a while, but without a way to gather up a whole lot more support, you’ll never cross the finish line. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/25 "2015-10-02T21:14:55Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > “Comparisons with Hitler are rarely useful but I’m gonna go ahead and do it anyways cuz I like typing.” And how does this advance the discussion? There are some here who think there’s a close parallel. I don’t. You think the comparison is “idiotic”. I don’t think that’s very helpful, either. There are clearly some limited parallels, but so many differences in others and the total context that it’s not at all analogous. But there are always object lessons to be learned from such similarities as do exist in different political circumstances. Declaring any such examination to be “idiotic” isn’t conducive to learning them. The particular phenomena of demagoguery and demonization are as old as civilization and we should be better attuned to them. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/26 "2015-10-02T21:18:27Z")
Let’s take them one at a time: - He Blames A Specific Group Of Immigrants For All Our Problems (And Promises To Eliminate Them From Our Society)\* The Jews in German were not immigrants, and they certainly were not illegal immigrants. The NAZIs stripped Jews of their citizenship and then tried to kill every last one of them. The _illegal_ immigrants in the US are not properly referred to as immigrants, as they implies a certain legitimacy. And Trump is neither proposing to strip them of citizenship (can’t do that because they don’t have it) nor suggesting that they be killed. “All our problems”? Is Trump blaming the alleged weakness of America abroad on illegal immigrants? The trade deficit with China? He doesn’t have an “issues” page on his web site (ack, I had to go there…), so it’s hard to quantify, so I’d ask supporters of this proposition tell us exactly how many Americans “problems” is Trump blaming on non-citizens here in the country. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/27 "2015-10-02T21:25:51Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Wolfpup wrote: “Comparisons with Hitler are rarely useful because they turn out to be hyperbolic and easily dismissed.” > > Right up to the moment when they’re not. > > Anybody really think that there was some element in the German people that’s missing in us that allowed Hitler to rise there but wouldn’t work here? I don’t. Yes among other stuff we don’t have 30% unemployment in the immediate aftermath of a brutal defeat in a total war, mass inflation that annihilated the middle class, a constitution seen as imposed by traitors, and years of mass political violence by the far right and left. Not to mention that Trump isn’t openly running on destroying American democracy. So yes its an absurd comparison. ---
**Author:** ![desertmonk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@desertmonk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/desertmonk)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/28 "2015-10-02T21:47:19Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > _“Ten things Hillary and Pol Pot have in common. You won’t BELIEVE #7!”_ Oh I gotta click on this! ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/29 "2015-10-02T22:02:57Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > And how does this advance the discussion? It doesn’t. Unlike you, I don’t think every single inane discussion deserves advancing. I don’t think every idotic statement needs a thoughtful rebuttal just because it crosses my gaze. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/30 "2015-10-02T23:27:58Z")
Rod Serling wrote: “Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, a ghost of a previous nightmare - Chicago? Los Angeles? Miami, Florida? Vincennes, Indiana? Syracuse, New York? Any place, every place, where there’s hate, where there’s prejudice, where there’s bigotry. He’s alive. He’s alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when your hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind, unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He’s alive because through these things we keep him alive.” (Closing narration to “He’ Alive”.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/31 "2015-10-03T01:36:49Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The _illegal_ immigrants in the US are not properly referred to as immigrants, as they implies a certain legitimacy. 😕 No, it doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/32 "2015-10-03T01:53:44Z")
Trump lacks Hitler’s imagination. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/33 "2015-10-03T04:09:49Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > 😕 No, it doesn’t. Yes, it does. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/34 "2015-10-03T04:25:03Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > [indent]#5. He Blames A Specific Group Of Immigrants For All Our Problems (And Promises To Eliminate Them From Our Society) You misspelled “criminals.” A sovereign state has the right to control its own borders, and smuggers who deliberately violate that right - and the people who hire them - are committing a crime. If you want reasons that Trump should never be made President, you don’t need to resort to foolishness like the OP. A man who owns a casino is in the business of ripping people off with false promises of wealth. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/35 "2015-10-07T03:17:38Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The most significant difference, of course, is that Hitler was not elected President of Germany. […] > [@dracoi](#): > > The element that’s missing, in my mind, is that the US’s two-party system prevents someone like Hitler from getting any traction out of 20% of the vote. > […] > I think we’ll see that play out with Trump. At his peak, he had only about 30% of 50% of the US population’s voters, at most 15% overall. When you’re competing against 16 other people and ignoring the opposing party, you can make that look good for a while, but without a way to gather up a whole lot more support, you’ll never cross the finish line. Hitler had to work for it. With our two-party system, it’s much easier for a right-wing faction with a “plurality of the plurality” to get into the White House and a Congressional majority than it was to become Chancellor of the Weimar Republic. > [@John\_Mace](#): > > The _illegal_ immigrants in the US are not properly referred to as immigrants, as they implies a certain legitimacy. And Trump is neither proposing to strip them of citizenship (can’t do that because they don’t have it) nor suggesting that they be killed. This is a chilling post. You do realize that Hitler didn’t exactly _lead_ with the Final Solution? He talked about deportation; then he went to enslavement; mass murder came in later. Trump already endorses violence against Muslims and brown people, and he wants to use “those people” to build his insane wall. He is very, very close to Hitler already. > [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Yes among other stuff we don’t have 30% unemployment in the immediate aftermath of a brutal defeat in a total war, mass inflation that annihilated the middle class, a constitution seen as imposed by traitors, and years of mass political violence by the far right and left. Not to mention that Trump isn’t openly running on destroying American democracy. So yes its an absurd comparison. Qin is more reassuring than you other guys. I would point out, however, that the right wing have spent decades trying to undo both the New Deal and elements of Reconstruction, with rhetoric that paints even centrists as “traitors.” They’ve played a long game, and they have successfully educated their fascist base. > [@Grumman](#): > > You misspelled “criminals.” A sovereign state has the right to control its own borders, and smuggers who deliberately violate that right - and the people who hire them - are committing a crime. No. Working without papers is generally an infraction, not a felony. We tend to reserve the term “criminal” for felons. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/36 "2015-10-07T03:18:49Z")
I considered linking the _Cracked_ piece myself. Thanks, Bo! ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/37 "2015-10-07T23:45:41Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > The other day I referenced Sinclair Lewis’ book _It Can’t Happen Here_ (which is available for free at [Australia’s Project Gutenberg: It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis](http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301001h.html)), and todays main article at [Cracked.com](http://Cracked.com) lets me know that I’m not the only person who sees something potentially ugly and sinister in Trump’s campaign. > > [This is a lot longer than most of what Cracked.com posts](http://www.cracked.com/blog/why-comparing-donald-trump-to-hitler-makes-perfect-sense/), but it makes a lot of good points, IMO. I’ll list the 5 points themselves and leave it to y’all to go read the explanations/evidentiary stuff over at the link if you’re interested in having a discussion about them. > > #5. He Blames A Specific Group Of Immigrants For All Our Problems (And Promises To Eliminate Them From Our Society) > #4. He’ll Sell His Hate As Hope For The Poorest Citizens In This Country > #3. Don’t Think Concentration Camps, Just Think Prisons > #2. Not Taking Him Seriously Makes Him More Dangerous > #1. He Used To Keep A Copy Of Hitler’s Sequel To Mein Kampf By His Bed > > Anyone else want to agree or disagree with the points made in the [Cracked.com](http://Cracked.com) article? That’s funny, other than the book of speeches by Hitler, the same thing is being said about Obama and Hillary. Could it just be, gasp, that each side wants to compare the other side with somebody evil, just so, gasp again, their side could win?? Also, Trump doesn’t blame a specific group of immigrants for all of our problems. He doesn’t say “X” is fucking up our country. Something tells me that the writer of the post is giving the left wingers something for which to pat themselves on the back. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/38 "2015-10-08T00:13:20Z")
> [@Tithonus](#): > > P.S. - I’ve been having a lot of fun with Chrome’s ‘Word Replacer II’ plug-in recently. As the name implies, it takes certain words and replaces them with others of your choosing, and it does so _seamlessly_, all the way through the page. I’ve configured it to replace the words “Eric Cartman” with “Eric Cartman”. Give it a try and then re-read that Cracked article. It really gives it a whole new dimension. The best bit is that occasionally you’ll forget you’ve done it and it’ll take you by surprise and it’s just as funny as it was the first time. The problem with plugins like that is that they don’t know not to replace things in text fields. It’s the sort of thing that can get you banned from TVTropes. I don’t know why it’s so hard to not affect outgoing posts, but it apparently is. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/39 "2015-10-08T00:23:01Z")
The article is very much overstated, especially from the people who pretty much invented the modern clickbait title. (They even have a titling department whose job it is to tweak titles until they get the best click through rates!) But the similarity between how Trump treats illegal immigrants and how Hitler treated Jews is on point. He isn’t just treating them like what they are, but using them as a scapegoat. He’s taking a group that a lot of people already hate and blaming them for all our problems. That if we just got rid of them, we could make our country great again. No, it doesn’t “perfectly mirror Hitler’s rise to power,” but it does describe exactly why Trump’s comments about illegal immigrants are so repugnant. It is a form of fascist nationalism. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212/40 "2015-10-08T00:34:56Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Anybody really think that there was some element in the German people that’s missing in us that allowed Hitler to rise there but wouldn’t work here? I don’t. Well, yes. As a society, we’re a lot more progressive and a lot more distrustful of fascism. While we had a Fascist party, we didn’t get bogged down on it or let it get any form of power. Our national identity is all about democracy and freedom. And, yes, I’m aware of the Milgram experiment, and I still hold that it doesn’t say what people think it says. The context is completely different. What it says is that we trust scientists not to make us do things that actually harm people, not that we’d be willing to harm people if we trusted an authority well enough. Hitler rose to power by picking on people that were already hated, that were already dehumanized. He didn’t trick people into thinking he wasn’t actually harming Jewish people. He just played on their preexisting prejudices. We as a nation have been fighting to reduce that dehumanization. Sure, some are being dragged in kicking and screaming, but we’re still a lot better than we’ve ever been before. No one is talking about killing illegal immigrants. I’m not saying it’s impossible for a more nationalist, xenophobic leader to take power, but not one that’s like Hitler. Hitler’s rise to power had a lot to do with the place and time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-ways-donald-trump-perfectly-mirrors-hitlers-rise-to-power/733212.md?page=3)