Generally, comparisons between Donald Trump and Adolph Hitler aren’t particularly persuasive. They often reflect an over-the-top, sky-is-falling semi-hysteria. Trump and Hitler? Let’s not get carried away.
On the other hand, do we have something to fear from a too-casual complacency engendered by a failure of imagination?
I was thinking about this last week as I read an op-ed titled “American democratic system will endure,” by Jonathan Turley, a commentator and law professor at George Washington University.
Turley dismisses the notion, suggested by President Joe Biden, that “democracy is on the ballot” in the 2024 election and that “our constitutional system is on the verge of collapse,” as some on the left and the right argue.
He concedes that Trump is responsible for stoking some of this anxiety with his “reckless rhetoric.” Indeed, Trump sometimes sounds Hitlerian. He talks in vague terms about rooting out “vermin,” likely meaning anyone who opposes him. He castigates immigrants for “poisoning the blood of our country.”