No Comparison

This is the story of how one man exploited the fear and anger of a nation to rise to power, disguising his lust for power and his authoritarian agenda as a crusade for his country and his people.

In a land where there was already much discontent among the people, after they had spent many years watching one corrupt leftist “democratic” administration after another exploit and betray the people, this man ran for office as an outsider, righteously railing against an establishment that was basically being run by opportunistic liars and crooks, and in particular, international banking interests who were enriching themselves at the expense of the people. As a candidate he railed against the politicians who had been weakening the economy for so long, and who had shown themselves to be spineless, unprincipled parasites.

His popularity grew among some segments of society, mainly due to the righteous indignation felt by the people in response to real injustices and destructive policies of prior administrations. This new would-be ruler portrayed himself as the defender and savior of the people, there to protect them from a malicious ruling class. Of course, as is often the case, his real goal was power for himself, but by pretending to be a warrior for the people against nefarious outside forces—some of them quite real, some exaggerated, and some made up—he garnered a certain amount of public support from people who weren’t very clear—and didn’t want to be very clear—on exactly what he was going to do with the power once it was given to him. At the time, the people were far more focused on what they were zealously against than on exactly what they were for, and after decades of decline and decay, they wanted to see their country made great again.

Those who eagerly supported him were enthralled by his bluntness and passion, and willingness to openly and bluntly condemn the status quo, showing little or no respect to the establishment, and calling for drastic change. However, while he railed against collectivism and authoritarianism, what he himself advocated was simply a different form of authoritarian collectivism. While pretending to be an enemy of communism, he himself advocated and pushed for socialist agendas, as well as attempts to nationalize and control various sectors of the economy, including seizing private property in the name of the common good. He exploited the nationalism and patriotism of the people to push for economic isolationism, and strict controls and tariffs on international trade.

During his rise to power he had a habit of threatening both his political opponents and his critics, while portraying himself as the innocent victim, and portraying his opponents as being out to get him. He glorified the values of the predominant culture of the country, while demonizing other nations, peoples, religions and cultures. He used fear-mongering to justify spying on, harassing and otherwise abusing various categories of “undesirables,” which he used as scapegoats for many of the ills of the country. He managed to demonize one religious group in particular, then using the violence of the state to keep members of that group from entering the country, as well as forcibly evicting some members of the group who were already in the country. In all this, “legality” was heavily emphasized over morality. If one was not following the dictates of the state, then, according to him and his supporters, they were deserving of whatever violence the state decided to inflict upon them.

He portrayed himself as strong and tough, and his enemies as weak and spineless. His speeches were often angry, arrogant and brash, and he labelled as “law and order” the authoritarian controls he sought to impose. He supported the death penalty for military deserters, and anyone he deemed a traitor, or an enemy of the state. A strict authoritarian, he portrayed domestic enforcers of the state as brave, noble servants of the people, while also growing the military and expanding military actions abroad, all the while portraying it as “defensive.” Despite his war-mongering, he claimed to be fighting for peace. Ever-expanding imperial conquest was sold to the people as “protecting the nation” from terrorists and savage, inferior foreign cultures. Well aware that some would oppose his authoritarian designs, he allowed those citizens loyal to and supportive of him to remain armed, while disarming any “enemies of the state” who he thought would oppose him.

Personally, he showed every sign of being an extreme narcissist, to the point of being delusional. He cloaked his megalomania in extreme patriotism. Directly or indirectly, he would continually praise himself, hoping for—and to a large degree achieving—a situation in which many of his devout followers praised him personally (not just ideologically) as their savior. This happened to a degree that even when his policies were obviously doing harm to the nation, his supporters remained in denial. As more and more of the overt violence that his administration was using against “undesirables” and “enemies of the state” came to light, many of his devout followers would either deny it was happening, or make excuses to try to justify it. Even now, there are some who still insist on his greatness and righteousness, mainly based on the fact that he spoke out against real injustices, even while those same supporters exhibit profound denial when it comes to the lies, injustices, and policies obviously destructive to the country, coming from their supposed political savior. Despite all the innocents who have been robbed, assaulted, harassed and even killed, at home and abroad, by enforcers of his regime, some today still praise this megalomaniac's authoritarian nationalism.

But whatever you do, don’t compare Trump to Hitler. Because, ya know, “Godwin’s Law” and stuff.