I hate to make this kind of a prediction, but as a historian with more than a casual interest in the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler, I see some striking similarities in the emergence of Adolf Hitler on the world stage and the coming of Donald Trump in American politics.
Hitler was democratically elected German Chancellor in 1933. He was an ego-driven character like Donald Trump who believed there was no person in his country better or smarter than him. That makes Trump a dangerous man in my book. Trump is going to block out new ideas because he is too much in love with his own ideas like most dictators before him, like Idi Amin, the last King of Scotland and Conqueror of the British Empire.
Donald Trump defends his right to immediately return fire for fire and to demonize all of his opponents as weaklings and lightweights. He effectively did that to Jeb Bush and he actively believed he could do the same to Hillary and her husband. A Trump presidency is the last thing I want to see, but it may happen if care is not taken and if the Democrats do not find an antidote to many of his antics as a loose cannon.
If you dare say anything bad about Trump, he has the uncanny ability to turn your greatest strength into your greatest vulnerability. He can walk back on any of the lies he has told at any time without any feeling of shame. He could be more dangerous than Adolf Hitler because he can sell you a dead cockroach and make you believe you hit a jackpot.
He believes, like Adolf Hitler, that a falsehood repeated over and over again with the persistence of a demon is often accepted as the truth sooner or later. Adolf Hitler was never a multi-millionaire like Donald Trump, but he was a genius in make-believe.
Even though some Germans knew he was leading them to their destruction, they, nonetheless, could not resist his leadership and he took maximum advantage of them by making them believe they were superior to any other race in the world.
Donald Trump takes his play book from Hitler. He says he is going to build a wall and make the Mexicans pay for it. He says he is going to make America great again by doing what no other president before him has ever done because he claims he is the best negotiator in the world who can make his opponents sign their death warrant. He said that if he shot somebody on 5th Avenue in New York, he could walk away free because the people loved him too much and that those who have been foolhardy enough to challenge or talk ill of him have gone down in the polls while he keeps winning.
The last time I checked, Donald Trump has more than $2 billion of free air time from all of the news media put together and he is going to get more as the election goes into high gear after the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. He also got his competitors to agree that they would all support whoever emerges as the Republican nominee at a time he knew it would be too difficult for any of them to stop him because he was leading in most polls.
Trump has so far raised upwards of $8 million in donations but keeps telling his ignorant supporters that he is self-funded and that he has turned down millions of donations because he wants to remain his own man.
He dares the whole Republican establishment just like he has dared the whole of Islam, even when he knew it was a war he could never win. If he is elected president he was going to turn water into wine and day light into utter darkness.
Trump says he will make the American military so strong that no other country in the world would dare challenge America. That is an invitation to another arms race that must eventually lead to war, whether America likes it or not.
The one million dollar question is how do you stop such a man from becoming the leader of the greatest nation on Earth? That is precisely the question this article is out to answer. Just let the people know what they are up against and to where the Trump presidency could lead them when the rubber meets the road.
I have already said that Hillary Clinton is going to be the winner on the Democratic side, come rain or shine. By the same token, I am projecting Donald Trump today as the winner on the Republican side, after all is said and done.
I do not support Bernie Sanders but I give the old man credit for raising the points that are very important to a cross section of the primary voters on the Democratic side and for making Hillary a better candidate by putting her feet to the fire and doing so without burning his bridges to being offered the Vice President slot at some point in the contest, just like John F. Kennedy did when he chose to make Lyndon Baines Johnson of Texas his running mate. Yes, Vermont, where Bernie Sanders comes from, is not as big as Texas, but the addition of Bernie Sanders to the ticket may help solidify the base of Hillary’s support in the general election.
Mr. Sanders’ support for free university tuition and free medical care for all has fired up new voters on the Democratic side. That is why the Bernie Sanders is winning the youth vote by more than 2 to 1 margin in most of the polls.
That students would have to contend with heavy loans hanging over their necks like the sword of Damocles is the painful truth that none of the candidates on both sides of the aisle have been addressing. Bernie Sanders is the only one doing it with determination and clarity. The promise by Bernie Sanders does not only apply to the youthful voters alone but also to their parents who have to bear the brunt if there were no banks ready and willing to offer such loans.
The Sanders position is a winner, even with me as a loyal supporter of Hillary Clinton. The only reason why I would not abandon Hillary and go vote for Senator Sanders is because I know that Bernie Sanders can never fully deliver on what he has been promising the voters because the Republicans who are more fiscally conservative than the Democrats are going to stop him.
I am convinced that the Republicans are going to cut Bernie Sanders down to size because of his stigma as a self-confessed socialist. I can also tell you that age would suddenly become a big issue that Bernie Sanders, however eloquent and smart, cannot wish away. The third is his position on defense and national security and where he is going to find the money to pay for all his freebies.
Republicans are going to quickly blackmail him as another Michael Dukakis driving a tank and pretending to be what he is not. They would argue, and rightly so, that Bernie is going to balloon the size of government rather than shrink it.
Furthermore, if you think there is a gridlock under President Obama right now, wait till you see a President Sanders. As a matter of fact, the Republicans would chew Bernie Sanders up and spit him out after the primary season is over and done with.
How you win in the primary season is quite different from how you win in the second and final phase of the American election. I have lived here for 30 years and I have come to know America like a book. You will be amazed how quickly the opinion polls projecting Bernie Sanders as having the best chance to win would change as soon as the Republicans come down hard on him after the primary season.
For example, Michael Dukakis, a very successful governor of Massachusetts and a Greek immigrant, was comfortably leading George Bush in the polls until the Republicans began to cut him down to size. They would easily do the same to Bernie Sanders, a Jew born of a Polish immigrant who is not ashamed to call himself a socialist. Donald Trump would reduce him to a cartoon character in a heartbeat. We must not forget how quickly Donald Trump made a mockery of Jeb Bush, who was by far the best candidate to give the Republicans any chance to beat the Democrats in the presidential election.
Another reason Bernie Sanders would lose the nomination to Hillary is a factor people hardly ever talk about. That is, the power of the Jewish lobby as influencers of American politics. Bernie Sanders has said something that has clearly angered the Jewish lobby by admitting he is not going to take sides in mediating the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.
Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are stating the correct position and making it clear in their submission that there is plenty of blame to go around by pointing out that the Israelis have got to give some concessions and to recognize that the Palestinians have rights too. Obama and Hillary have similar positions but they are not saying it as loud and as clear as Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have been saying it. Donald Trump can predictably survive that position but Bernie Sanders cannot.
There is no way in the world that Bernie is going to survive and win the Democratic nomination. However, he may win enough delegates to shape the Democratic platform at the Democratic National Convention. As the nominee, Hillary is going to need all of those new voters that Bernie Sanders has brought into the Democratic column. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts should have been a sure bet for running mate for Hillary but there is no way the Democrats would field 2 women on the same ticket. There is a good chance that Bernie Sanders could be offered the slot of Vice President.
That said, I am more than 80 percent sure today that Donald Trump, even if he does not meet the cut-off point of 1237 delegates in the primary elections, is going to end up as the nominee. He will likely win between 1165 to 1177 delegates and would have the moral ground to claim that he should be the one to get the nomination.
The whole exercise would end with the Republicans grudgingly giving the nomination to Donald Trump, who could then be prevailed upon to make Ted Cruz his running mate. I do not see a pathway for John Kasich to come from behind to snatch the nomination from both Cruz and Donald Trump.
Whatever happens, Donald Trump, who only knows how to win and does not know how to lose, is going to give the Republicans a hell of a fight at the Convention. He will polarize the party and could even cause a split.
The contest between Trump and Hillary is going to be the rumble in the jungle. It is going to be the roughest presidential contest America has ever seen. Donald Trump is going to throw everything including the kitchen sink at Hillary and her husband. I also fear another terrorist attack in the main land, like the one that just happened at Belgium, God forbid, could predictably work to the advantage of Donald Trump.
I rest my case.