Quote of the Day: Josh Marshall on Trump's Frightening Aspects

I have frequently indicated that Donald Trump strikes me as a 21st Century version of Adolph Hitler, especial in the manner in which he has used racism, hatred and the demonizing of others to further his own ego driven political efforts. Some say that the comparison is unfair to Trump, but I nonetheless view the man as evil, utterly unable to empathize with others, and completely amoral.  His entire career has been about making money at any cost and satiating his own narcissism.  Now running for the presidency, I wonder at times whether or not Trump sees himself as America's Putin with an eye to pillaging the Nation as Putin and his cronies have raped Russia.  In a column at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall hits on one of the similarities between Trump and Hitler.  Here is the on target quote:

We've now heard Trump's big immigration policy speech.  Let me start with a general comment on tone. This was as wild and as unbridled a speech as I've seen from Trump. Even if you couldn't understand English, it would be stunning to watch the slashing hand gestures, the red face, the yelling. It's hard to imagine any presidential candidate in living memory giving such a speech. And again, this is if you didn't know what the words even meant.

As the speech was unfolding, I said something on Twitter that I'm sure many will find extreme or beyond the pale. But watching this speech, compared to the press conference today in Mexico City, what kept coming to my mind was the contrast between Hitler's uniformed rally speeches from the hustings and the suited, statesman Hitler we see in the old news reels in Munich and at other iconic moments in the late 1930s. Hitler is sui generis, of course. His crimes are incomparable. But the demagogic style, the frenzied invocation familial blood sacrificed to barbaric outsiders - these are not unique to him. When we see this lurid, stab-in-the-back incitement, the wild hyperbole, the febrile railing against outsiders who will make us no longer a country - the similarities are real. More than anything, perhaps the most chilling part of this day is the contrast between the two men - a measured, calm statesman figure we saw this afternoon and this railing, angry demagogue figure who captured the emotional tenor of Klan rally. As I said, the ability to shift from one persona to the other is a sign of danger in itself.

Trump and his followers are a clear and present danger and they need to be defeated at the ballot box and to become social exiles with whom decent people refuse to associate. (Please read the rest of Marshall's piece.)  I also encourage readers to watch "Triumph of Will" and to draw their own parallels.