POP QUIZ

Hey, here's a pop quiz!  Can you identify the world leaders from the clues below?  Sorry.  No images in this post.  No visual hints.  All verb tenses are in the past to protect the guilty.  

The answers are to be found in the link near the end of the post.  I highly recommend reading the linked article in full.  It’s very enlightening. 

Here are your identity markers.  And no cheating! 

1. Was elected by a minority of the popular vote.
2. Communicated directly to his voter base via mass media.
3. Blamed others for personal and national failures. 
4.  Divided the population using racial stereotypes. 
5.  Demonized political opponents. 
6.  Demeaned and objectified women, relegating them to subordinate roles. 
7. Relentlessly attacked objective truth, including science.
8. Vilified and undermined the mainstream press. 
9. Developed a de facto state media for propaganda. 
10. Weaponized lies—and encouraged his supporters to spread them.
11. Orchestrated mass political rallies.
12. Embraced extreme nationalism. 
13. Made closing borders and scapegoating foreigners a policy centerpiece. 
14.  Embraced mass detentions and deportations to protect racial purity. 
15. Used national boundaries to support selected industries. 
16.  Promulgated an imperial architectural style to project authority.
17.  Enriched elites to cement power.
18.  Rejected international norms. 
19. Destroyed domestic democratic processes. 
20. Politicized the judiciary and subverted the rule of law.
21. Instituted a parallel surveillance state to investigate and punish opponents. 
22.  Glorified the military and loved parades. 
23. Demanded loyalty oaths from his party.
24. Was recruited by a mainstream political party, then recreated it in his image.
25. Proclaimed unchecked, absolute power and rose above the law.

Think you've got it?  Now go to this link to see how smart you were:  Common Dreams.  The article is a review of a book written by Burt Neuborne, the Norman Dorsen Professor of Civil Liberties at New York University School of Law, When at Times the Mob is Swayed.  Neuborne is one of America’s leading civil rights lawyers and the founding legal director of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU.  Here is a link to his NYU Law faculty profile:   NYU Law Profile.   

The Common Dreams article compiles a list of parallels between the two autocrats as documented by Neuborne and includes quotes from his book.  I’ve added a few entries to the list of parallels because, since his review was written six months ago, further commonalities between these two leaders have surfaced.  I think the reviewer and Neuborne would approve of the update.  

Trump and Hitler don't align in barbarity, and Neuborne is the first to admit that conflating the two would be a disservice to both.  However, the list above enumerates disturbing similarities and stark warning signals that should be taken quite seriously.  Beyond this, the book is mostly concerned with the ability of the American constitutional architecture to withstand such systemic political shocks to its foundations.

As I noted at the outset, the review's excerpts of the book are worth a read, because it's the details that make the comparisons between Hitler and Trump so compelling and concerning.  And if you do read it, you can’t say we weren’t warned.

Keep it real!

Marilyn