Larry Wilmore writes: “Questioning Obama’s birthright, threatening to ban Muslims, painting entire immigrant groups as felons to be feared—these are not policy positions. They are incendiary words and images meant to ignite a movement.” Wilmore relates Trump’s racist appeals to President Woodrow Wilson’s enthusiasm for D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (which celebrated the birth of the KKK) in 1915. If Wilmore invokes the racism of Woodrow Wilson, other essayists invoke different historical comparisons, such as the conflict over U.S. slavery or Russian anti-Semitism in 1979. Still others have, controversially, compared Trump’s victory to the early political ascendancy of Adolf Hitler. Do you have an opinion on any of these (or other) historical comparisons that writers have used to frame Trump’s election?
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I am posting this reply for Chris Taylor:
I believe that every American has the right to their own opinion and say what they want because it is our right that our great country has given us. I understand and agree why people are furious and offended by the racist and cruel comments that Donald Trump has made in the passed. Again, it is our right as Americans to say say and write whatever we want but I think to compare Trump to Adolf Hitler is absurd and insensitive. The reality is that, though Trump has said some completely inappropriate things, to compare him to one of the most horrible and evil individuals in our world’s history is ridiculous. Our government makes it impossible for any event even resembling the holocaust in the slightest to ever occur. Donald Trump has never advocated the mass genocide of any culture or ethnic group. Comparing his avocation for kicking illegal immigrants out of the country or not allowing Muslims to enter the country to the mass extinction of the Jews during the holocaust is embarrassing. Do I agree with Trump’s immigration plan and ban on Muslims entering the country? Of course not. But I also have close friends and family that have had relatives suffer and lose loved ones during Europe’s darkest time and I’m sure that they would be offended if someone compared Trump (some voted for Trump) to Adolf Hitler.