Last Friday, billionaire and major Republican donor Meg Whitman compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini at Republican Mitt Romney‘s exclusive NeverTrump event (eg, BI, CNN, Politico, Reuters). Comparing Trump to Hitler and his allies does not make any sense.
Trump and his allies are verbally attacking domestic enemies by telling plain lies and half truths in order to create fear and confusion. Their implicit reasoning is: If you can’t beat them (eg, facts, truth), confuse them (eg, lies, opinions). The aim of Hitler and his allies was to eradicate their domestic and foreign scapegoats (eg, Jews, homosexuals, Roma gypsies).
Meg Whitman should have looked at home. Trump’s targeting of people with a different skin colour, and especially his targeting of Muslim immigrants, makes him much more a new Joseph McCarthy.
Wiki: “The term “McCarthyism”, coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy’s practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today, the term is used more generally in reference to demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents”.
Joe McCarthy came to my mind after Trump’s newest accusation that President Barack Hussein Obama is somehow involved in the Orlando mass shooting. Trump: “Look, we’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind,” Trump said. “People cannot, they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can’t even mention the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ There’s something going on. It’s inconceivable. There’s something going on.” (eg, CNN, FOX, TIME, WP)
TIME: “Donald Trump suggested Monday that President Obama is oblivious to issues of terrorism—and he seemed to suggest in the process that Obama might sympathize with the suspected gunman in the deadly Orlando nightclub shooting. The unsubstantiated insinuations, in a series of interviews Monday morning, came from the Republican presidential candidate who once led calls for the release of the President’s birth certificate and has more than once indulged conspiracy theories about Obama’s faith and heritage”.
Politico: “In the wake of Sunday’s deadly terrorist shooting in Orlando, Donald Trump’s longtime friend and informal adviser [Roger Stone] wants the presumptive Republican nominee to hit Hillary Clinton even harder, suggesting the former secretary of state’s top aide Huma Abedin could be a “Saudi spy” or a “terrorist agent.” [] Abedin was born in Michigan to an Indian father and a Pakistani mother. She moved with her family to Saudi Arabia at the age of two, and attended a British girls’ school before returning to the United States for college”.
Joseph McCarthy disrupted and destroyed the lives of a lot of Americans by his witch hunt. On 2 December 1954, the Senate voted to censure Senator McCarthy, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion. Donald Trump is not a US Senator but his freedom of speech is not absolute. See Wikipedia for restrictions to free speech in USA.
Claiming a legal breach of the restrictions to free speech could make Donald Trump a martyr of free speech, similar to the Dutch politician Geert Wilders and the German comedian Jan Böhmermann. Moreover, a court case may not even start before 8 November 2016, let alone finish.
Nevertheless, Meg Whitman had a point in drawing comparisons, although not a balanced one. Joe McCarthy is back and his name is Donald Trump.
Tears for Fears – Shout (1984) – artists, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
Shout
Shout
Let it all out
These are the things I can do without
Come on
I’m talking to you
Come on
In violent times
You shouldn’t have to sell your soul
In black and white
They really really ought to know
Those one track minds
That took you for a working boy
Kiss them goodbye
You shouldn’t have to jump for joy
You shouldn’t have to jump for joy
Shout
Shout
Let it all out
These are the things I can do without
Come on
I’m talking to you
Come on
They gave you life
And in return you gave them hell
As cold as ice
I hope we live to tell the tale
I hope we live to…
Shout
Shout
Let it all out
These are the things I can do without
Come on
I’m talking to you
Come on
And when you’ve taken down your guard
If I could change your mind
I’d really love to break your heart
I’d really love to…
Shout
Shout
Let it all out
These are the things I can do without
Come on
I’m talking to you
Come on
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