Well...
People don't like it when I make "half-baked" comparisons of Trump (or more precisely, the things Trump claims he intends to do) to Nazi Germany. Okay, fine.
So my question: What world leader (historical or current) would be an apt comparison, for the policies that Donald Trump is espousing?
Trump has asserted that he intends to deport all undocumented people in the US. Serious estimates put that at 12-15 million people; Trump has cited numbers as high as 30 million. He intends to empower federal law enforcement, the National Guard, and possibly US military, to execute this plan.
Yesterday, Trump went farther than that, and asserted that, if elected, he will revoke the legal status of all Haitians in Springfield, OH - and by implication, all Haitians admitted under the Temporary Protected Status program (note that this was a program of the Trump Administration, not some "librul" plot to steal elections)? Taking him at his word (or can't we do that, because he's "special"?), this would mean deporting 25% of the population of Springfield; about 400,000 people from Florida; etc. He's been silent about whether he would revoke legal status for other, non-Haitian people similarly admitted to the US.
So... It's not OK to compare these policies to Nazi Germany. But again... what is a legitimate comparison?
I notice that the people who flipped out about my reference to Hitler were silent about the comparison (in the same sentence) to Josef Stalin. Is Stalin a fair comparison?
How about Pol Pot?
Yeah, I know. It's Trump, and nothing Trump says can be taken at face value, because he lies about literally everything, all the time; because he's suffering from dementia, and doesn't remember what he said yesterday; because our "checks and balances" will prevent him from actually implementing the things he claims to intend to do; etc. But notwithstanding that Trump operates in an environment that differs from those dominated by the comparisons I've cited... comparisons of Trump to other despots should compare the individuals, not the systems. In the absence of institutional constraints, would Trump implement policies like Hitler's? Would he implement purges similar to Josef Stalin? Would he go after whole populations as Pol Pot did? What are we dealing with here?
One last thing. I suggested that Trump was more demented than Hitler/Stalin, if less competent. One of our posters flipped out about that. But... demented means suffering from dementia. It's not a synonym for psychopathic. Hitler was a psychopath, for sure; Joe Stalin...arguably (his NKVD head, Lavrenty Beria, certainly was!). Pol Pot. But these despots didn't suffer from dementia; they knew what towns they were in, and didn't confuse world leaders with one another, etc.