Results: Trump, Hitler and Fascism, part two
Published on 11/29/2023
The Nazis in America are now “out”. This past week, former Republican Joe Scarborough explicitly compared Trump and his followers to Hitler and his Brownshirts on national television. "They’re here". At the same time, America’s richest man, Elon Musk, is retweeting antisemitism, rightwing influencers and radio/TV hosts are blaming “Jews and liberals” for the “invasion” of “illegals” to “replace white people”, and many in the GOP are embracing candidates and legislators who encourage hate and call for violence. The main source for this survey series is the article, "Trump Reminds Us How Hitler Did It", by Thom Hartmann. The opinions expressed in this survey series are Hartmann's and are based on his worldview of historical facts.
QUESTIONS
GO to COMMENTS
Comments
1.
1.
Both Hitler and Trump had an "inciting incident" that became the touchstone for their rise to power. Which of these facts are you aware of?
For Hitler it was the burning of the German parliament building, the Reichstag, by a mentally ill Dutchman.
13%
275 votes
Hitler embraced rightwing Bavarian street gangs and brawlers, organizing them into a volunteer militia who called themselves the Brownshirts (Hitler called them the Sturmabteilung or Storm Division).
19%
392 votes
For Trump it is his claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him and the martyrdom of his supporters after their attempted coup on January 6th.
32%
666 votes
Trump embraces rightwing militia groups and motorcycle gangs, and implicitly praises his followers when they attack people like Paul Pelosi, election workers, and prosecutors and judges who are attempting to hold him accountable for his alleged criminal behavior.
25%
517 votes
None
32%
673 votes
All of the above
17%
347 votes
Not Applicable
13%
266 votes
2.
2.
Which of these anti-LGBTQ+ facts about Trump and his GOP are you aware of?
While Trump has mostly focused his public hate campaigns against racial and religious minorities, behind the scenes he and his administration had worked hand-in-glove with anti-gay fanatics like the current House Speaker Mike Johnson to limit the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.
14%
303 votes
His administration opposed the Equality Act, saying it would "undermine parental and conscience rights." More than a third (36%) of his judicial nominees had previously expressed "bias and bigotry towards queer people." His administration filed briefs in the landmark Bostock case before the Supreme Court, claiming that civil rights laws don't protect LGBTQ+ people.
16%
337 votes
His Department of Health and Human Services ended Obama-era medical protections for queer people. His Secretary of Education, billionaire Betsy DeVos, took apart regulations protecting transgender kids in public schools. His HUD Secretary, Ben Carson, proposed new rules allowing shelters to turn away homeless queer people at a time when one-in-five homeless youth identify as LGBTQ+.
14%
303 votes
None
46%
966 votes
All of the above
19%
390 votes
Not Applicable
14%
294 votes
3.
3.
German Pastor Martin Niemöller's famous poem begins with, "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist." But, in fact, first Hitler came for queer people. Which of these historical facts are you aware of?
A year before Nazis began attacking union leaders and socialists, a full five years before attacking Jewish-owned stores on Kristallnacht, the Nazis came for the trans people at the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin.
9%
181 votes
In 1930, the Institute had pioneered the first gender-affirming surgery in modern Europe. It's director, Magnus Hirschfeld, had compiled the largest library of books and scientific papers on the LGBTQ+ spectrum in the world and was internationally recognized in the field of sexual and gender studies.
8%
163 votes
Being gay, lesbian, or trans was widely tolerated in Germany, at least in the big cities, when Hitler came to power on January 30, 1933, and the German queer community was his first explicit target. Within weeks, the Nazis began a campaign to demonize queer people — with especially vitriolic attacks on trans people — across German media.
11%
226 votes
German states put into law bans on gender-affirming care, drag shows, and any sort of "public display of deviance," enforcing a long-moribund German law, Paragraph 175, first put into the nation's penal code in 1871, that outlawed homosexuality. Books and magazines telling stories of gay men and lesbians were removed from schools and libraries.
8%
168 votes
None
55%
1149 votes
All of the above
14%
297 votes
Not Applicable
13%
279 votes
4.
4.
Hitler's first major seizure of dictatorial power was his use of the Weimar law Article 48, which, during a time of crisis, empowered the nation's leader to suspend due process and habeas corpus, turn the army's guns on people deemed insurrectionists, and arrest people without charges or trial. Its American equivalents are the State of Emergency Declaration and the Insurrection Act, both of which Trump has promised to invoke in his first days in office if he's re-elected in 2024. Which of these historical similarities between Hitler and Trump are you aware of?
Once Hitler had seized full control of the German government, he set about changing the nation's laws to replace democracy with autocracy. His enablers in the German Parliament passed the "Enabling Act" that gave Hitler's cabinet the power to write and implement their own laws.
15%
323 votes
Trump promises to use the theoretical "unitary executive" powers rightwing groups claim the president holds, but has never used in our history, to have his new cabinet rewrite many of our nation's laws.
15%
318 votes
Hitler followed the Enabling Act, six months later, with the Act for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service which authorized him to gut the German Civil Service and replace career bureaucrats with toadies loyal exclusively to him. It was the end of any semblance of resistance to the Nazis or preservation of democracy within the new German government.
9%
182 votes
In his last three weeks in office, Trump issued an executive order called Schedule F that ended Civil Service protections for around 50,000 of America's top government officials, including the senior levels of every federal agency, so he could replace them all with political appointees (Biden reversed it). The Heritage Foundation is reportedly now vetting over 50,000 people to fill these ranks if Trump is reelected and, as promised, reinstates Schedule F.
13%
271 votes
None
46%
973 votes
All of the above
15%
325 votes
Not Applicable
14%
293 votes
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