Donald Trump Almost Destroyed Democracy Using Adolf Hitler’s ‘Playbook,’ Experts Say
In a Thursday piece for Salon, psychologist Alan Blotcky and psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences professor Seth D. Norrholm argued that Donald Trump came close to destroying American democracy by using Adolf Hitler’s “playbook.”
“Donald Trump used multiple Big Lies during his presidency,” they wrote.
“It was his propaganda technique. He took a page right out of Hitler’s playbook — and it almost destroyed American democracy.”
The pair noted that Hitler used the “Big Lie” strategy to shift public opinion on many topics, including Germany’s World War I defeat, which he blamed on the Jews.
According to Blotcky and Norrholm, the former president’s “biggest lie” was that the election was rigged and stolen from him by the Democratic Party. Previously, former Republican Justin Amash called Trump’s election fraud claims a “hoax” on Twitter and suggested it would be remembered as “one of the most embarrassing and dishonorable episodes in American political history.”
“No legitimate claims of voter fraud were ever presented by Trump or his allies,” the pair wrote.
“But it was this Big Lie that Trump hoped to ride to overthrow our democracy in order to remain in power. His incitement of the insurrection at the Capitol was a direct outgrowth of this Big Lie.”
The Salon piece also argued that the real estate mogul’s claims relating to the coronavirus pandemic made up another one of his “Big Lies.” Blotcky and Norrholm contended that the president did next to nothing to try and control the pandemic and repeatedly downplayed its severity.
As The Inquisitr reported, Dr. Deborah Birx, who was Trump’s coronavirus response coordinator, claimed that there were individuals in the previous administration who believed the pandemic was a hoax. Elsewhere, some of Trump’s supporters also believed that the crisis was not real. Notably, one suggested after Trump caught COVID-19 that — if the reporting on the illness was true — the virus was planted in him.
Trump has been compared to Hitler on many occasions, which has drawn backlash from some. David Cook used a column in the Chattanooga Times Free Press to urge people to stop comparing the former U.S. leader to Hitler. According to Cook, the comparisons are inaccurate, dangerous, and could make it more difficult to recognize true fascism.
Conversely, in a piece for The Philadelphia Inquirer, David Lee Preston argued that it’s not wrong to compare the two. He claimed that Trump’s ability to “incite” his supporters using white nationalism could be used to better understand the influence Hitler had over the German people. In particular, the writer noted that both leaders blamed a group of people on their problems — Jews and immigrants, respectively — and had followers who committed violent acts purportedly in the name of patriotism.
