It's Hitlerish
Reelection of a charlatan ... Republicans take popular vote for the first time in 20 years ... Amnesia ... Trashing a democracy ... Trump and his team of troubled men ... Mainstream media wilts in the eye of the storm ... Depravity, greed and revenge are the new normal ... Roger Fitch files from Washington
"Some Trump voters may believe his lies. But plenty more want Trump to be terrifying and stomach-turning so that re-electing him will be a fully realized act of social revenge. Harris cannot propose any policy, offer any benefit, or adopt any position that competes with that feeling" - Atlantic
"What luck for the rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
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Before the election, the NYRB and Atlantic warned that the 60th presidential election could mark the end of democracy in America. The Washington Monthly noted a Nazi analogy to the complicity of America's traditional conservatives in Trump's takeover of the Republican Party. The NYRB published reviews of new books on Hitler's 1933 ascent to power in Germany.
In one of the two dominant political parties there was no shame; no law, custom or standard of common decency that party operatives wouldn't transgress. Their presidential candidate, Donald Trump, was the worst, embracing racism and misogyny, or misogynoir, in the case of his opponent Kamala Harris.
Close to the election, the Republican candidate's behaviour became more erratic: at a charitable function, the white-tie Al Smith dinner, he descended into insults and obscenities in a room filled with Catholic priests, presided over by the Archbishop of New York.
At campaign stops he called Harris a "shit vice-president" and extolled the genital endowments of a dead golfer. His rallies became freak shows offering "extra buffoonery with a side of fascism", entertainment for his supporters and a continuation of the TV series that made him a household name, The Apprentice.
The ex-president himself saw it as a TV show. In explaining his loss in their "debate", he suggested Harris was given the answers in advance, like the 1950s quiz show scandals.
The Republican meanwhile hawked the same tat one might see in late-night TV ads: gold sneakers, trading cards (of himself), watches, the perfume "Trump" (Musk-scented?), even a "Trump bible" (printed in China) unsuccessfully foisted on Oklahoma school children.
This was the classy candidate that the once-venerable Republican Party offered for president in 2024.
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