Written by Charles Winfrey
Hello, my fellow Black men. I know its hard. We have been rebuked and scorned by the Democratic Party apparatus. They promise everything to get our votes but deliver very little. If highly qualified candidates that look like us fail to get the blessing and support of the Democratic establishment, they are doomed to fail during the primaries. It is discouraging to say the least. However, those things combined are not life-threatening.
Donald J. Trump as POTUS is!
If we take a close look at world history, there are many parallels between DJT’s ascendency to power in this country, and that of Adolph Hitler’s rise to power in Nazi Germany. Hitler’s ascendency was based, in part, on his belief in racial purity and that only pure Aryans should rise to the top, and because of the divisions among the majority that opposed the Nazi Party. Sound familiar?
After securing Germany’s Enabling Act in 1933, Hitler went about the business of expelling Jews and any others that opposed him, including Catholics, homosexuals, political dissidents, Roma (gypsies) and the disabled. Above all, they targeted Jews—some 6 million of whom were killed in German-occupied Europe by war’s end. Prior to that, the Nazis took away their political and civil rights.
In addition to its pervasive anti-Semitism, Hitler’s government also sought to establish the cultural dominance of Nazism by burning books, forcing newspapers out of business, using radio and movies for propaganda purposes and forcing teachers throughout Germany’s educational system to join the party and teach Mein Kampf.
Are the banning of books and referring to mainstream news media as “fake” news on the part of DJT and his followers similar in scope and intent to that of their German predecessors?
Just imagine a Trump presidency, a MAGA-controlled House and Senate and control of the Supreme Court, plus Trump serving as commander in chief of the country’s armed forces. We already see signs of what is on the horizon. With control of those institutions, it would be easy to declare the MAGA Party the only sanctioned political party in this country, much like Germany did when it made the Nazi Party the only political party in Germany. Within months, all non-Nazi parties, trade unions and other organizations had ceased to exist.
Trump’s alliance with facists like the QAnons and the Proud Boys should signal to anyone with a brain that he leans in that direction. He called the White supremacists that marched in Charlottesville, VA “fine people.” Groups of white people wearing swastikas are always present at his rallies. None other than the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest military position in the country, General Mark A. Milley labeled DJT a “fascist.” Besides, his coziness with dictators like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, flags his mindset.
If those parallels are not enough, please consider that leopards and most men don’t change who they are. DJT’s past is riddled with racist actions, including his campaign against the Central Park Five. According to the New York Times, “ in 1989, Trump took out ads in New York newspapers urging the death penalty for five Black and Latino teenagers accused of raping a white woman in Central Park. He argued they were guilty as late as June 2019, more than 15 years after DNA evidence had exonerated them. He steadfastly refuses to recant his lies, much like he does about the outcome of the 2020 election.
In June 2017, he disparaged the Haitians and Nigerians. He said that all Haitians, a people who look like me and you, have AIDS, and that Nigerian immigrants to this country would never go back to their “huts” in Africa once they lived life in the U.S. As a sitting president in January 2021, he “vulgarly called for less immigration from Haiti and Africa and more from Norway.”
I would be remiss not to mention how he discriminated against our people as a landlord in New York city. He and his brother, Fred, were accused of violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against potential minority renters. The two settled the case by agreeing to meet certain standards, but they never admitted to any wrongdoing.
If all of that isn’t enough, his agenda calls for the elimination of Social Security, The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) Free School Lunches for children of low-income families, a roll back in civil rights protections, and cutting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. Critical Race Theory has already been banned in many states.
In short, Donald J. Trump is a despicable, tyrannical human being. Please do not get caught up in this wave of insanity.
Finally, my brothers, it is my prayer that in 2025 I am not in a position to say: “I told you so.”
Sincerely,
Charles H. Winfrey
2nd District Genesee County Commissioner
